Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby Claims Fox Affiliate Coverage of Her Is “Racist” – Files FCC Complaint
In a formal complaint filed with the FCC, Mosby’s office alleges that Baltimore TV station WBFF’s coverage of Mosby “upon viewing could reasonably be characterized as blatantly slanted, dishonest, misleading, racist, and extremely dangerous.”
Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby is extremely unhappy with the news coverage she’s received from Baltimore Fox affiliate WBFF over the last year.
As a result, her office has filed a formal complaint with the FCC calling for an investigation into “the broadcasting practices and media content” distributed by Fox 45, reports which her office claims “upon viewing could reasonably be characterized as blatantly slanted, dishonest, misleading, racist, and extremely dangerous.”
Most of the letter focused on what Mosby’s Communications Director Ty Richardson called a “disconcerting and dangerous pattern” of allegedly running misleading stories about her that disregarded the facts. He claimed the motivation was racism:
“I have noted that the news coverage of the WBFF persistently follows a disconcerting and dangerous pattern,” reads part of the letter. “Beginning with a slanted, rigged, misleading, or inflammatory headline; followed by a conspiracy theory; and supported with guest commentary from disgruntled ex-employees or political opponents that lend false credibility to their biased coverage or omission of facts.”
[…]
“To be clear, the State’s Attorney’s Office is not above receiving criticism,” reads another part of the three-page letter. “We welcome being held accountable, and we support First Amendment freedom of speech. However, what we find troubling, abhorrent, and outright dangerous, is that the distinctly relentless slanted broadcast news campaign, against the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office and its lead prosecutor, has the stench of racism.”
The national Fox News channel and its popular host Tucker Carlson also got mentions in the letter, with Mosby’s office claiming the network was “infamous for its bias against people of color”:
In the public sphere, Fox News is infamous for its bias against people of color, and even more against those who could be deemed “progressive” people of color. Currently, the Fox national news network airs a nightly show with Tucker Carlson, despite recent calls by civil rights groups to terminate his employment because of Carlson’s frequent endorsements of white supremacy views.
Read the full letter here (pdf) or via Scribd here.
Mosby, who received widespread criticism in 2016 over her handling of the Freddie Gray case, has used her Twitter account to promote the letter, and has also retweeted various defenses of her from random Twitter users, some of who also claim WBFF is motivated by racism:
@FOXBaltimore’s blatantly slanted,dishonest,misleading,racist, and extremely dangerous coverage must come to end. Last year, they ran 248 stories about me and and my office, while WJZ ran 46, WBAL ran 26 and WMAR ran 10 during that year. https://t.co/QnsB4XPtqf
— Marilyn J. Mosby (@MarilynMosbyEsq) May 7, 2021
Most disturbingly, @FOXBaltimore deliberately broadcast my home address” and made a “formal inquiry attempting to find out the schools” my children attend. It’s ridiculous and it’s dangerous.
— Marilyn J. Mosby (@MarilynMosbyEsq) May 7, 2021
This station is blatantly racist! The majority of their stories are centered around black public officials and the challenges of Baltimore City. They never report anything positive about the city. It’s sickening, I rather watch Maury in the morning. Leave the Mosbys alone!!
— Tynice Hunter (@HunterTynice) May 8, 2021
Dan Shelley, who is the director of the Radio Television Digital News Association, urged the FCC to reject what he called “a capricious complaint”:
We at @RTDNA urge the @FCC to reject a capricious complaint filed by the Baltimore City state’s attorney’s office against #Murrow-winning station @FOXBaltimore for no other reason than the station serves its community by seeking & reporting the truth. https://t.co/U8bD0MPAYD
— Dan Shelley (@MurrowNYC) May 8, 2021
In a statement, the non-profit pro-journalism Media Institute called the complaint “especially egregious” and “chilling”:
“This matter is especially egregious because the television station holds a broadcast license issued by the FCC. It is obvious that freedom of the press would cease to be a reality for local broadcasters if every government official who received coverage perceived as unfavorable exerted a chilling effect on local TV news coverage by calling for an FCC investigation that could (if even remotely) imperil a station’s broadcast license.”
