In the crudest crypto-censorship since dictators made newsprint unavailable, the Biden administration tried to shut down Fox News's coverage of the border crisis by cutting off its drone access for camera shots, depriving the network of the ability to broadcast the actual news in pictures as it was happening on the ground.  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has never been misused in this way, claimed its two-week shutoff was all about public safety.  Thomas Lifson wrote about the sorry spectacle here.

Here's the real reason: Fox News's original reporting, done by Bill Melugin (a must-follow on Twitter), documented a historic crisis building at the border as tens of thousands of migrants swarmed into the U.S. near Del Rio, Texas.  The photos were shocking and embarrassing to the Biden administration.  The Bidenites wanted those pictures shut down.  Coverage like Fox's was clearly making an impact on public opinion and had the potential to force the Bidenites to take action to halt the unprecedented invasion or else face voter consequences.

It was crude, disgusting, and unprecedented, a true example of a state attack on the freedom of the press and, right there in the same family of repressions, a dictator like Hugo Chávez would do. 

While it was disheartening to many, the silver lining is that Fox didn't stand for it.  Fox got someone else to get his cameras up there, effectively nullifying Biden's de facto censorship with the drone.

Wasting no time, Fox's Melugin got in touch with local law enforcement, made arrangements for a helicopter ride-along, and got the filming of the historic building border crisis done that way — no drones to howl about.

BREAKING: Just wrapped up a helicopter ride with Texas DPS at the international bridge in Del Rio, TX. What we saw was absolutely stunning. There are at least 10,000 migrants under the bridge who crossed illegally, and a constant stream of hundreds more crossing over. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/IADqBzb3qn

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 17, 2021

BREAKING: Just wrapped up a helicopter ride with Texas DPS at the international bridge in Del Rio, TX. What we saw was absolutely stunning. There are at least 10,000 migrants under the bridge who crossed illegally, and a constant stream of hundreds more crossing over. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/IADqBzb3qn

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 17, 2021

In so doing, Fox thwarted them. With this quick-footed shift in tactics, the Bidenites retreated on their two-week drone ban, likely recognizing that they had lost their war on news photos and couldn't shut down coverage with that sleazy dictator tactic.  Fox got its drones back and, basically, cut Biden's narrative-masters off at the knees. The news was restored. The pictures got out. The public now can make an informed judgment about what is going on.

That's grit.  That's winning.  That's journalism as it ought to be known. And Fox deserves all the kudos out there for outwitting a band of thuggy de facto censors who thought they could shut off news photos from the public, no matter what was going on.

Fox was practicing what's called "reporting," and it's a refreshing spectacle.

They ought to get an award for this because this is scrappy, top-caliber work.  A fitting award would be the Pulitzer's gold medal for service in the public interest because acts like Fox's undercut would-be government censors and make the entire press corps freer.  This is what real journalism looks like.  Let's hope we see more of it from other agencies.  The age of the press sycophant is over.  

Image: Twitter screen shot.

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