WGHP Fox8 News manufacturing deception, making up quotes

There is a smarmy tactic afoot in Guilford County. It involves taking two incongruous and non-sequential statements and splicing them together to make one appear to be in response to the other. Conservatives for Guilford County recently deployed the tactic to make it seem as if a Guilford County commissioner was responding to a speaker from the floor (when, in fact, the commissioner's comment was made 90 minutes later on a different subject).

Now, quite unfortunately, WGHP Fox8 has embraced the tactic and employed it themselves in the same affair. In addition to reporting multiple times--never with substantiation and contrary to video record--that County Commissioner Carolyn Coleman directed a comment to a speaker from the floor because of the speaker's county of origin, WGHP takes it one step further and published this yesterday:

Isabella Adkins, who is from Romania and a member of the Conservatives for Guilford County, claims the comment was directed at her. Adkins is demanding an apology.

"Check yourself. Don't ever ask me for an apology," said Coleman. "If I think I owe one, I'll give it. You have gotten off course," said Coleman Thursday evening.

It sounds like Coleman really has it out for Adkins, doesn't it? Except that, despite the way WGHP put one thing right after another, they were not sequential and Coleman was not addressing Adkins. This is the same deception Conservatives for Guilford County employed: take a comment by Adkins and append to it a comment that the commissioner made later and to someone else to make it seem as if the commissioner's comment is in response to Adkins.

The commissioner's comments WGHP quotes immediately after "Adkins is demanding an apology," were actually made nearly two hours after Adkins asked for an apology, they were not addressed to Adkins and were, in fact, addressed to fellow commissioner Billy Yow. WGHP doesn't bother to tell you that, but it's all on video. [Not yet posted at the County website. Link when available.]

That's not all. Even in what appears to be a straightforward quotation of Coleman, WGHP deploys more deception. Coleman did not say, "If I think I owe one, I'll give it. You have gotten off course," as WGHP reports. Coleman said (to Yow) "If I think I owe one, I'll give it." Then she stopped. WGHP added the rest. Remember, it's on video [Not yet posted at the County website. Link when available.]

Heads rolled at WFMY when a reporter fabricated video footage. This is no different. It is the same type of intentionally manufactured deception intended to hype an unsubstantiated suspicion at the expense of the facts. No matter how clever or smoothly perpetrated, it is unethical and not welcomed in our community. The person or people responsible should be shown the door.

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Bonus: If the negative implications of this for Guilford County are not clear, some comments from the WGHP website in response to the stories will help (errors preserved):

• No wonder blacks are hated soo much.
• what an uppity b. 
  
• Coleman is black and they don't have to apologize for anything.
• This is he night that we all should be ashame to live in Greensboro with this insane women loose.
• It's all about RACE, yes, I said it!
• Coleman will be excused from her comment because of her race.
• This shows beyond any doubt that blacks are not real humans and never will be.
• It must be general knowledge now that jungle animals are related to those people.
• I'm sure that she is one MAD black women today and I would advise ALL white people attending the commissioners meeting tonight to sit at the back of the meeting room in order to avoid the HOT mouths air that this beast will project into the room tonight.