Since last week, Fox News Channel has given substantial coverage to the latest ironically timed riots by left-wing Antifa activists who have been targeting Portland and Seattle as a Democratic President took office and in the several days since.
But news viewers on the other networks would get little hint that the civil unrest has even been happening as CNN, as of Monday had so far only given the events 46 seconds among its primetime shows, on Thursday's Erin Burnett OutFront, and nothing in the daytime, while MSNBC had not mentioned the unrest at all. This coincides with scant coverage on the broadcast networks as well.
By contrast, Fox's three-hour morning show, Fox & Friends, has kept viewers informed of events in Portland every say since Thursday. Friday's show even devoted a segment to interviewing a Portland resident whose restaurant business has been hurt by the repeated vandalism as the Democratic-run city has done little to deter the violence.
And, on Sunday, the show brought on TownHall.com's Julio Rosas to discuss the recent use of teargas by federal agents in Portland in response to Antifa members persistently trespassing on federal property, which has gone unnoticed by the liberal media.
Weekend co-host Jedediah Bila set up the segment:
We are back with a Fox News alert. Federal law enforcement declaring an unlawful assembly in Portland after demonstrators stormed a local ICE facility. Townhall.com senior writer Julio Roses was just on the ground there on Inauguration Day covering the unrest, and he joins us now. ... We know you've done extensive coverage of the violence happening in Portland right now. First and foremost, why are they rioting?
Rosas observed that Antifa is so far to the left that they riot even when Democrats are in the White House, noting that Trump was blamed by the liberal media for some of their violence previously:
They just hate the United States, and so it doesn't matter if a Democrat is in office. They hate Joe Biden. They made that abundantly clear on Inauguration Day after they attacked the Democrat headquarters. But this really shows that critics last summer blamed federal law enforcement on the riots at the federal courthouse saying that it was their fault for that's why unrest was happening, but this shows that Portland just likes to riot against the government.
Bila followed up by recalling that President Joe Biden's press secretary, Jen Psaki, was asked about the riots in a press briefing, but did not seem to take the matter seriously:
BILA: You know, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, was asked if she had spoken to Joe Biden about the riots in Seattle and Portland. She was asked this on Friday. Listen to her response.
ED O'KEEFE, CBS NEWS: Does the President have any comments on the violence in Oregon and Washington state?
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I haven't spoken with him specifically about those events, but it's something that our national security team and homeland security advisor is closely monitoring of course.
BILA: You know, Julio, my response to her would have been, "Why not? Why haven't you spoken to him?" Are you surprised by that comment that she gave? And what should President Biden do here?
On Friday, co-host Ainsley Earhardt spoke with a local Subway restaurant owner from Portland who complained that the local government had not done enough to deal with the out of control violence.
From Thursday to Monday, Fox & Friends, between the hours of 6:00 and 9:00 a.m. Eastern, has so far spent almost 47 minutes on the Portland riots, but its CNN competitor, New Day, has so far not acknowledged the violent events by the leftist group at all.
Friday's Fox & Friends was sponsored in part by Liberty Mutual. Let them know you appreciate them advertising on a show that keeps its viewers updates on such important issues.
Transcripts follow:
Fox & Friends
January 22, 2021
7:23 a.m. Eastern
AINSLEY EARHARDT: Portland, Oregon police charging four suspects following city unrest on Inauguration Day. The violence forcing business owners like our next guest to board up their windows yet again. Stacey Gibson owns that Subway franchise in downtown Portland, and she joins us now. ... So they told you, "Board up." You can stay open but board up, right?
STACEY GIBSON, PORTLAND RESTAURANT OWNER: That's exactly right.
EARHARDT: Is anyone going to come into your restaurant if you have, you know, plywood on the outside? Who's going to know you're open?
GIBSON: Not a lot of people, actually. We've got some very loyal customers that are still coming in. But, yes, it definitely makes us look closed.
EARHARDT: How are you dealing with all of this and your city being in the news?
GIBSON: Well, it's getting pretty familiar unfortunately. We'd rather not be in the news for these types of things. But, you know, we're doing what we can and just trying to stay positive and keep everybody employed and having another day, you know.
EARHARDT: Right. Have you had to let anyone go?
GIBSON: Not recently, no. Fortunately. We've been able to recover pretty well from the whole COVID thing. This is just one more thing where we just kind of, you know, it's safety that we're mostly concerned with kind of it's safety that we are mostly concerned with and making sure that everybody is just safe and if everything gets out of hand we just have to close and send them home and make sure they get home safely.
EARHARDT: Right. I know that they set a dumpster on fire outside the DNC headquarters in that area, and they've arrested people. They've smashed in the windows, as we see in that video. What else do you know because you live there? You see this firsthand.
