Key West's More "Colorful" Side Spotlighted on FOX NEWS: THE O'REILLY SHOW [WATTER'S WORLD]
Click on the photo to link to the FOX website and view the video
COMMENTARY: Commissioner Tony Yaniz had this to say [on his Facebook Page] about the recent Fox News “Watters’ World: Key West Edition”:
“Of course we are all up un arms over the FOX-O’Reilly-Watters segment, but as has been posted and stated by countless sources in our island, the report was classic “Yellow Journalism” Do you think FOX was interested in showing that we are small-town-apple-pie-USA, a great place to raise your kids? No way! That kind of “news” doesn’t sell papers, euphemistically speaking! But at the end of the day we know what we are and who we are….and we love our community! My Dad used to say “Lo dice quien?” Says who! So I say, I’m glad that O’Reilly and his ilk view us that way, it means they won’t come here and we don’t want them anyways! Good riddance! Having said that, here’s an inconvenient truth we need to consider: many of our tourists see exactly what was in that report! That’s right! Unfortunately they don’t get to see our great community: our High School football games and the way we come together as a caring loving city! So, I say, we need to get a grip on this outrageous drunken behavior. I know that our KWPD does an outstanding job, and I have fought every year to increase their budget, but the solution lies in building a tent and toilet shelter outside the city limits and then cracking down upon public drunkenness and aggressive panhandling and working with the courts to put repeat offenders in prison! And while I’m on the soapbox the TDC and the Lodging Association don’t agree with me that we should use excess bedtax monies to provide more police, firefighter presence and more city crews to keep the city clean. Obviously, what they don’t get is that regardless of how many beautiful commercials are aired, once a tourist visits and has to deal with what was portrayed in that FOX report , they won’t come back, and they will tell their friends to stay away! You say? [follow link to comment]
So, my wife and I were taking (an unusual for us) walk on Duval St.. when nearing the corner with Greene St. we saw a well outfitted video crew and interviewer. I could hear the interviewer respond to a couple standing there that he was only interested in talking with locals. I presumed this couple was not “local.” Anyway, as we made our way through the gathering I caught the eye of the interviewer and said to him “I am a local,” to which he replied “That’s nice” with a pasted on smile. We continued our stroll.
A few days later i saw a link on Facebook about Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly segment about Key West. I watched it, and said to myself ‘that was the guy we saw on Duval St. doing interviews.’ I never watch Fox News and would not know Mr. Watters by sight.
My immediate and lasting thoughts about the TV segment I watched was that it is typical Faux News. I consider that cable network as negatively biased attempts at news as entertainment and propaganda. I would have expected nothing less from their sarcastic and vitriolic programming. It is obvious that they wanted to paint us Key Westers with a broad brush, at the expense of all fairness, or relativity. One has only to consider the source of this garbage to smell it for what it is: Faux News.
Karl Reutling
Simply said,” consider the source”.