To their credit, Fox 45 is not backing down. In a piece with the headline “Baltimore City State’s Attorney Office tries to silence local media source,” the award-winning news outlet made sure to reference her controversial decisions and legal problems:
The 3-page letter is critical of the coverage FOX45 News has given to a multitude of issues involving the publicly elected State’s Attorney. In addition to her widely reported legal problems, Marilyn Mosby has decided her office will not enforce certain laws enacted by the State’s Legislature. Her selective enforcement policies include not prosecuting drug possession, prostitution, and trespassing. Despite the fact multiple voices have commented on her legal problems and progressive policies such as community activist Reverend Al Hathaway, former Baltimore police union President Bob Cherry, multiple former State and federal prosecutors, national crime experts and many others, Richardson characterizes FOX45 News coverage as “blatantly slanted, dishonest, misleading, racist and extremely dangerous.”
They also noted that the letter from Mosby’s office was dated “the day before the Radio Television Digital News Organization awarded FOX45 News four Regional Edward R. Murrow awards for journalism excellence. Three of the awards were for accountability reporting.”
In a similar case out of Charlotte, NC last year, District Judge Aretha Blake (D) filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to try and prevent WBTV News from airing a story critical of her handling of family law cases that would be airing just a few days before a primary election. The restraining order was denied. The story eventually aired, while Blake went on to win her primary and ran unopposed in the general election.
We’ll keep you posted on what happens with the Mosby complaint. Stay tuned.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
Incompetent black woman calls criticism of her incompetence “raaaaacist!”
Film at 11:00!
Hahaha. “How Dare They???” Right, Marilyn?
Truth is now deemed “dangerous and racist”
You forgot “corrupt”..
We’re all sick of this b.s., and see these people for what they are: criminals hidinf behind street thugs. Enough: get her the hell out.
That. I think she might be a term prosecutor. One term in office and one term in prison.
“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”
Amazing. This woman presides over a city wher unemployment and murders run rampant and nearly, if not zero, of the 8th graders can read or perform math exercises at grade level and she cries racism…what a laughable imbicile she is…
You clearly don’t understand the new and improved Utopian America in which being unemployed and a murderer are hailed as achievements if you are non-white.
Sorry, your sense that anyone, let alone an 8th grader, can read . . . OMG, check you’re freaking privilege! This is just more evidence that you are a racity racist who is racist. How dare you imagine that anyone who is nonwhite can deal with basic maths! You RAAACIST!
We all know black and brown people are hopelessly stupid, backwards, and mostly stupidly backwards. We progressives know all about ginning up race wars, it’s what we do. And we can’t wait to see you fall into our trap! How great will that be? We get to round up wrongthinkers as RAACISTS! The joy, the fun, the tyranny!
She does not preside over the city. And while she can be at least partially responsible for the murder rate, what on earth does unemployment or school performance have to do with her? Even if she were superhumanly competent and effective, there is nothing she could or should do about those things. They’re not her problem.
Not even remotely true. There is is direct causal nexus between her soft on crime/pro criminal policies and both of those issues.
How? How could a different attitude to crime reduce unemployment or improve education? And even if it could, how is that her responsibility?
I can’t believe even you are this stupid. Increased crime rates have a direct impact on both education and business activity. Reduced business activity due to increased crime? Higher unemployment.
Now, I wouldn’t have made the argument you were responding to, but your response is galactically ignorant. More so than normal. And then you have the Dunning-Krugeresque gall to rave at everyone else for being idiots.
First, as a review, from Merriam-Webster:
Definition of preside over
1: to be in charge of something (such as a meeting or organization)
So, if she is not in charge of Baltimore then who is?
Second, as chief executive of the city, all aspects of city life are under her perview.
Third: Policing, reaction to and mitigation of crime, and economics all fall within the scope of her job. Think NYC and Times Square in particular pre Guiliani. Love him or hate him, the city became livable again.
Fourth: While there is, of course, a school board overseeing the pathetic school system there a mayor wields influence over the education in their city.
