Fox News Goes Full Racist With Claim That Michael Brown Was High On Drugs When Killed

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Fox News smeared a dead unarmed African-American teen today by claiming that Michael Brown may have been high on drugs when he was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer.

Fox News’ Jim Pinkerton had a conspiracy theory about Ferguson that hit on all of the conservative myths and boogeymen. Pinkerton claimed Attorney General Eric Holder is against the Ferguson Police and was trying to cover-up evidence that would have helped the police. Pinkerton later claimed that Brown charged at the cops, and the media is covering it up because the media wants a riot and violence.

Pinkerton’s topper came near the end of the segment when he said, “Ask the Secret Service what would happen if an individual who was six foot four and two hundred and ninety pounds went charging anywhere near the direction of the president. I suspect they’d put a lot more than six bullets in him….There are eyewitness who say he was charging. The autopsies are inconclusive. Again, Eric Holder will call for a third autopsy, a fourth, a fifth, and a tenth until he gets the results that he wants….We’ll know more with a blood test. If he was high on some drug, angel dust or PCP or something then we’ll know. That’s entirely possible, entirely possible, you can take a lot more than six bullets and keep charging.”

Alan Colmes tried to be the non-racist voice of sanity, but this Fox News so the segment was destined to go to the racist dumpster. There is less than zero evidence that Michael Brown was on drugs. The evidence gathered from an autopsy done at the request of the Brown family supports the claim that the eighteen-year-old was trying to surrender when he was shot.

The facts contradict the wild and racist theory that Michael Brown was high on drugs and charged the police. Fox News did this very same type of victim smearing after George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin. Fox News, especially Sean Hannity, did their best to smear Martin as a gang banging, drug using thug, who deserved to be shot and killed.

On a deeper level, Fox News is using the killing of Michael Brown to spread more race based fear and hatred. It’s all about keeping the Fox News audience afraid and angry with the hope that they will take out that fear and anger on President Obama and Democrats. Fox News was practicing the vilest form of political division imaginable, and they had no qualms about smearing the memory of a dead teenage boy.

The lesson here is that there is no such thing as a low that Fox News can’t reach.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association