Fox News is Lying About Seattles 'Autonomous Zone' | HuffPost Latest News

SEATTLE On Fox News , host Tucker Carlson called it chaos and craziness. Laura Ingraham said it was a Marxist cultural revolution intended to destroy everything that came before it. In a tweet, President Donald Trump said it was being run by Domestic Terrorists.

These people are not describing a foreign war zone or a fallen city. They are describing the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, a roughly six-block area of Seattle taken over by protesters this week and declared a sovereign territory. Since the zone was established Monday, the internet has been filled with rumors about what it looks like and how it works. Fox News posted a photo of an armed guard at the entrance to the zone and said residents were being forced to show their IDs to get inside. Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best claimed that protesters were shaking down businesses for protection money. Something something Antifa something, cried various online pundits.

The antifa #CapitalHillAutonomousZone in Seattle has a subreddit set up. They are posting about making homemade chemical weapons, maintaining supply lines, & how to use those armed with guns to push police back. #antifa @FBISeattle pic.twitter.com/gDub2G49KU

Andy Ng (@MrAndyNgo) June 10, 2020","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Andy Ng","author_url":"https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo","cache_age":86400,"description":"The antifa #CapitalHillAutonomousZone in Seattle has a subreddit set up. They are posting about making homemade chemical weapons, maintaining supply lines, & how to use those armed with guns to push police back. #antifa @FBISeattle pic.twitter.com/gDub2G49KU Andy Ng (@MrAndyNgo) June 10, 2020\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_theme":{"value":"","values":{"dark":"Use dark theme"}}},"provider_name":"Twitter","thumbnail_height":633,"thumbnail_url":"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EaLRXyTUYAAGPPa.jpg:large","thumbnail_width":779,"title":"Andy Ng on 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The antifa #CapitalHillAutonomousZone in Seattle has a subreddit set up. They are posting about making homemade chemical weapons, maintaining supply lines, & how to use those armed with guns to push police back. #antifa @FBISeattle pic.twitter.com/gDub2G49KU
Andy Ng (@MrAndyNgo) June 10, 2020

All of these rumors are false, and all of these people are lying to you. I live less than a mile from the autonomous zone. I have been there every day this week, in daylight and in darkness, speaking with protesters, meeting with friends, seeing movies and eating pizza.

Dont believe the right-wing hype. The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone is just the latest in a series of cities demonized in right-wing media with no regard to the circumstances on the ground. In the early 2010s, Rush Limbaugh, Bill OReilly and other conservative pundits spread the rumor that Dearborn, Michigan, had converted its legal system to sharia law. Since then, Fox News and other conservative outlets have aired warnings of no-go zones, neighborhoods of European capitals so overwhelmed with immigrants and crime that police officers have abandoned them.

These overblown stories have been debunked, but conservative pundits are attempting to run the same playbook. Fox News even Photoshopped an armed guard into otherwise benign pictures to make the zone appear more threatening. (The website later pulled the photos and added an editors note apologizing for the error.)