Hey, you actual stupid idiot. At least “paralegal” seems to have some kind of clue, though not much of one. At least s/he’s merely hinting at some sort of indirect influence she might have on what happens in the city. You have no clue at all.
HOW ON EARTH DO YOU THINK SHE”S IN CHARGE OF BALTIMORE?
You answered your own stupid question, in your very next words: “Second, as chief executive of the city…”. The chief executive of the city, that’s who. WHICH SHE IS NOT, YOU STUPID IDIOT.
No, they do not. Even mitigation of crime is only indirectly within the scope of her job. The other two are not AT ALL, and she’s not even entitled to take economics into consideration when doing her job.
I don’t know whether the Baltimore mayor has influence over the school board or the schools; but how is that relevant? One thing is certain: Mosby has none at all.
Idiot.
Hey, you f****ing idiots who downvoted that. I dare any of you to explain how she is responsible for unemployment or the schools. What the **** do you think she has to do with them. You can’t, so you can’t disagree with my comment, but you act out of pure spite and hatred. You are simply evil people and you should all die.
Wow. Note that I didn’t descend to name calling…sorry you you felt compelled to do so.
I do admit that I misread the article and her title and thus her responsibilities. Mea culpability on that.
That doesn’t, however, relieve her of her ridiculous charge of racism and a desire to muzzle negative press outlets.
Back to work for me…
Maybe if you didn’t start off every post with “f***ing idiots”, you wouldn’t get so many downvotes. IMO, that sort of invective earns a downvote in and of itself.,
Really? here is my comment which we are discussing, in case you’re too lazy to scroll up a bit. Note the complete lack of any abuse. I never take things personal; but when I am attacked I have the right to respond in kind.
Bullshit, Millhouse. Let one person impugn the integrity of Dominion voting systems and you tend to lose your shit and launch into personal attacks.
Care to revise your personal assessment?
People who claim the earth is flat, or make claims whose falsity is obvious and well known at that level, expose themselves to ridicule. And people who knowingly and deliberately make false accusations of serious crimes against other people, out of pure viciousness, expose themselves to contempt. Accusing Dominion of rigging its machines is exactly the same as Reid accusing Romney of not having paid taxes for the previous ten years, or accusing Trump of being in Putin’s pay.
She has nothing to do with school performance or unemployment.
Not even remotely true. There is is direct causal nexus between her soft on crime/pro criminal policies and both of those issues.
See my response to Milhouse, and thus to you…
Also, auto correct helped me coin a new phrase…mea culpability instead of mea culpa…😎
See you on the board next time…
Very few people are as racist as Ms Mosby is.
Maybe a while ago.. but now I think the numbers are growing,, and growing quickly, by design.
” has the stench of racism.”
an odor which, no doubt, permeates her being
People people people. She is just channeling the spirit of Jackie McLean, who shall forever reign as the queen of the Balmer incompetents.
Lets see if the FCC takes the complaint and if so how they’ll measure what it means to be slanted and racist. Until then, Ms. Mosbey has fired the first shot across the bow to ensure everyone knows any complaint or criticism against her is racist and her minions will parrot that.
I was thinking the same thing. Given the fact the the Communists seized absolute power in Washington on 1/20 there is a non-zero chance the FCC will be willing to harasses – or even sanction – the local Fox station.
So?
“The majority of their stories are centered around black public officials …”
Umm, aren’t a majority of public officials in Baltimore black?
Yes. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
If math weren’t rayciss, they would have sorted that out on their own.
Oh, that’s rich.
Traditional Marxist/Communist replying to criticism before the dawn of BLM, Antifa, CRT, and SJWs. This is also the party line in Communist China about things said they do not approve of. And it was the party line in the old Soviet Union.
American neo-Communist replying after the dawn of BLM, Antifa, CRT, and SJWs.
See the difference?
Now imagine you’re a white guy and you and she work for the same Big Tech Big Brother corp. Imagine she didn’t like something you said. Guess what happens next.
