Grass Roots or Astro-Turf? Video Shows Fox News Producer Rallying 9/12 Protesters

Poll/Video

by Zeke Turner | 10:25 am, September 20th, 2009

» 20 comments

Video shot at last weekend’s 9/12 Project protests has surfaced showing Heidi Noonan, an associate producer for Fox News, encouraging the crowd to hoot and holler behind Griff Jenkins while he talks live from the scene with Glenn Beck in the studio.

Media Matters was the first to post the video on Friday evening, followed by DailyKos, and now the Huffington Post has posted a more extensive view of the scene and confirmed the name of the producer.

“The employee is a young, relatively inexperienced associate producer who realizes she made a mistake and has been disciplined,” FNC Washington Bureau Chief Bryan Boughton told HuffPo.

At first glance, Noonan’s ‘pump up the volume’ gestures to the crowd seem innocuous. But when you consider FNC’s whole “Fair and Balanced” credo, the interaction between producer and crowd is completely out of bounds. It’s the same problem that newspapers face when they are caught altering photographs to seem more brilliant in print: when somebody comes to you, as a journalist, for information and allows you to control their field of vision, it’s expected that you’ll turn your lens on the truth. Not an augmented or altered version of the truth.

And, given that Fox expressed disgust that other networks weren’t devoting more coverage to an event of such magnitude, one wonders why at least one Fox producer thought the scene needed help getting ready for the camera.

See the video for yourself here (from Media Matters):

The scene as it appeared on Fox News:

9/12, 9/12 movement, 9/12 Project, 912 Tea Party, 912project.com, Fair and Balanced, fnc, fox news, Glenn Beck, Griff Jenkins, Heidi Noonan, Tea Party

ImNotBlue

Again, more Media Matters links! Unbelievable!

Still no comment about this, though?

http://wizbangblog.com/content/2009/09/17/another-distortion-and-attempt-to-defend-acorn-by-attacking-the-messenger-1.php

But as to the subject at hand… is this really any different than a producer trying to whip up the crowd before coming back on set, during one of those Chris Matthews outside shows? Next you’ll tell me that there are comedians who come out to “warm up the crowd” before SNL! Oh wait, there are? Oh well…

What a non-story.
Zeke Turner

The crowds at SNL or “one of those Chris Matthews outside shows” or for that matter the Today show are scenery — not the news.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Vik-Sidhu/122608564 Vik Sidhu

LOL!
Blue, are you SERIOUSLY comparing THIS to SNL and Chris Matthews? Really?

SNL is an ENTERTAINMENT show, while Matthews’ crowd is NOT PART OF THE STORY.

I’m usually not a betting man, but if CNN was caught doing the same thing you’d pounce all over it…..but since it’s Fox “News” that’s involved, suddenly it’s a “non-story”….
Billy Carter

This is a total non-story. This kind of thing has been going on for years. All media outlets are guilty of this. Throwing in the “Fair and Balanced” credo is kind of a stretch.
In fairness, Turner used Daily Kos, Media Matters and HuffPo since they were the main sources for this story. On the flip side, it’s no secret that these three sites are haters of anything FNC.

No doubt the “I hate FNC” posters will be here with their frenzied “I told you FNC is evil” comments.
same2u

I laugh at the response from Fox News that she is “young and inexperienced”. She was on the damn cell phone the whole time being instructed by a senior producer back in the studio on exactly what to do.

This sleazy distortion of the news for partisan political purposes needs to end. Bias needs to be the domain of individuals, not an organizational wide practice that is programmed from the highest levels.

I condemn Fox News and its pathetic minions who support this disgraceful practice.
ImNotBlue

Zeke Turner says:
September 20, 2009 at 11:51 am

Zeke… why’d you even put up a poll, if you have already made up your mind? Oh, probably for the same reason you took the story and video from MediaMatters and KOS. *Sigh* Is Mediaite even going to make an attempt to be unbiased?

Vik Sidhu says:
September 20, 2009 at 11:58 am

Your premise (and those with similar responses) is wrong. The PROTEST was the story, the crowd behind the reporter is not the story… they are the background, and just the same as the background behind a Matthews program. Telling the group behind them to cheer a bit because they’ll be on television, isn’t unethical, nor is it anything special. It’s making the live shot more interesting.

The fact of the matter is, these folks were already there, they already had their signs, and had probably been cheering throughout the day at various speakers. Saying “get excited because you’re going to be on television,” isn’t changing the facts of the story or the situation. And that’s the real question… by doing this, did the producer CHANGE the story, or manufacture an element of it? The answer is, of course, no. They encouraged people to look excited while on camera, something they already were, but perhaps not at that exact moment.

