FOX Labels Neo Nazi Group A “Civil Rights Group”

Fox affiliate in Orlando, Florida Saturday ran a story online and on air about Neo-Nazis but titled the piece, “Civil rights group patrolling Sanford.” The story, which reporter Jennifer Bisram introduced a segment on the group by saying, “There’s another civil rights group in town,” was focused on the National Socialist Movement, a Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) certified hate group. But Bisram and FOX, about 20 hours later then labeled the Neo-Nazis a “white rights group.” It took FOX only 36 hours or so to pull the entire story and post another with the title, “Neo-Nazi group patrolling Sanford.” Of course, the question is, how many people saw the first story — whichFOX and Bisram never ran a correction about — and now think the National Socialist Movement is a civil rights group?

Pam Spaulding Friday evening was one of the first to report of the Neo-Nazi’s descent into the small Florida town, where she even included the SPLC’s profile of the hate group, in her piece, “Armed Neo-Nazis descend into Sanford, FL to show ‘solidarity with the white community’ there.” An excerpt:

NSM ideology mirrors that of the original American Nazi Party. The group openly idolizes Adolf Hitler, described in NSM propaganda as, “Our Fuhrer, the beloved Holy Father of our age … a visionary in every respect.” NSM says only heterosexual “pure-blood whites” should be allowed U.S. citizenship and that all nonwhites should be deported, regardless of legal status. As Schoep put it: “The Constitution was written by white men alone. Therefore, it was intended for whites alone.”

Spaulding on Sunday afternoon then reported, “Fox News 35 Orlando calls armed neo-Nazi org in Sanford, FL a ‘civil rights group’,” and Michael Hussey at Pushing Rope ran a similar story, including the original FOX video.

Hussey asks, “Does anyone down there at FOX35 know how to use ‘the Google?’ The National Socialist Movement is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center,” and adds:

There is a problem in media when the media doesn’t challenge people that call President Obama a socialist. Yet, calls neo nazis a civil rights group. It truly is sickening.