You can find Rob Davis' articles here and here.
The following transcript was generated using automated transcription software for the accessibility and convenience of our audience. While we strive for accuracy, the automated process may introduce errors, omissions, or misinterpretations. This transcript is intended as a helpful companion to the original audio and should not be considered a verbatim record. For the most accurate representation, please refer to the audio recording.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm Michael Dunne. If you listen to this station or follow local news, your view of what's happening on our streets and in Portland paints a picture of mostly peaceful and sometimes even humorous protests going on in relation to Ice. But if you watch Fox News, as President Trump does, your view is that of widespread violence and anarchy, and that latter view has influenced policy decisions around Ice and also contributed to the fact that right now, the vast majority of violent clashes are initiated by Ice. Today on the show, you'll hear from a reporter at ProPublica on his stories which illustrate what's really happening and how Fox is distorting that view. Then we'll end the show with our arts and culture reporter finishing up her report on all the great stuff happening in our community during the holidays. Rob Davis, a reporter with ProPublica who covers all sorts of issues in the northwest. Thanks for coming on and talking with us.
ROB DAVIS: Hey, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I really enjoyed both of the stories you've written recently that sort of center around Portland. And you know when you talk, when you write about a sort of Fox News in your headline uses the word misleading coverage of what was happening with regard to protests and Ice and whatnot. Why don't you just tell our audience what that article was about?
ROB DAVIS: Yeah, when, when President Trump was asked where he was going to send the National Guard next in the Oval Office on September 5, he said he was thinking about sending troops to Portland because of something he had seen on TV. He said both that morning and the evening before, and that morning and the evening before Fox News had aired some footage of protest at the Ice facility in Portland, and on the clip that that aired on September 4 was about two and a half minutes, and it included footage, it's, they said that it had happened on a Tuesday, and it cut to footage that was from 2020, and they said that that, you know, officers had used tear gas. And it showed a clip of somebody being tear gassed in downtown Portland five years earlier.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, and so basically what happened, and many people remember 2020 during Covid and during a lot of racial unrest protests. There was a lot going on in downtown Portland. But of course, as you just pointed out, that was, shall we say, dated footage.
ROB DAVIS: It was five years ago and a mile away from what's been happening this year.
MICHAEL DUNNE: And you know, we've all now heard, for example, when our Governor Tina Kotek was talking with President Trump, and she was making the case that it was unnecessary for the National Guard. He famously said something along the lines of, so what you're telling me is different from what I've seen on TV?
ROB DAVIS: Yeah, he said, he said at one point, you know what he told, he told the governor, unless they're playing false tapes. This looked like World War Two. And I mean, of course, the irony here is that Fox News was not playing accurate footage. You know, this is the kind of journalistic malpractice that in my job, I wouldn't have a job if I had told a story in the way that Fox News did.
MICHAEL DUNNE: What has Fox News said about this?
ROB DAVIS: Nothing. They didn't respond to our request for comment. They did add at least two weeks after the clip aired, they added an Editor's Note online that said that it contained some footage from 2020 but it did not really account for what was. Inaccurate or misleading in that piece. And you know, it is not just limited to one piece, the story of Portland that has been told on Fox News is one of protesters rioting, violent demonstrations. You know, they show clips of people standing in the street, and they say, you know, last night riots were raging in Portland, and when you actually watch the clip that they are voicing over, there's just people standing in the street, you know, and part of what we have done, as part of the analysis that went into these pieces, was not only to watch, you know, three months of mentions of Portland on Fox News, but also to go into and to try to account for what really happened at these protests, you know, between June and September 5, when, the President said that, you know, he wanted to send troops. And, you know, over and over again, when those demonstrations did turn violent, what we found was that it was federal officers instigating the violence. And so, you know, the footage that went into the pieces that it's possible the President saw was from Labor Day and protesters brought a guillotine, and Federal officer said in court that they didn't know that it was a prop and that they had to go out and collect it, and they thought it was a threat, and so they tear gassed. The crowd went out, you know, firing non-lethal munitions and throwing canisters of tear gas, and went out and got the prop and brought it back in. When you see that footage, it looks dramatic because it was dramatic, but the thing that is happening in it is not a riot. Was not declared a riot by Portland police.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You brought up something earlier about, you know, obviously the standards that you have at your organization. And, of course, you know, I work for an affiliate of NPR, and there are these standards with regard to saying something and utilizing, whether it's audio or video or the printed word, to back up reporting. And I'm wondering, you know, does Fox News simply because of what they are, and certainly as the favorite, or one of the favorite journalistic outlets of the President do they just get to play by seemingly a different standard. I mean, like you pointed out very well, I couldn't, you know, come on the radio and talk about a story and use evidence that is completely out of date and misleading.
