Fox News edited sections of video footage that showed Donald Trump in an unfavorable light, omitting moments that showed the Republican presidential nominee rambling and meandering from subject to subject.
The conservative news network aired a segment on Monday’s “Fox & Friends” purportedly showing Trump making a “surprise” visit to a barbershop in the Bronx, New York. But CNN obtained footage of the entire event where Trump spoke to Black and Latino customers and barbers, revealing the edits that were made.
In one instance, one of the attendees asked Trump if he had a plan to eliminate federal taxes. In the Fox broadcast, the video was manipulated to show Trump immediately responding, “There is a way.” But in reality, Trump’s scattered response lasted a full seven minutes.
CNN noted that instead of directly answering the query, Trump spoke about topics like the Keystone Pipeline, Russia, transgender athletes, and Ronald Reagan, among other issues. The questioner then had to verbally nudge Trump to actually answer his query.
Fox also removed a section that showed Trump complaining about The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of his campaign. The Journal is owned by right-wing billionaire Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News.
The network also removed a false claim from Trump that 50,000 migrants had been “dumped” in Springfield, Ohio, and what CNN called “gross exaggerations” about crime in Aurora, Colorado.
The revelation about Fox News’ editing practices comes at an ironic time for the network and its preferred candidate.
Trump has been attacking CBS’ “60 Minutes” for editing footage of its interview with Vice President Kamala Harris (the same interview that Trump skipped). He has accused the program of using “deceitful editing” but in a statement, CBS said Trump’s claim was “false” and said it aired a “more succinct” portion of Harris’ answer to a question on Israel.
Trump’s complaints have been amplified on air and online by Fox News.
The network has a history of presenting deceptively edited videos to its audience. As far back as 2014, Fox News edited footage of then-President Barack Obama to make it appear to viewers as if he backed the release of criminal immigrants.
Fox also removed boos from video of Trump attending the World Series in 2019, and more recently the network used deceptively edited video of Trump during anchor Bret Baier’s interview with Harris.
Fox News’ push to hide the real Trump from viewers is happening as Harris makes the case that Trump is “unfit” for office. In addition to his embrace of bigotry and fascist rhetoric, Trump has had recent changes in his speech patterns that raise concerns about his mental acuity, along with bizarre behavior like his campaign dance interlude.
Republished with permission from Daily Kos.
