Fox News removed digitally altered photos from its website Friday. These photos accompanied the network’s coverage of the Seattle demonstrations but were removed after Fox News acknowledged that one of the photos was the combination of several different images and the second, a photo of a building engulfed in flames, was from another city.
What We Know:
- The photos were part of Fox News coverage of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, a series of city blocks claimed by protestors of the police killing of George Floyd after Seattle police boarded up their precinct and gave protesters free rein of the area.
- On Friday, Fox News posted a photo on their site of a man standing in front of shattered glass of a storefront, armed with a rifle. Fox News also posted a nighttime photo of a burning building and car on their website, accompanied by the headline “Crazy Town” and a list of articles on the unrest in Seattle. When The Seattle Times inquired about the images, Fox News removed both from their website.
- The image of the gunman was a Getty Images photo that was taken on June 10 at the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, where he was holding the weapon while standing in front of a car. The image shared by Fox News used this image of the gunman but included a mash-up of other photos taken May 30 of smashed up windows in Seattle which was in a different neighborhood and before the autonomous zone was set up.
- The “Crazy Town” headline which featured an image with a fiery background, was actually taken in St. Paul, Minnesota, not Seattle. The photo, coupled with links to articles of the unrest in Seattle, appears to heighten the appearance of chaos and destruction in the city but The New York Times claims that in recent days, the protest zone has become a festival-like scene featuring speeches, music, and a screening of a film on the criminal justice system.
They also used a fiery photo from Minnesota as the centerpiece on a package of stories about Seattle. https://t.co/RBF0ttg2ku pic.twitter.com/bElH94RgYW
— Gina Cole (@Gina_Cole_) June 12, 2020
- The protests and unrest have become a focal point in the United States, with extensive coverage from conservative media outlets and President Trump, who has called on local officials to take action.
Domestic Terrorists have taken over Seattle, run by Radical Left Democrats, of course. LAW & ORDER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2020
- In an editor’s note now accompanying the articles, Fox News says that the now-deleted image was part of a “collage” that “did not clearly delineate between these images, and has since been replaced. In addition, a recent slide show depicting scenes from Seattle mistakenly included a picture from St. Paul, Minnesota. Fox News regrets these errors”.
- This comes just over one week after Fox News aired a graphic that showed stock market gains following the death of black men, all of which sparked weeks of unrest and protests over racial inequities and state violence against Black people. In a statement released to The New York Times, the network said, “the infographic used on FOX News Channel’s Special Report to illustrate market reactions to historic periods of civil unrest should have never aired on television without full context”.
This is a horrific graphic to have put up on air.
My god. pic.twitter.com/HoDof1AN9l
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) June 5, 2020
Akili Ramsess, executive director of the National Press Photographers Association, when asked about this incident critiqued the network saying, Fox News has “a responsibility to their public. It’s one thing for their opinion hosts to state whatever opinion they have, but for their online news platform, they have to follow the ethical norms of any news organization”.
