On Monday, daily morning news show Fox & Friends heavily criticized Ohio State students for creating a flowchart depicting whether a Halloween costume could be considered racist.
Except there was an issue: Fox & Friends linked 1870 Magazine with Ohio State, saying in a video description that it was a magazine affiliated with the university and its administration, according to Chris Davey, an Ohio State spokesman.
Fox & Friends hosts falsely claimed the satirical flowchart published in 1870 magazine was published by a university-affiliated publication. Courtesy of Graphic Designs by Phoebe Davis.
However, this is not the case. 1870 Magazine is run by local media publisher, 614 Media Group. Davey said it is not affiliated with the university and 1870 Magazine’s Twitter account also indicated this.
“Administrators have convinced students that it’s not about who’s right, who’s factual, it’s about who can say they’re the most offended, who can claim offense to the most things, and that moves them up this hierarchy on college campuses,” Cabot Phillips, media director of Campus Reform, said on-air during Fox & Friends.
In response to Phillips’s statement, Davey said that “anyone who knows anything about Ohio State knows that statement is nonsense.”
According to Davey, the original report by Fox News Insider stated the flowchart was issued by Ohio State. That report has since been corrected.
The flowchart was initially published as a satirical piece, said Mitch Hooper, associate editor of 1870 Magazine and Ohio State alumnus. While he was a student, Hooper worked at The Lantern.
“We wanted to talk about ways not to do Halloween costumes this year, but kind of do it in a funny way,” Hooper said. “We thought a flowchart would be the funniest way because you can throw some shots here and there but also hit on a few points that need to be said, just to remind people of some things.”
Nicholas Bellopatrick, a third-year in political science at Ohio State, had first published an article about the flowchart on the website Campus Reform, which describes itself as a “watchdog” for higher education that seeks to expose “bias and abuse” on campuses.
As for Hooper’s reaction to the situation,”I laughed, that’s typical Fox News misinterpreting things,” he said. “[Fox News is] essentially creating the narrative that the whole student body signed up for this flowchart, that The Ohio State University created this flowchart, which cannot be more further from the truth.”