GIBSON: Are it's just really sad. Actually. I mean, people are just, you know, they come out here and they just literally destroy whatever they can, throwing things around. You're right -- the dumpster fires, the A frames. Everything that's out is just not safe. They're just going to pick it up and throw it wherever they can. The damage that happens to the businesses down there is just devastating. I mean, we just can't continue to have those kind of things happen. You know at a personal level, you know, we had our doors shot out last year, and had to, you know, were boarded up forever. So we just had our new doors put up. So when we had to board up again, it's just sad. It feels like a dungeon inside. It's depressing for the people that are working. And, I mean, we're just trying to hang on and trying to recover really. And this is just, you know, one more knife in the back.
EARHARDT: Why aren't the local leaders doing anything to stop this? I mean, they did that in Washington. They sent all these National Guard there to secure the Capitol after it happened. They arrested all those people. I know that there have been arrests there, but your local leaders, if they don't do something about this, you have to board up your restaurant as a result of this. If they just wiped him out, they said, "You can't do this. Stop this," and put more patrols on the ground, would that help?
GIBSON: Well, it would. You know, that's the million-dollar question why they don't resolve it. I mean, they say a lot of things, but actions are what matters. They don't prosecute anybody. They'll arrest them, but they'll be out within a few hours. And it's a, you know, criminal mischief if anything else. I mean, it's a petty crime, so it doesn't even matter. And they're just going to keep doing it which is evident. I don't have any idea why they don't, you know, just actually crack down on it. It would be great if they did just for all of us, just trying to move forward.
EARDHARDT: Real quickly, what does moving forward look like for you. Are you going to be able to sustain this?
GIBSON: You know, we're doing the best we can -- we certainly hope so. You know, we try to stay positive with everything that we can. You know, just another day which we're going to try and just hanging on.
(...)
Fox & Friends Sunday
January 24, 2021
6:06 a.m. Eastern
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Federal protective service has been declared an unlawful assembly. Anyone who is deemed a threat trespassing on federal property is subject to arrest.
JEDEDIAH BILA: We are back with a Fox News alert. Federal law enforcement declaring an unlawful assembly in Portland after demonstrators stormed a local ICE facility. Townhall.com senior writer Julio Roses was just on the ground there on Inauguration Day covering the unrest, and he joins us now. Julio, thanks for being with us. We know you've done extensive coverage of the violence happening in Portland right now. First and foremost, why are they rioting?
JULIO ROSAS, TOWNHALL.COM SENIOR WRITER: They just hate the United States, and so it doesn't matter if a Democrat is in office. They hate Joe Biden. They made that abundantly clear on Inauguration Day after they attacked the Democrat headquarters. But this really shows that critics last summer blamed federal law enforcement on the riots at the federal courthouse saying that it was their fault for that's why unrest was happening, but this shows that Portland just likes to riot against the government. It happened before the federal courthouse, and obviously now it's obviously happening afterwards. We're going to see this continue as long as there is a federal government presence. And even if that were to go away, they would just go after the local law enforcement.
BILA: You know, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, was asked if she had spoken to Joe Biden about the riots in Seattle and Portland. She was asked this on Friday. Listen to her response.
ED O'KEEFE, CBS NEWS: Does the President have any comments on the violence in Oregon and Washington state?
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I haven't spoken with him specifically about those events, but it's something that our national security team and homeland security advisor is closely monitoring of course.
BILA: You know, Julio, my response to her would have been, "Why not? Why haven't you spoken to him?" Are you surprised by that comment that she gave? And what should President Biden do here?
ROSAS: I'm not surprised at all. I mean, you have to remember that when the riots across the country were widespread last year, it took a long time not just for President Joe Biden but for the entire Democratic party to really come out and forcefully condemn the violence that was going on. And, so, unfortunately, that kind of non-answer and, "we're just monitoring it," doesn't surprise me at all. And, really, he has to come out and, just as he did with the Capitol riot, which I also covered, saying that that was bad, he also needs to come out and say that the continued unrest that is affecting the local population in Portland and elsewhere is also bad.
(...)
CNN
Erin Burnett OutFront
January 21, 2021
7:59 p.m. Eastern
ERIN BURNETT: So, Alex, I mean, thankfully, there was no violence at the Capitol during Biden's inauguration. I mean, it was fortified like a war zone. There was, though, unrest in Portland -- left-wing protesters there damaging the state Democratic party building last night. What are you hearing about that?
ALEX MARQUARDT: Yeah, there were two main events there -- 15 people arrested. There was the one at the state party headquarters of the Democratic party -- around 100, 150 people marched over there, according to police. They broke windows, they sprayed grafitti, including anarchy symbol. They lit dumpsters on fire. Then, there's the second group, similar-sized crowd -- 150 people walking to ICE offices. There, according to police, an anarchy symbol, lit dumpsters on fire and a second group, 150 people walking to ICE offices there according to police, they were carrying pepper ball guns, weapons similar to tasers, shields and blocks, they were dispersed by federal agents. Now, we understand from the district attorney that four people should be charged, all with rioting, along with other charges.
