Farm workers will assemble at 5 p.m. today (Thursday, April 13) in Fresno outside KMPH-TV Fox Channel 26’s “town hall meeting about agriculture and labor” to ask why the station selected a panel with four people representing farmers but not a single representative of farm workers. The workers will stand outside Tornino’s Banquet Hall on North Blackstone Ave. displaying signs that concede the panel strongly reflects the views of farmers, but asking the station how it can argue it is balanced.
See below the UFW message sent this morning to KMPH-TV News Director Jim Turpin.
Who: Fresno-area farm workers.
What: Assembling outside Fox26’s town hall on “agriculture and labor” asking why they were not invited on the panel.
When: 5 p.m., Thursday, April 13; panel begins at 5:30 p.m.
Where: Tornino’s Banquet Hall, 5080 No. Blackstone Ave. (just north of Shaw Ave.), Fresno 93710
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UFW message sent this morning to KMPH-TV News Director Jim Turpin:
United Farm Workers National Vice President Armando Elenes sent the following email to KMPH-TV Fox Channel 26 News Director Jim Turpin in advance of the “town hall meeting about agriculture and labor” in Fresno to be broadcast live today, Thursday, April 13, at 5:30 p.m. (it is being live-streamed on KBAK-TV Fox Channel 58 in Bakersfield):
KMPH Fox 26 is hosting a town hall-style “meeting about agriculture and labor” that will be broadcast live from Fresno at 5:30 p.m. today, Thursday, April 13, and live-streamed on KBAK-TV Fox Channel 58 in Bakersfield. The featured panelists are U.S. Reps. David Valadao and Jim Costa, who are both farmers; the longtime leader of a Central Valley grower organization, Manuel Cunha; and Mario Rodriguez, who the station identifies as an advisor on agriculture to President Trump. See: http://kmph-kfre.com/news/local/live-ag-town-hall-in-fresno-thursday-april-13
Who among the panelists is representing labor on the agriculture and labor town hall? Why weren’t farm worker representatives invited? On Sunday, April 2, the UFW organized thousands of farm workers who took to the streets in 11 mostly rural communities in four states—including Madera, Delano and Livingston in the Central Valley—to protest the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies. See: http://ufw.org/farm-workers-supporters-six-states-take-trump-resistance-trump-country-mass-marches-rural-towns/
Fox News prides itself on its slogan “fair and balanced.” Is KMPH Fox 26 being fair and the balanced in hosting a panel on agriculture and labor without anyone on the panel representing labor?
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Fox 26 News promotion of today’s agriculture and labor town hall panel: http://kmph-kfre.com/news/local/live-ag-town-hall-in-fresno-thursday-april-13