ROB DAVIS: I can tell you that before we published something, we spent weeks gathering all of the relevant facts that we could. We talked to people or attempted to talk to people who were named in the story to give them a chance to contextualize or comment or help us understand it better. You know, we went through a rigorous fact check to make sure that everything that we were printing was accurate, and then we published it. And you know, having, you know, such a rigorous fact-based approach to sharing news is not something that would allow Footage from 2020 to make it through to being published now.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Now that the piece you just talked about, you know your headline, what really happened in Portland before Trump deployed the National Guard? You talked about sort of things which I think people may not understand. I want you to explain it to us, because it has been talked about this idea of the federal insurrection act. Could you explain that and how the President might use it?
ROB DAVIS: Well, you know, the in trying to send the guard to Portland, part of what the President has said, and what his lawyers through the justice department have said, is that the people standing on the sidewalk are standing in the street out in front of the Ice facility, that their actions amount to a rebellion. Which helps is the legal bar that they need to be able to clear, which they have so far failed to clear, to federalize the National Guard. If that judicial process, which has seen an injunction, and we have not seen the national guard outside the Ice facility here, if that judicial process ultimately prevents and continues to prevent the president from deploying troops, it is possible that he could use the insurrection Act, which experts have said has a lower bar and could involve the use of active duty military here, he hasn't done it yet, but he has sort of intimated that he is interested in doing so.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay, one of the things that I found fascinating about this article, and you do a great job explaining that, you know, Ice has, you know, committed this really aggressive posture and throwing people to the ground and so on and so forth. And you, you talk to this expert, I believe his name was Brian Higgins, who said, If you're going to do that, then it must mean that that person, that Ice threw on the ground, must have done something arrest worthy. But oftentimes it's not the case. It's like they did this and ended up not arresting the person. Could you sort of walk us through that and what Mr. Higgins told you?
ROB DAVIS: Yeah. I mean, you know when, when and when the guard deployment was ordered? I heard, as everybody did, sort of these two sides of, you know, trying to characterize what had happened outside of that building through the summer and so we really wanted to know what actually did happen. And so, we went back through more than 700 social media clips, hours and hours of footage to really absorb and see day by day, day by day. What went down there and we collected arrest announcements from Portland police, which stopped on June 19 and picked up again after the guard deployment was ordered, and from the US Attorney's Office on the federal side. And there were just, I think, three arrests from July 5 until the point at which the President said that this had gotten his attention. And so, what you see on those nights where there are these push outs of officers, Federal officers from the building. When they come out, they are coming out. There, you know, chasing somebody across the street, tackling them, dragging them off, taking them in the building. You know, you do not see any charges being prosecuted and what? What Brian Higgins told us after watching some of this footage was, you know, why? Why are they doing that, if it is not in service of making an arrest. You know, you see them chase somebody across the street. One of the Federal officers is walking back into the building, and a protester off to his right says something that he clearly does not like, and he veers off to the right, walks over to the guy, and with both hands, pushes him over as hard as he could, so that the guy falls to the ground, does a backward roll, head over heels, and is not arrested. And you know, we talked to another expert who said that that's what he saw in that footage. It only looked like intimidation. You know, the use of force this person said, can be, you know, force can be used by a federal officer if it is in service of a lawful government objective. And intimidation is not, in his words, a lawful government objective.
MICHAEL DUNNE: So, these occurrences that are happening and ICE officers involved here, as far as you can tell, have there been any repercussions against ICE officers you just described really a brutal encounter, as far as you can tell. Has there been any discipline of ICE officers for being overly aggressive or anything like that?
