Fox Business Network’s Charles Payne told viewers of his "Making Money" program Monday that he mistakenly tweeted a doctored photo to accompany his critical message of #blackbrunch protesters over the weekend, but that he stands by everything he said.
"The picture was a mistake on my part … but everything I said was right," Payne said.
Story continues below video.
Payne’s Twitter account blew up following a post he sent out showing a throng of people rushing through a door — except that the photo had been reworked to superimpose a KFC logo on the glass doors, and widely posted in its new form, accompanied by the caption, "Photograph from the opening of a new KFC in Detroit, 2009."
The original photo (sans the photoshopped KFC logo) was of people rushing through a door to pick up federal housing assistance forms and had run in the Detroit News, according to
Talking Points Memo.
"Goodness this isn't what Montgomery Bus Boycott or Woolworth sit-ins were about -this is ignorance," Payne tweeted with the photo Sunday.
He said Monday that the #blacklivesmatter hashtag, which has inspired thousands across the country to demonstrate and protest alleged police violence against young black men, is disingenuous.
"This whole hashtag protest has a single goal from the beginning," he said. "There's a rich person pulling the strings. It's anarchy, not about black lives."
The notion that the protests are somehow equivalent to what Rosa Parks and other famous civil rights protesters went through is "preposterous," Payne said.
"Those were fights that underscored basic human dignity," said Payne, who is black. "I mean, we're talking about where a person could sit on a bus or being illegal to eat in a certain area or certain public restaurants."
Many of the #blacklivesmatter protesters have "done anything but shown the dignity of Rosa Parks," he said.
The movement is not about "real justice or real racism," he said. "People are making a huge mistake on this one."
The #blackbrunch protests began in Oakland, California, following the killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, according to
Yahoo News.
Some three-dozen protesters disrupted diners at popular New York City restaurants Sunday, where they read the names of black people killed by police and asked patrons to "stand for black life," according to Yahoo.
"Every 28 hours, a black person in America is killed by the police," the protesters said. "These are our brothers and sisters. Today and every day, we honor their lives."
Since the first protest in Oakland on Dec. 6, the movement has spread to other major cities. Its goal, according to Yahoo, is "to target traditionally 'white spaces' such as upscale restaurants, to stage demonstrations."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.