I hesitated writing this because I was afraid that it might encourage Glenn Beck to come cry on my doorstep. (Flash back 40 years and tell me that nub wasn't getting creamed for his milk money on a daily basis.)

The same network that promoted the heck out of those tea parties to protest - something - with members of the God-n-Guns Squad apparently dressed for a Colonial-themed Mardi Gras or a reprise of Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus" music video, is taking on Rochester, New York.

Bill Hemmer, co-host of FOX News' America's Newsroom (see, only FOX is allowed to use "America's" before "Newsroom." The rest of us are reporting for Al-Jazeera, don't ya know.), says that we shouldn't spend stimulus money to extend ARTWalk. Hemmer clearly has a low opinion of the art in Rochester's popular urban art trail and, something else.

"This, by the way, is a city that will have to cut police jobs. And for the last two decades, it was one of the murder capitals in all of New York state," Hemmer said on his show, according to the progressive research organization Media Matters. "And now they're going to have to lay off police officers because they're giving money to the art walk."

Media Matters says that Hemmer took these below-the-Beltway talking points directly from Republican Whip Eric Cantor's website.

FIRST: Are we laying off police officers? City Council member Elaine Spaull says no. The D&C reported last month that the city would use federal grants to prevent layoffs. The same story did say that overtime reductions would probably result in more police retirements.

SECOND: ARTWalk, no matter your opinion of the quality of the art, has inarguably transformed the area around Anderson Alley, University Avenue, and North Goodman Street. ARTWalk put a brand on that area - gave it its own unique identity - and made it a much more desirable location. It also established a connection between the MAG and the Eastman House, and the confluence of developments has doubled - tripled, in some cases - home values in the area.

THIRD: Thanks, Hemmer, for bringing to the national stage the delusion that the city is unsafe. Would we put our murder rate on a postcard? Probably not. (But we're an alternative newspaper, so anything's possible.) But if Hemmer had done any actual reporting he would've seen that Rochester is the 11th worst city in the nation for child poverty. Infant-mortality rates in some areas rival those in third-world countries. Of course I expect FOX - the media organ of the GOP - to say "cops, cops, cops." That's the Republican line. The fact is, we do not solve the crime problem without addressing concentrated poverty. But you can't do that without money and workable programs and that's socialism, right?

And that's it. Now I'll wait for Laura Ingraham to call and say that because I'm a size 14, my opinion doesn't matter.

Update: A city spokesman said that nobody from FOX called the city for information before the Hemmer segment aired. He called the segment a "cheap shot" and a poor example of reporting. ArtWalk, he said, has increased property values, leveraged private investment, and crime is down in the area. Only $600,000 is for art, the spokesman said, and the rest is for infrastructure improvements, including sidewalks and lighting. 

The spokesman also said he has no idea how FOX or Hemmer could tie ARTWalk funding to police jobs when the budget has yet to be released.