Fox News Throws Some Greece on Moscow Riots Non-Fire Russian riot police arrested hundreds in Moscow on Tuesday to crack down on protesters alleging Vladimir Putin’s ruling party committed voter fraud. It was the first true sign by the Russian citizenry of standing up to Putin’s authoritarian rule over the last decade. Some media outlets even called the protests the first signs of a pro-democracy “Russian Spring.” Opposition supporters shouted “Shame on you fascists!” and “Russia without Putin” in a tense stand-off with helmeted riot police in green camouflage and interior ministry troops, the Borneo Post reports. A Moscow police spokesman said 250 people had been detained and taken to various police stations, while others pegged the number of detained closer to 300. It was as newsworthy as any story in this crazy news year. But, it wasn’t sexy or riot-y enough for producers at Fox News. The “news” outlet figured it would be a better story if its coverage were spiced up with footage of riot police and streets on fire from protests in Athens, Greece. Because that’s how Fox rolls. Animal New York’s Marina Galperina spotted some suspicious looking palm trees during the Fox News report and quickly put two and two together. Fox News pulled its report, but thanks to Yahoo it lives on in infamy. Fairly sad that Fox News had to go and make these protests something they weren’t. Galperina notes: This election sucked. Protests continue. Lots of the actual fighting is being done by creepy pro-Kremlin young’un Nashi Party, who even had a drum line in their opposition to opposition protests. Also, the authorities have shot themselves in the foot by demonstratively arresting major/celebrity opposition leader Alexey Navalny, proving his coined phrase that Medvedev’s United Russia is a “party of crooks and thieves.” Also, the other night “soccer hooligan” thugs suddenly put themselves in charge of enforcing crowd “order” (which is always a bad sign) and bullied journalists. Also, Voina’s Leonid Nikolayev was arrested and then excitingly escaped from custody. But yeah, no palm trees. The Atlantic Wire has even put together a photo comparison showing just how badly Fox News lied in its coverage.The biggest discrepancy would be the riot police involved. The first picture below is the Greek riot police featured in the Fox News story, and the one below that is the actual Russian riot police involved with stamping out the Moscow protests. Either Fox News was just lazy and didn’t care, or they maliciously meant to mislead and thought nobody would notice. Either one is not good for a news organization.