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AP, Fox News

Fox News Segment Sparks Accusations of Racism

Oct 5, 2016  •  Post A Comment

A segment airing on the Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor” has sparked outrage among activist groups, who are accusing the piece of being racist and demeaning to Asian-Americans.

The “Watters’ World: Chinatown Edition” segment featured Jesse Watters conducting street interviews in New York’s Chinatown district, in part to find out whether people were up to date on the election. The AP notes that Watters asked people “if he was supposed to bow to greet them, if they were selling stolen goods and if they could ‘take care of North Korea for us.'”

Several organizations lashed out against the piece. In a letter to Fox that was posted online, Asian American Journalists Association President Paul Cheung, who is director of interactive and digital news production for The Associated Press, wrote: “It’s 2016. We should be far beyond tired, racist stereotypes and targeting an ethnic group for humiliation and objectification on the basis of their race.”

The AP adds that Cheung “called on Fox to apologize to the Asian-American community and asked for ‘an explanation for how this type of coverage will be prevented in the future.'”

Another critic of the report is Gregory A. Cendana, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance.

The AP quotes a statement from Cendana in which he says the report “played into the exoticization and status of perpetual foreigner” of the Asian-American community.

Here’s the segment, which was posted by Fox News …

3 Comments

  1. Racism? At Fox News? Ridiculous! Fox News is made up of the nicest, friendliest, most honest people in broadcasting! They would never be racists, or tolerate sexual harassment, or lie on their broadcasts. Oh, wait….

  2. “All in good fun” huh? What great journalism – not.

  3. Say or do it like you mean it and don’t apologize for anything. I’m so sick of people retracting what they say. If you post or say it, mean it and don’t apologize for it, grow a set!

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