This was one of the best parts of the last show. In a long segment on the refugee crisis in Europe, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver took a hard shot at Fox News for stirring up fears of terrorism by using a 5-year-old clip they found on YouTube of chanting Muslims on a train.
Noting the coverage of the crisis — involving millions — has been heartbreaking, Oliver turned to the fear-mongering — albeit subtle fear-mongering — of a straight news anchor on Fox.
With the anchor introducing the clip as a “new video discovered online” the producers rolled tape of a packed train car loaded with people chanting “Allahu akbar” (God is Great) over a caption reading “Terrorists inbound?”
The anchor then cautioned, “We’re not saying that any of those people are terrorists or in any way affiliated with a terror group, but it does highlight just how many of these refugees who are fleeing violence in Iraq and Syria are Muslim.”
Oliver then unloaded on the network.
“OK, first, you don’t get to claim that you’re not calling those people terrorists when your lower third says, ‘Terrorists Inbound?’ question mark. If you’re really not saying they’re terrorists, maybe change that to something more accurate, like ‘People Take Train,’ or ‘Some Wear Hats, Others Less So.'” he lectured. “And second, describing that as a new video that sheds light on the migrant crisis is a little misleading, because in researching this story, we found a version of that same video uploaded onto YouTube back in 2010, well before this migrant crisis even began. And, if you are going to use misleading, old footage to make people frightened of Muslims, why stop there? Just go the whole way and use a clip from True Lies.”
/facepalm
I'm just happy that people like Oliver exist. As much stupid as there is, there seems to be a growing voice of non-stupidity ready to smack down the idiots every time they open their mouths.
It seems to be some what of a trend. I've noticed that in this world of mostly non-print media, the makers of news segments and documentaries feel that there always has to be video footage to go with the story or the audio. If there isn't, they feel it's ok to use whatever footage they can find, that they think best suits the need.
Documentaries (which is almost all I watch), do this much, much more than news programs, but give it time. I had started noticing this practice in documentaries about 6 or 7 years ago, and it has gotten worse. The unethical people populating our news media outlets won't be long in making this commonplace.
What amazes me, is that in the information age, where almost any piece of film footage is available for viewing at any time by anyone, that any intelligent person would try to pull this kind of crap.
……of course, maybe that's the problem. I assumed the folks in question *had* any intelligence. ¬_¬
"stirring up fears of terrorism by using a 5-year-old clip they found on YouTube of chanting Muslims on a train."
It amazes me this isn't illegal.
+Thomas Wrobel
They haven't outlawed stupid yet.
….if they did 3 quarters of the planet would be thrown in jail.