Salon.com > Steven Crowder

No charges over Fox News contributor’s Michigan fistfight

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 19:33:00 +0000

Prosecutors have declined to file charges in the case of Fox News contributor Steven Crowder, who was punched in the face by a protester during December's right-to-work rallies in Michigan.

A video that went viral at the time showed Crowder getting punched by a protester as he tried to stop an Americans for Prosperity tent from being torn down. The right picked it up as evidence of “union thuggery” at the protests. But, shortly after, the video was revealed to have been selectively edited, and left out a key part where the protester was knocked to the ground right before he got back up to punch Crowder.

Fox News revealed selective editing of punched Fox News contributor

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:00:00 +0000

A video of Fox News contributor Steven Crowder getting punched by a Michigan union protester was selectively edited, and that editing was revealed during Crowder's appearance on Sean Hannity's show on Fox News.

The original video shows Crowder getting punched by a protester on Tuesday while Crowder was trying to stop an Americans for Prosperity tent from being torn down. The video, which is approaching a million views on YouTube, was picked up by the right as evidence of "union thuggery":

[embedtweet id="278603262586929152"]

[embedtweet id="278701492838477824"]

[embedtweet id="278597653078630400"]

But on Wednesday, Eclectablog's Chris Savage argued that Crowder's video is "actually a composite of things that happened over the course of the day, many of them hours apart."

Crowder defended himself on Twitter:

[embedtweet id="278846747801972736"]

He added that the full footage was shown on Sean Hannity's show the night before.

As Robert Mackey of the New York Times' Lede Blog points out:

Fox News contributor punched during right-to-work protests

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Yesterday, the right was all over this video of Fox News contributor Steven Crowder getting punched by union protesters in Michigan, over the state's right-to-work law.

The video is edited so it's tough to nail down the sequence of events specifically, but Crowder appears to have gotten punched while trying to stop protesters from tearing down an Americans for Prosperity tent.

Watch:

The right pounced on Twitter:

[embedtweet id="278701492838477824"]

[embedtweet id="278616787292147712"]

[embedtweet id="278603262586929152"]

[embedtweet id="278597653078630400"]

On Sean Hannity's show, Crowder said: “I literally believe, Sean, that if I had defended myself at all, even flicked a small little jab, that they would have killed me where I stood."