This is Biden’s and Obama’s Amerika. Where, to use an apropos historic analogy, the KKK is now run by blacks and their BLM/Antifa/CRT supporters and white men are the targets.
Affirmative Action does not infer competence. It just opens the door.
Old saying: “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bulls#$t”
The dinosaur media, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democrat party, will cover them.
Affirmative Action, very strongly, implies incompetence .. and breeds such.
Of course her complaint is nonsense, but suppose it were true. Suppose the Fox station were openly racist, and accompanied every negative story about her with the punchline “This is what happens when you elect n—–s to responsible positions”. Granted the FCC would not be completely without power, since this is a broadcast station, not print or cable, but I’m not sure how much it could do without running into the first amendment. It could probably penalize the station if it used outright slurs, on the grounds that such language does not help convey the station’s intended message and thus has no constitutional value, but if the sentiment were couched in normal language I doubt the FCC could do anything just because it didn’t like it.
BLM/Antifa would sack and loot the station and burn it to the ground. The police and the Feds wouldn’t do a thing to stop them.
They can do that without it being true. When did they ever let a little thing that like that stop them before?
She didn’t even sign the letter herself…. So if it blows up on her she’ll say she had no idea anyone from “her” office was complaining.
Go ahead and read it, it’s about 6th grade reading level. Not a single concrete example such as “at 3:51 of the news broadcast on X date, they said something racist, or false, or even just mean. It’s 3 pages of BS!
Hey Baltimore, you elected her, your tax dollars pay for this crap. Enjoy!
The whole point of the 4th estate is to hold the other three branches of government to account. If the articles Ms. Mosby references in her letter are stories that shouldn’t have been done because they’re “racist”, what story critical of her policies would be acceptable?’Part of being a politician is learning to deal with the fact that the press will criticize you. I despise how often unscrupulous people pull the race card to deflect the heat off of them and change the subject. The terms ” racist” and “white supremacy” are SO overused that instead of people listening and feeling guilty, many white people are beginning to simply tune these words out. This is tragic because people of all races who aren’t sociopaths rightly get furious when they hear of someone being abused based on their skin color. But ever since last summer EVERYTHING is racists and all white people are white supremacists. Its becoming like the boy who called wolf.
There is no such thing as a “4th estate”. If you think there is, name the first three. 19 out of 20 people who use that term can’t do so.
We don’t have estates in the USA, and even if we did the news industry wouldn’t be one. The news industry has no role in government. It does not appear in the constitution. And it does not have a “point”, other to make money by entertaining people.
The whole “4th estate” shtick, and the pretense that the first amendment gives it a special status, is a self-aggrandiziing propaganda move by an industry that has always been sleazy and corrupt.
You stated “The news industry has no role in government. ” Correctly stated it should have read “The news industry should have no role in government, sadly not true in this administration as the “news” industry is largely an arm of the Democrat regime. Opposition only takes place to pointing out incompetency and malfeasance by one of these said Democrats.”
So much this. I wish people would realize that media HAS ALWAYS been filled with corrupt liars trying to push an agenda. One of the things that has confused me my entire adult life is why any adult uncritically consumes “news”.
“One of the things that has confused me my entire adult life is why any adult uncritically consumes news”
One of the great mysteries of human nature. It has a catchy name: the “Gell-Mann amnesia effect”.
TY katesully,
Great points… But I think the MSM/press is a lost cause insofar as they are so damned selective and hypocritical. The 4 estates are Clergy, Nobility, Commoners, Press. Substitute Politicians for nobility… and Medical people for Clergy.. and it kinda makes sense. What it all boils down to is Mosby is an idiot.
10 points for actually knowing what the three estates were. But there were only ever three. And nobody at that time and place ever suggested that the news industry constituted a fourth; on the contrary, to the extent that it even existed it had no power whatsoever.
.
“Fourth Estate” originated as a derogatory term for press, i.e., “They’re so egotistical that they think they are peers of the other three.”
Really? I always thought it was a boastful term they made up for themselves.
