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Colbert Mocks Fox News, O'Reilly For Misleading Wisconsin Protest Video

Tracy Bloom |
March 3, 2011 | 2:37 p.m. PST

Executive Producer

Stephen Colbert mocked Fox News on his program Thursday night for airing misleading footage that purported to show violent union protests in Wisconsin.

As Colbert noted, however, the video that shows union protests getting heated also shows something that one normally wouldn't find in Wisconsin: palm trees.

"Shocking footage from Madison Wisconsin," he said. "They're not only bussing in people from out of state, they're also bussing in palm trees."

The footage was used during a broadcast of the O'Reilly Factor on Monday. Talking Points Memo reported that the footage does not come from Madison, but comes: "from a solidarity protest in Sacramento, CA. It's an altercation that sparked a brief cri de coeur online this Saturday, when conservatives thought they'd found the clip that could undermine the entire pro-union movement. It didn't. And in fact, as the O'Reilly segment suggests, it was just about the only thing they could find."

The Huffington Post reported: "Earlier in the segment, O'Reilly discusses union protests from 'all over the country, during which time the Sacramento footage also airs. About a minute and a half later, the segment transitions to an interview with Tobin, who is in Wisconsin. The Sacramento footage airs again during the interview, and the show never overtly labels it as coming from Wisconsin."

Said Colbert: "I say, if Wisconsinites wanted O'Reilly to show footage of their protest while he was talking about possible violence in Wisconsin, those peaceful Wisconsin protestors should have been violent."

Here's the original video that aired on the O'Reilly Factor Monday night:

To view Colbert's response, click here.



 

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