Fox & Friends Investigates Portland's Homelessness Crisis

The team of muckrakers. FOX News

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Great news, everyone! The intrepid journalists at Fox and Friends—the White House's only news source—decided to take a deep-dive into Portland's homelessness crisis last week.

On October 25, Fox and Friends' glossy hosts breezed past any context or reporting to dub Portland's new mobile hygiene stations—which bring portable toilets, hand-washing stations, and garbage bins to homeless camps—a "band-aid solution" to the city's problems with homelessness.

"By putting these hygiene stations out there, the city is triaging a symptom, not the underlying problem," said host Emily Compagno, as the camera pans over the new stations. "Without effective enforcement of the law there, nothing is getting done."

Compagno and her co-host Brian Kilmeade offer zero facts to back this up. But! To make up for this dearth of information, they turn to one of Portland's top homelessness experts: An employee at a men's boutique in downtown Portland.

"I've had constant people running in out of the street saying they don't feel safe [from homeless people]," said Michael Kirby, a manager at Boys Fort, who spoke to the pair from a Portland studio. "People are just like, 'Oh my gosh, what is going on?'"

Kirby points out the homeless population's problem with untreated mental illness and drug use, a point the hosts' underscore throughout the segment.

"It's not like you don't have housing," said Kilmeade, apparently unaware of the city's affordable housing deficit. "It's mental illness and it's drug abuse."

Kirby didn't have anything negative to say about the hygiene stations, though, and even suggested that Portland's response to homelessness is working. Asked why Oregon has it "as bad as California" when it comes to homelessness, Kirby said: "The reason why we have it so bad is that we have such great programs to assist in living situations and food and shelter."

He was quickly interrupted by the hosts, who steered the conversation back to blaming politicians for not cracking down on homeless camps. "It's not political," says Kilmeade, "but we need politicians to act."

Boys Fort co-owner Jake France said Kirby didn't know he was going to be speaking with Fox and Friends until the last minute. Kirby has previously talked with local Fox affiliate KPTV for a more detailed, balanced news piece on homelessness—and both France and Kirby believed he was just returning to the studio for a follow-up with local reporters.

France told the Mercury that if he had known Kirby was going to be on Fox and Friends, he wouldn't have let him go through with it. France said the interview was wholly "bizarre," and didn't give a fair representation of the city's nuanced homelessness crisis.

"They were just yelling talking points at him," he said. "And why him? Why aren't they asking a city official these questions? Boys Fort is in no way an expert in this topic or the overall City of Portland. But, that's what you get with Fox and Friends."

This clip, surely viewed by our so-called president, is only another juicy piece of sensational garbage Donald Trump can use to justify his campaign against homeless Americans.

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