ROB DAVIS: Not that I'm aware of, I of course, do not have a perfect line of visibility into what might be happening internally. These are, you know, of course, not just ICE officers. There are, you know, Federal Protective Service or tech sort of alphabet soup of acronym agencies being represented here. You know, accountability against these officers from, from one of the experts that we talked to is, is really, really a long shot, and that might be putting it generously. You know, there is a tort claim that was filed by a veteran who was standing on the sidewalk in front of the building when officers came running up behind him, elbow first into the back of his head, into his, into his, you know, his head and shoulder in a bowl. The guy who was first, was not prosecuted. And you know, cases like that will face a real struggle on sort of the path to accountability.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Rob This is fascinating stuff, and certainly it's very important that people hear about it. Really appreciate your reporting and joining us, we've been speaking with Rob Davis, a reporter with ProPublica again. Thanks so much.
ROB DAVIS: It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Let's bring back Kendra Schertell to finish up her report from yesterday about all the great holiday happenings in our region.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: So, I think there's so many, so many great parades going on. One of, one of the classics is, it's the 73rd annual Springfield Christmas parade, and that's on December 6.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, and that's a great one for people who haven't gone.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: Yeah, it sounds great. And then the Christmas in Coburg and light parade. So, we got another parade in downtown Cobourg, and that's December 5, Saturday the sixth, and Sunday the seventh. And then if you kind of move, go over the pass and go to sisters. I know that they've got kind of an interesting event. Yes, they have the ugly sweater 5k run or walk. You can walk to, okay, so you pick out your favorite ugly sweater and you just join and it goes to Living Well with Dementia. Do you have an ugly Christmas sweater?
MICHAEL DUNNE: I don't, you know, it's funny. I don't think I have any, but I know I need to probably just see if I can have an ugly smile, just to have exactly, yeah, that'd be good here at KLCC. And what else is going on? Talk about some of the other things that are happening.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: Yeah. So, in Bend, they're having their 17th annual locavore holiday gift fair. And so that's Saturday December 13, at the Unitarian Universalist fellowship in Bend. And so that's what you know. We can go Christmas shopping or holiday shopping, anything with lots of local artisans and whatnot, And in Florence, we're going back over to the coast, okay? Santa's coastal playground holiday festival is Saturday, December 6, and that's Old Town, Florence, where you can see the white walker and bike parade, okay? 30, and they'll have holiday music, and Santa and Mrs. Claus will be there. And they'll have a tree lighting ceremony,
MICHAEL DUNNE: We got some other things going on, even in Walterville, talk about that?
KENDRA SCHERTELL: Yeah, you can go for a holiday dinner, and that's December 9, and that's at 6pm Santa will also be there, and you can bring a side dish or dessert to share, and also bring some canned food to donate to upriver food pantry. So, yeah, it's a free event just to join in and see the community.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, we had, if we had, sort of inland and south to Sutherland talk about some of the, some of the stuff they got going there.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: Yeah, they're having their timber toy land electric light parade. Wow, yes. And that looks really cool. And that's December 20. You could fill up your entire month, which is parades and trees. I know this is awesome. Travel around to all the different towns, and even get away from sort of the holidays.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Of course, it's the winter solstice coming up, and I know that Eugene does something. Yeah, talk about that.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: We'll have a winter solstice celebration at Doris ranch. And so that's in the evening, and you'll just join around a campfire storytelling, have some hot chocolate and just enjoy the outdoors. And the longest night of the year.
MICHAEL DUNNE: And certainly, a lot of different faiths celebrate different things. And certainly, the Jewish faith has, has they’re there you know, Hanukkah and whatnot, and, and I know in Central Oregon and Bend, they're doing something to talk about that.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: Yeah, the menorah lighting. So that's going to be December 25 and they're going to do that at the old mill District, which is a wonderful place. I love the old mill district. It's just beautiful right on the Deschutes River there. It's great. And so, they're going to have music, hot drinks, and all are welcome to join in the lighting.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Kendra Schertell, our arts and culture reporter, thank you so much and you can find all of this and more on the shortcut.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: Thanks again.
MICHAEL DUNNE: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon On The Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Tomorrow on the show, you'll hear from a volunteer and two exchange students, one from Ukraine and one from Eugene, who went to France, and hear about all their experiences and interactions with the young people they met. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon On The Record. Thanks for listening.
