Fox & Friends First in a report this morning about places that offer free legal aid to those sometimes referred to as “undocumented” or “illegal” immigrants facing deportation made an error that, according to the Oakland County executive, is causing their office to get calls.
Fox & Friends First cribbed information from Mother Jones from “Immigrants Fighting Off Deportation Just Got a Huge Boost in These 11 Cities and Counties.”
Someone in the production process flipped Oakland/Alameda County in California, in the original piece, for Oakland County, Michigan.
The Fox & Friends First report that begins with campaign-like language praising President Trump goes on to name Oakland County as a county that “offers free legal help to illegal immigrants.”
“The report on Fox & Friends First couldn’t be further from the truth,” Oakland County, Mich. Executive L. Brooks Patterson said. “Their egregious reporting error has caused angry residents to call my office today. We have contacted a Fox & Friends producer to correct the story.”
In a release, the county government wanted to be clear that “Oakland County, Mich. is not providing any kind of free legal representation to illegal immigrants.”
Fox hasn’t corrected the segment, and until they take it down, we’ll embed it here. We present it without endorsement of the other facts or content within.
Now, back to ignoring the vapid cesspool that is most national TV news. Writing up this story reminded me why I got rid of cable television.
Be Smarter: Depending on what side of the political fence is being presented, you will see “undocumented” and “illegal” used in place of one another. Fox News is partisan to the right of the political spectrum; Mother Jones is to the left. You don’t see the world “illegal” once in the Mother Jones source story, meanwhile, throughout Fox News, they use the word “illegal” and never use the word “undocumented.” It’s a great clue to tell you how what you’re reading is slanted.