The items of protest included the network describing Obama's wife Michelle as his "baby mama," an anchor calling the fist bump between the two as "terrorist fist jab," and a show host questioning Michelle's patriotism and calling for "lynching party" to deal with it.

The protesters said they had a petition signed by some 600,000 people against the "biased coverage by the channel which promotes views of right wing conservatives".

"Fairly racist" read a banner on which words "fair and balanced" were crossed out, while another read "Fox News: your source for Racist Smears."

The protest was spearheaded by activist online groups MoveOn.org and ColorOfCchange.org and joined by rapper Nas who said that Fox news "poisons the country with racist propaganda and tries to call it news."