Fox Enlists Iran, Chavez In Campaign To Discredit Occupy Wall Street

In support of his network's unrelenting campaign to discredit the Occupy Wall Street movement, Fox's Special Report host Bret Baier trumpeted claims that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei support the protests:

The movement, which is holding Wall Street accountable for extreme income inequality, has become a major target of Fox News. Baier's claim that people with controversial views of America are supporting the protests is nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to further discredit the protests.

Baier claimed on Tuesday that Chavez “threw his support behind protesters.” However, according to reporting of Chavez's comments, Chavez was criticizing the “repression” of the protests, citing arrests:

“This movement of popular outrage is expanding to 10 cities and the repression is horrible, I don't know how many are in prison now,” Chavez said in comments at a political meeting in his Caracas presidential palace shown on state TV.

Baier's claim on Wednesday that the protests “elicit[ed] support” from Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei is also dubious. Khamenei was quoted as saying that the U.S. government “may crack down on this movement but cannot uproot it” and that the protests “will grow so that it will bring down the capitalist system and the West.” Khamenei can project whatever he wishes on the protesters, but the Occupy Wall Street declaration does not mention destroying capitalism or the Western world.

When the Associated Press reported on October 20, 2004, that Iran had endorsed President Bush for re-election, Special Report tried to discredit the claim two days later, according to Nexis transcripts.