At least a few supposedly tolerant liberals don’t have much tolerance for the Fox News Channel.
Ypsilanti Township, Michigan residents Dave and Sue Weber were upset during a tour of Meri Lou Murray Recreation Center in Ann Arbor when they discovered Fox News on “four of the 12 television screens in the cardio area during election season,” Mlive.com reports.
“It felt to me like the Republican Party had an official of our public recreation facility working for them,” Dave Weber says.
The paper writes the couple believes a “county-run facility is no place to be showing what they consider offensive, right-wing political propaganda.”
The couple says facility manager Jon Keith gave them “a lecture on how the liberals at CNN are trying to take away his gun rights.” They claim he also denied their request to turn on MSNBC, though they weren’t working out and weren’t going to watch it.
The Webers are accusing the county of “viewpoint discrimination” and are threatening to get the ACLU involved, according to Bob Tetens, Washtenaw County’s parks and recreation director.
He adds he finds it hard to believe Keith reacted the way the Webers say he did.
“On a recent morning, MSNBC wasn’t on any of the TV screens inside the center, while one of the screens was showing Fox News. Other televisions were tuned to channels such as CNN, HGTV, ESPN and the Weather Channel,” the news site reports.
Traditionally, the channels have been chosen by patrons of the facility.
The kerfuffle has caused the county to revisit its gym TV policy.
Because of the Webers’ complaint, the facility is moving to a “five-channel system:” one for county announcements, one for the Weather Channel and one for ESPN. HGTV, CNN and Fox News will vie for the final two channel options.
“We’ve tried to be as responsive as we can to their concerns without letting them dictate what we do,” Tetens says.
“Some people apparently, because they have requested it, want to listen to Fox or watch Fox. Probably more people in this town don’t, so we decided to put it at the end, keep it out of the middle of the room.”
Fox & Friends took up the controversy in a Friday segment.
Co-host Steve Doocy accused the Wevers of “hissy fit” and a “tantrum,” according to Mlive.
“What they’re trying to do, if you think about it … is really they want it off of all the televisions,” he said during the segment.
“They’re trying to censor Fox News. They don’t want us there.”
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