Fox News Worried That Referring To Michael Brown As “Unarmed Teen” Might Be Misleading

A Fox News segment asked whether the “unarmed teen” description of Michael Brown is misleading and featured Fox contributor Linda Chavez arguing that such a description enhances racial fears and is an attempt to play the “race card.”

On August 25, Chavez and Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy aired surveillance footage from the convenience store that Michael Brown allegedly robbed before his death, and used this to argue that describing Brown as an “unarmed teen” at the time of the shooting is misleading.

In an op-ed Chavez wrote for the New York Postshe argued that “The actual images of Brown on the video surely do not bring to mind a harmless teen.” During the segment on Fox, on-screen text asked if the “unarmed teen” description of Michael Brown was misleading while Chavez argued that Brown was an adult male “who is six foot four and weighs almost three hundred pounds”:

CHAVEZ: I think that what is happening is really not calming racial fears but is actually enhancing them by acting as if, you know, this mantra of the unarmed black teenager shot by a white cop. You know, that description in and of itself actually colors the way in which we look at this story. We're talking about an 18-year-old man who is six foot four and weighs almost three hundred pounds, who is videotaped just moments before the confrontation with a police officer strong arming an employee and robbing a convenience store.