Hmm, according to Wikipedia, which tends to be correct on such matters, Carlyle attributed the coinage to Burke. Other possible candidates are William Hazlitt, Henry Brougham, and Macaulay. And it was not meant ironically.
I think that’s hilarious, in her complaint she described CNN and MSNBC and pretty much all of the m s m. only difference is the MSM is racist against white people.
Wait till that dumbell Harris replaces Biden. When she starts falling on her face (as she is now), she’ll try ANYTHING to distract from her utter incompetence.
These people really want an all-out war.
She can’t afford bad TV coverage as the murder and crime rate soars. She’s your Democrat leader a Baltimore.
So sick of the lies..STOP using your color as an excuse for everything wrong in your life. It’s pitiful, and it is getting tiring.
Frivolous complaint, vexatious litigant. Girlfriend needs a referral to the Maryland Bar for review and consideration of disciplinary action.
Some adult should have read the letter before it was sent.
Page 2 lists six stores.
However, the letter fails to provide any reason why the article is distorted.
The FCC should send her letter back saying they are unable to process the complaint without having facts that would justify the allegations .
The second paragraph of page 3 says “pipe bombs were sent to George Soros and other elected officials.”
Since when is George Soros an “elected official?”
If a high school student turned this letter in as a persuasive writing assignment, they would get an “F.”
Only from a competent teacher who demands competency from their students.
And don’t forget. This train wreck of a letter was sent to the FCC warts and all by the “Communications Director, Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office“. Says something about Mosby’s staff. And it isn’t good.
Fox claims accolades for accurate reporting, but the miss the mark on their statement that Mosby engages in “selective enforcement” of state laws. In fact, Mosby has categorically refused to enforce state law based upon her opposition to the subject matter of the law-the classic definition of prosecutorial nullification. It is hard to believe, but there is very little judicial or academic analysis of the consequences of prosecutors categorically refusing to charge under state and local laws based upon their opposition to the law itself. A case can be made that such prosecutorial nullification constitutes grounds for disbarment of such a prosecutor. If not, categorical refusal to prosecute becomes a legal veto.
The message to all, be very careful who you hire these days. If the candidate is a minority and can’t do the job, get ready to be labeled a racist when you try to fire them. FACT.
Fox’s coverage of the horrible State’s Attorney Maryland Mosby has been very fair. The real question is why are all the other news stations in the area ignoring all of Mosby’s problems?
Lese majeste against the Exalted Leader of the Sacred People.
Come on, Milhouse. You know that Government, especially Federal Government, has a mountain of laws, many of which can be stretched to cover whatever they want. Even if stretched too far, the get you in a “process crime” along the way.
Lavrenty Beria nailed it close to a century ago.
Simpler,just have Sleepy Joe issue an EO closing them down.
When I was a supervisor in a hospital maintenance shop years ago, I told one of the guys it was his turn to change lights in the parking deck. He said “That’s racist.” Never mind that everybody took a turn, including two other black guys, it was “racist” because he was unwilling to do the work. Management let him get away with it because he had a loud mouthed lawyer in the family.
Several years later he was finally canned because he liked to chase white nurses. When he chased the wife to the Chief of Surgery he was finally kicked out. Nobody, and I mean nobody, was sorry to see him go.
.
I particularly liked her argument that all the other networks love her, only Fox criticizes her, therefore they’re racist.
Stop the killings in Baltimore or get out of the way.
allegedly running misleading stories about her that disregarded the facts.
If they were misleading and defamed her, wouldn’t that be the basis for a slander suit? Why is she not pursuing that option? I think we all know why.
(For those who don’t know, the slander has to be untrue [this stuff really isn’t] and it has to harm the reputation of the slandered [and her reputation is on life-support].)
This what happens when the descendants of slave-owners, a White POTUS and a mostly Asian VPOTUS only get “happy media’.
Next think you know, everybody wants “happy media”.
She has a condition that can’t be fixed.
“upon viewing could reasonably be characterized as blatantly slanted, dishonest, misleading, racist, and extremely dangerous.”
All that was happening to conservatives for the past few years. As usual, this is projection by Democrats.