If you disagree… tell me why. How did this change the story? How did this “alter the truth?”
ImNotBlue

Vik Sidhu says:
September 20, 2009 at 11:58 am

I’m usually not a betting man, but if CNN was caught doing the same thing you’d pounce all over it…..but since it’s Fox “News” that’s involved, suddenly it’s a “non-story”….

How much would you like to bet? I never get tired of taking other people’s money.

But would I be incorrect in betting that since it’s FNC, you’re happy to condemn (as well as so many other posters)… but if it was MSNBC or CNN, you’d be strangely silent.
rmbltmbl

This is not a good situation for Fox News.. but encouraging people to cheer at a conservative rally doesn’t seem close to some of the nonsense the state-run, fringe media puts out there(OR IGNORES), like editing that video of the black man with the semi-auto rifle to not show his face and go on about it like he is white on MSNBC. She showed poor judgment indeed, but she didn’t change the story.
m

Fox News ignored the story that Fox News was using the 9/12 as a political tool. Where was Fox News in covering this story?
m

same2u, Fox News is a political entity from top to bottom. Even the marketing department. Liberals in all corners of the corporate structure are most likely weeded out.
CaptainAmerica

This is such a non-story! Of course why isn’t Mediaite doing stories on the next round of Layoffs at NBC/MSNBC??? Isn’t that a much more worthy story?

So she let the crowd know they were getting ready to go live with his report. Gasp. She didn’t do anything after he began his report. Such a non story totally.

Isn’t it great that no CNN producer had to do anything to get the crowd to tell them to GET OUT! CNN and the others were AWOL covering this story. They were just there to look for “signs” they could complain about. They could care less why the tea party protesters are there. Them and MSNBC/NBC just like calling them teabaggers.

Also, if I wanted to frequent Media Lies To America, I would be over at their left wing extremists b.s. site. Why doesn’t MEDIAITE do stories on how Media Matters doctors video and then lies about it? And that’s the SOURCE you want to use???!
SuperSmart

And those drunk on the Fox News kool aid will defend them til the bitter end. How unsurprising.

I sure wish I had the ability to talk out of my ass and turn off my brain like you guys do on a daily basis. Seriously, I can see how it would be of benefit when faced with absolute evidence showing you that you are completely mistaken, because we all know that you haven’t the heart, courage nor that basic human trait that allows one to admit that they were wrong.
CaptainAmerica

S.S. You have that ability. You do it everyday on these boards.
Billy Carter

rmbltmbl says:
This is not a good situation for Fox News.. but encouraging people to cheer at a conservative rally doesn’t seem close to some of the nonsense the state-run, fringe media puts out there(OR IGNORES), like editing that video of the black man with the semi-auto rifle to not show his face and go on about it like he is white on MSNBC.

LMAO……
Here’s the classic MSNBC moment that rmbltmbl is referring to. This is MUCH, MUCH worse than what the dopey Fox producer did. You be the judge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYKQJ4-N7LI
Billy Carter

Sorry….forgot to add the second video. Watch the entire film , especially you, SUPERSMART. The MSNBC video in my earlier post is the Kool-Aid you drink everytime you tune in to their lies!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63GiXzpfGhA
sarainitaly

I have never seen a live show being filmed that the producer didn’t encourage the crowd to cheer, including Chris Matthews show, Today Show, or the Leno type shows.

They were cheering – it wasn’t a staged robbery, or say, an edited video to portray a black guy as a white guy with a gun… It was cheering.

Seriously, really reaching on this one.
Martiniman

Non-story…and by the way – American politics IS an entertainment show.
Sue

Media Matters and HuffPo? Please, get real!
http://www.swissarmyjew.com Keeva

The entire story rests on the somewhat false assumption that Griff Jenkins is an actual journalist. He is nothing more than the clown that comes out between acts at the circus to keep the kids happy. And, to his credit, he has never pretended to be anything else.

The “young inexperienced producer” excuse is lame. Either it is simply false of Fox now sends inexperienced hands into the field to cover an event they billed as important. Either way, Fox is basically butt covering.

While pumping up the crowd is ethically wrong, it is also not new. I have seen uncounted stand up reports on all of the networks where the people behind the reporter are staged. MSNBC staged their entire convention coverage, including plants in the crowds. CNN wouldn’t know an honest report if they found it on the front door step and the broadcast networks are playing for ratings regardless of the stunts needed.

Was Fox wrong? Sure. Are they the only ones? Not by a long shot.

It is, after all, television.
912Photos

I covered the 9/12 DC Tea Party and March as a freelance photographer. I invite you to visit my website, which contains an extensive photo gallery and commentary on the event. I believe the gallery shows a range of photos not typically seen of the event.

I welcome all comments.

Thanks very much.

Deb Phillips
Documenting America’s 9|12 Spirit
http://912photos.com