Page 18 - IAV Digital Magazine #432

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
FoxNews, DailyCallerDeletePostsEncouraging PeopleToDriveThroughProtests
By Tom Kludt
(CNNMoney) Months before a man allegedly turned his vehicle into a weapon and plowed through a group of protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, an arti- cle that made the rounds in conser- vative media encouraged readers to do something simi- lar.
Originally pub- lished by The Daily Caller and later syndicated or aggregated by several other websites, includ- ing Fox Nation, an offshoot of Fox News' web- site, it carried an unsubtle head- line: "Here's A Reel Of Cars Plowing Through Protesters Trying To Block The Road." Embedded in the article was a minute-and-a-half long video show- ing one vehicle after another driving through demonstrations. The footage was
set to a cover of Ludacris' "Move Bitch."
The article was published in January, but it drew renewed attention on Tuesday follow- ing this week- end's deadly inci- dent in Charlottesville. As the outrage grew on Twitter, Fox News took action, deleting the version Fox Nation had pub- lished.
"The item was inappropriate and we've taken it down. We regret posting it in January," Noah Kotch, the editor- in-chief of Fox News Digital, said in a state- ment provided to CNNMoney.
Within hours, the Daily Caller had deleted the origi- nal post. That version had been published by Mike Raust, who was then a video editor at The Daily Caller.
"Here's a compi- lation of liberal protesters getting pushed out of the way by cars and trucks. Study the technique; it may prove useful in the next four years," Raust wrote. "None of these clips are new, but that doesn't mean they're not still fresh."
The Daily Caller's editor-in-chief declined to com- ment.
Fox was far from the only outlet to pick up Raust's post. Smaller conservative sites like Right Wing News and Conservative Post also pub- lished the video, and with glee.
There's prece- dent for this type of rhetoric in con- servative media. In fact, Raust isn't even the first one at his outlet to endorse driv- ing over protest- ers.
When thousands of demonstrators gathered Washington, D.C. in March to protest the Dakota Access pipeline, Daily Caller editor Katie Frates said on Twitter, "I
wonder how many #NativeNationsRi se #NoDAPL pro- testers I could run over before I got arrested #getouttamyway"
Glenn Reynolds, a conservative columnist and the proprietor of the blog Instapundit, was briefly sus- pended by Twitter last
year for his own tweet encourag- ing drivers to run over protesters in North Carolina.
Lawmakers in several states have proposed laws this year intended to ease the liability for drivers who hit protesters. A bill in North Dakota's state legislature, introduced in response to the Dakota Access pipeline unrest in the state, would have made it legal to acciden- tally run over pro- testers in the road.
The measure failed to pass in February
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