O’Reilly uses video from California to call Wisconsin protesters ‘violent’

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In the wake of one Fox News reporter apparently lying about being “punched” by a “hate filled” protester in Wisconsin, some media outlets appear to have been too quick to label another Fox misappropriation as outright deception.

In a segment broadcast during last night’s O’Reilly Factor, the same reporter who falsely claimed he’d been assaulted sat for an interview with the conservative opinion host, who played various footage from the protests on the wall behind them.

In one of those videos, which were earlier identified as having come from “all over the country,” man wearing a jacket with union references pushes another man twice before police step in between the two. Nobody was injured in the incident, but a tea party protesters said his throat was hurting from one of the shoves.

However, when the clip rolled during the O’Reilly segment, it was not clearly identified as having taken place in Sacramento, California, during Saturday’s mass civil actions against union-busting legislation. The conversation that was taking place at the time, however, was aimed at Wisconsin, which has been remarkably peaceful for such a large, sustained protest.

While it’s not an outright lie as the earlier claim of violence appeared to be, it’s not exactly forthcoming either. Then again, neither are some of today’s rebuttals appearing across the Internet.

The video has been clearly identified on other Fox News programs and across conservative media, which has latched on to the incident to prop up an idea that union workers are violent.

A separate incident, where a man pushed a camera out of his face, was also treated as a significant ordeal by conservative media, claiming that a “violent leftist union thug” had “assaulted” a young girl.

That girl was a volunteer with FreedomWorks, an advocacy group run by former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey and funded by the tea party financiers at Koch Industries, trying to record conversations with demonstrators supportive of union rights.

She claimed to be unharmed.

This video is from Fox News boroadcast Feb. 28, 2011, as snipped by Talking Points Memo.