A longtime Fox News reporter has criticised his own network over their coverage of the death of Mollie Tibbetts, a college student who was allegedly murdered by an undocumented immigrant in an Iowa cornfield last month.
Ms Tibbetts’ death has ignited a fierce political debate in the US, with Republicans like President Donald Trump claiming it proves the need for stricter border control. Others, including Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera, say the case has been used to stereotype undocumented immigrants as violent criminals.
“I know that most of the Fox audience disagrees with me, but I’m begging you to have compassion and not brand this entire population by the deeds of this one person,” Mr Rivera said in an interview with anchor Martha Maccallum on Thursday.
“We at this network are putting that spin on the story,” the 17-year Fox News veteran added. “This is a murder story, not an immigration story.”
Fox News has covered the Tibbetts case incessantly since the charging of Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a 24-year-old immigrant from Mexico who authorities say was residing in the country illegally. On Tuesday, the network covered the story more prominently than the conviction of two former Trump associates for multiple federal crimes. The Fox News website featured the Tibbetts story above their coverage of the two convictions throughout the day.
Pulling photos straight from Twitter moments before going on-air was a nightmare waiting to happen for any network, as Fox-affiliated KDVR found in spectacular fashion when a penis was spliced into coverage of the Seattle helicopter crash
A licensed psychotherapist booked to appear on Fox’s Justice With Judge Jeanie programme suggested Santa Barbara shooter Elliot Rodger could have been acting upon “homosexual impulses” when he targeted his victims
Fox News host Jesse Watters coined the phrase ‘Beyonce Voters’, who ‘depend on government because they’re not depending on their husbands’. Watters was critical of this section of the electorate for ‘needing contraception, health care, and they love to talk about equal pay’
Getty Images
Fox News presenter Bob Beckel claimed “Chinamen” had been taught “how to do computers” by Americans in a rant about China’s “threat” to the national security of the US
Fox/YouTube
Fox’s psychiatry contributor, Dr Keith Ablow, claimed that Michelle Obama isn’t in a position to campaign for healthier eating because “she needs to drop a few” herself
Fox presenter Greg Gutfeld called Brand “left-wing commie scum” after he condemned the news station for hiring a token black person to come on to lament the riots
Getty
Presenter Kimberly Guilfoyle asked if the UAE’s first female fighter pilot’s role during Isis air strikes could be considered “boobs on the ground” in Syria
Bob Beckel again. The Fox host addressed the viral video actress Shoshana B Roberts created highlighting catcalling in New York by saying: “She got 100 catcalls, let me add 101. Damn, baby, you’re a piece of woman”
Fox’s Guilfoyle said young women shouldn’t be able to vote or sit on juries because they don’t have the same concerns as their elders. “I just think, excuse them so they can go back on Tinder and Match.com,” he said
Fox’s “National Security Analyst” KT McFarland condemned the release of a damning report into the CIA’s use of torture as a political manoeuvre designed to show Americans “how we’re not awesome”
Fox News/YouTube
Elizabeth Hasselbeck used the hostage situation in Sydney to defend the CIA after it was widely condemned for enhanced interrogation techniques revealed in the so-called ‘torture report’
Fox apologised after editing a video of protesters to make it sound as if they were chanting “kill a cop” during a demonstration over a grand jury decision not to charge the police officer who put Eric Garner in an illegal chokehold
YouTube
Presenter Anna Kooiman linked the use of different measurement systems to the safety of flights abroad
Pulling photos straight from Twitter moments before going on-air was a nightmare waiting to happen for any network, as Fox-affiliated KDVR found in spectacular fashion when a penis was spliced into coverage of the Seattle helicopter crash
A licensed psychotherapist booked to appear on Fox’s Justice With Judge Jeanie programme suggested Santa Barbara shooter Elliot Rodger could have been acting upon “homosexual impulses” when he targeted his victims
Fox News host Jesse Watters coined the phrase ‘Beyonce Voters’, who ‘depend on government because they’re not depending on their husbands’. Watters was critical of this section of the electorate for ‘needing contraception, health care, and they love to talk about equal pay’
Getty Images
Fox News presenter Bob Beckel claimed “Chinamen” had been taught “how to do computers” by Americans in a rant about China’s “threat” to the national security of the US
Fox/YouTube
Fox’s psychiatry contributor, Dr Keith Ablow, claimed that Michelle Obama isn’t in a position to campaign for healthier eating because “she needs to drop a few” herself
Fox presenter Greg Gutfeld called Brand “left-wing commie scum” after he condemned the news station for hiring a token black person to come on to lament the riots
Getty
Presenter Kimberly Guilfoyle asked if the UAE’s first female fighter pilot’s role during Isis air strikes could be considered “boobs on the ground” in Syria
Bob Beckel again. The Fox host addressed the viral video actress Shoshana B Roberts created highlighting catcalling in New York by saying: “She got 100 catcalls, let me add 101. Damn, baby, you’re a piece of woman”
Fox’s Guilfoyle said young women shouldn’t be able to vote or sit on juries because they don’t have the same concerns as their elders. “I just think, excuse them so they can go back on Tinder and Match.com,” he said
Fox’s “National Security Analyst” KT McFarland condemned the release of a damning report into the CIA’s use of torture as a political manoeuvre designed to show Americans “how we’re not awesome”
Fox News/YouTube
Elizabeth Hasselbeck used the hostage situation in Sydney to defend the CIA after it was widely condemned for enhanced interrogation techniques revealed in the so-called ‘torture report’
Fox apologised after editing a video of protesters to make it sound as if they were chanting “kill a cop” during a demonstration over a grand jury decision not to charge the police officer who put Eric Garner in an illegal chokehold
YouTube
Presenter Anna Kooiman linked the use of different measurement systems to the safety of flights abroad
Speaking with Mr Rivera on Thursday, Ms Maccallum summed up many of the network anchors’ positions on the case, saying the situation was made worse for Ms Tibbetts’ family because she was allegedly killed by someone who was “not even supposed to be in the country”.
Mr Bahena Rivera’s lawyer has contested reports that his client was in the country illegally.
Several of Ms Tibbetts’ friends and family members have also asked for the case not to be made into a discussion about immigration.
“Please do not compound the atrocity of what happened to her by adding racism and hate to the equation,” wrote friend Kasie Schultz Taylor on Facebook. “Anyone that knew Mollie knows she wouldn’t want that. Respect each other, support each other but most importantly BE KIND!”
Multiple studies have found that undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born residents, and that immigration surges do not correlate with an increase in crime. The Trump administration, however, has used the Tibbetts case to spotlight illegal immigration, with White House press secretary calling it “an unfortunate reminder of why we need to strengthen our immigration laws”.
Mr Rivera pushed back on this notion on Thursday, telling Ms Maccallum: “Anyone could have done this, everyone — they do it on a daily basis. White people, black people, red people, yellow people. Everybody, they do these crimes.”
Comments