It turns out that Fox News anchor Julie Banderas relied on fake news about a truck driver’s strike when she helped validate Donald Trump’s smear of Puerto Ricans last weekend. She was debunked by none other than Fox’s own Shepard Smith
You may recall that Banderas hosted a debate about Trump’s attacks on Puerto Ricans and the mayor of San Juan last weekend. When her conservative guest was less than a staunch defender of Trump’s remarks, the supposedly objective Banderas jumped in to validate them, herself, to the liberal guest:
BANDERAS: How do you truly believe the mayor of San Juan is handling this when she’s on television, cable, network broadcast news every single day? Here’s video of last night’s press conference. And look behind her. What do you see? …You see aid and food. Why isn’t it being delivered? That’s another question. Because the truckers, the Puerto Rican employees are on strike. They don’t want to move those food and supplies. Or they are unable or they are refusing. Some are expecting $50 an hour to do so.
Now, when the president accuses Puerto Ricans of not necessarily trying to help themselves,… what are the optics behind that press conference with all that aid behind the mayor of San Juan?
At the time, I questioned Banderas' allegation because I could find no proof that Puerto Ricans were on strike, only that the truck drivers were unable to work because of damaged infrastructure, lack of fuel, lack of communications and the need to look after their own families.
Yesterday, Media Matters caught Smith specifically debunking a trucker’s strike as “fake news” (my emphases added):
SMITH: The biggest problem on the island is distribution of supplies, we’re told. Getting needed goods to people outside San Juan has been extremely challenging. According to our reporters on the ground, many of those who would move the supplies have lost their homes and vehicles in the storm. Some of the truckers can't be reached because there's no communication working in so many areas still. Reports that a union truckers’ strike added to the problems are not true. They are, in fact, fake news, spread largely, it appears, by a website called Conservative Treehouse and then over Twitter and Facebook. Again, there is no trucker's strike. That's fake news. The truckers in Puerto Rico are victims too.
Will Banderas apologize for promoting fake news (again)?
Watch Smith debunk the reports of a strike below, from the October 4, 2017 Shepard Smith Reporting, via Media Matters.
Here is a man who is there, from there, who knows what he is talking about – ’not with FOX.
“Speaking today exclusively and live from Puerto Rico, is Puerto Rican born and raised, Colonel Michael A. Valle (”Torch”), Commander, 101st Air and Space Operations Group, and Director of the Joint Air Component Coordination Element, 1st Air Force, responsible for Hurricane Maria relief efforts in the U.S. commonwealth with a population of more than 3 million.
““The aid is getting to Puerto Rico. The problem is distribution. The federal government has sent us a lot of help; moving those supplies, in particular, fuel, is the issue right now,” says Col. Valle. Until power can be restored, generators are critical for hospitals and shelter facilities and more. But, and it’s a big but, they can’t get the fuel to run the generators.
“They have the generators, water, food, medicine, and fuel on the ground, yet the supplies are not moving across the island as quickly as they’re needed.
“It’s a lack of drivers for the transport trucks, the 18 wheelers. Supplies we have. Trucks we have. There are ships full of supplies, backed up in the ports, waiting to have a vehicle to unload into. However, only 20% of the truck drivers show up to work. These are private citizens in Puerto Rico, paid by companies that are contracted by the government,” says Col. Valle."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-military-on-puerto-rico-the-problem-is-distribution_us_59ce5906e4b0f3c468060dee