Over a thousand protesters are slated to rally outside Fox News headquarters today to protest racist coverage of anti-police brutality movements across the country by both Fox News and newspaper The New York Post.
At 2 PM today, protesters will gather in front of News Corporation headquarters and host a “die-in shutdown” that is expected to last until 7 PM. At 5 PM, the rally will move to Wall Street with a speak-out, and at 7 PM a meeting for anyone interested in participating in planning further protests will be held at 60 Wall Street in the Public Atrium.
News Corporation, owned and founded by Rupert Murdoch, controls a network of media, news, and education companies. The New York Post and Fox News have been the recipients of complaints and accusations of racist coverage and commentary on the cases of victims of police brutality such as the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri, and the Eric Garner case in Staten Island, New York. Fox News has received negative feedback in the past for racist or sexist comments said on air, most recently for editing footage from a police brutality protest. The footage showed activist Tawanda Jones leading a chant “we won’t stop, we can’t stop, ‘till killer cops, are in cell blocks,” although Fox News stopped the chant to sound like “we won’t stop, we can’t stop, go kill a cop.” They have since apologized to Jones, calling the edit an “honest mistake”.
This protest is said to be the first in a larger campaign for justice organized by #BlackLivesMatter Justice for Eric Garner Assembly, who created a list of short and long term demands.
Media Resources: HuffingtonPost 7/14/14; The Guardian 7/25/14; The Daily Kos 12/23/14;
