Seattle's Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone — otherwise known as CHAZ, the city's ground zero for demonstrations against police brutality — has been getting plenty of coverage since it was established early last week. Now that Fox News has caught on, reports have predictably got a little out of hand, as the network has found it difficult to factually trace the movement.
Recently, Martha MacCallum, host of the network's The Story, unknowingly got caught up in a long-standing Monty Python joke while reporting on the Zone's supposed lack of defined leadership. During a broadcast, MacCallum pointed out a Reddit post that indicated possible dissent among CHAZ inhabitants, with one user seemingly complaining about the Zone's alleged leader, rapper Raz Simone.
"I didn't vote for Raz," the Reddit user wrote. "I thought we had an autonomous collective. An anarcho-syndicalist commune at the least. We should take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week."
McCallum's reporting failed to make a connection between the Reddit post and its source material, a scene from Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones' 1975 film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
In the film, King Arthur approaches two mud farming peasants, who recite the "anarcho-syndicalist" line above while defying their new ruler.
The full Reddit post, which McCallum failed to read on air, continues to recite the scene in Holy Grail verbatim:
We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week, but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two-thirds majority in the case of purely external affairs.
Compare McCallum's report with the Holy Grail scene below.
Recently, Martha MacCallum, host of the network's The Story, unknowingly got caught up in a long-standing Monty Python joke while reporting on the Zone's supposed lack of defined leadership. During a broadcast, MacCallum pointed out a Reddit post that indicated possible dissent among CHAZ inhabitants, with one user seemingly complaining about the Zone's alleged leader, rapper Raz Simone.
"I didn't vote for Raz," the Reddit user wrote. "I thought we had an autonomous collective. An anarcho-syndicalist commune at the least. We should take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week."
McCallum's reporting failed to make a connection between the Reddit post and its source material, a scene from Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones' 1975 film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
In the film, King Arthur approaches two mud farming peasants, who recite the "anarcho-syndicalist" line above while defying their new ruler.
The full Reddit post, which McCallum failed to read on air, continues to recite the scene in Holy Grail verbatim:
We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week, but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two-thirds majority in the case of purely external affairs.
Compare McCallum's report with the Holy Grail scene below.
