Caught red-handed using GOP talking points, Fox caves with apology ... for typo
February 11, 2009 2:24 pm ET by Karl Frisch
Yesterday, Media Matters noted:
In purporting to "take a look back" at how the economic recovery plan "grew, and grew, and grew," Fox News' Jon Scott referenced seven dates, as on-screen graphics cited various news sources from those time periods -- all of which came directly from a Senate Republican Communications Center press release. A Fox News on-screen graphic even reproduced a typo contained in the Republican press release.
My, how a day of criticism from media critics and progressive bloggers changes things – even at Fox News. Today, Scott offered... an apology of sorts (emphasis added):
Yesterday on Happening Now we showed you how the stimulus bill has grown over time. Our story prompted by a news release from the Senate Republican Communication Center. There point that a $56 billion proposal in September has grown to $838 billion in five months. In compiling the story, our producers and researchers did what we always do -- we verified the accuracy of the material. But in double checking the newspaper quotes referenced in that news release we made the same mistake they did. We labeled a Wall Street Journal article as having run in 2009 when in fact it was 2008. That was our error, and we apologize.
Of course, I’m kidding.
See what Scott does there? He apologizes, not for passing along a one-sided argument made in a Senate Republican Communications Center’s press release as Fox News’ original reporting, but for reporting the typo.
In his initial report, Scott didn’t tell his audience that the citations in his report were based entirely on a press release from the Senate Republicans – a fact he glosses over in his half-hearted apology for the typo.
I’d question Fox News’ journalistic integrity; that is of course if they had any to question in the first place.
INITIAL VIDEO
FOLLOW-UP VIDEO
"There point..."
C'mon guys!! Please tell me that's another FOCKS error.
Tearing down Fox News is not going to do you any good. That is how liberal media types work, tear down the REAL news source in order to force people to listen to the liberal bias main media. Nothing different then your run of the mill dictatorship.
That post doesn't really merit a thoughtful response. The idea that FOX is "the real news source" is borderline psychotic, even beside the bizarre reference to dictatorships.
So does that post make a broad statement about your political philosophy? We have quite a few right-wing nuts here, they don't define the Republican party any more than any individual liberal defines the Democratic party.
Real news source?????????
AHHAAAAAAAAHHAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Oh, that's so funny, it's sad.
The difference is they didn't present it as a press release, but passed it off as their own work. That is not only fundamentally dishonest, it's not even ethical journalism.
Then, instead of admitting that they broadcast the contents of the press release word for word onscreen, they scurried around it by saying their report was "prompted" by the press release, and they only made the identical typo in "double checking" the press release. Hello, they broadcast it word for word, including the typo.
We labeled a Wall Street Journal article as having run in 2009 when in fact it was 2008. That was our error, and we apologize.
But they didn't label the WSJ article as having run in 2009. The Republican press release mislabeled it. They're apologizing as though it were their own error. It wasn't. They did broadcast that flawed slide, but the much bigger error was to fail to label their report as propoganda from a Republican press release is a much greater sin, and they didn't acknowledge that.
Something's rotten in Denmark when you apologize for someone else's mistake and ignore your own much larger failings.
And here's what they said when they ran with this story, trying to pretend that they were doing the research for their viewers. (Emphasis added)
During the February 10 edition of Fox News' Happening Now, co-host Jon Scott claimed that "the Senate is expected to pass the $838 billion stimulus plan -- its version of it, anyway. We thought we'd take a look back at the bill, how it was born, and how it grew, and grew, and grew."
They (Fox) didn't take a look back at the bill. The Republican press release took a look back at the bill.
I just went to the Huffington Post for the first time in my life, and I don't see any story by that man.
It was my own idea. It was an easy conclusion to make. I don't understand what your point is, unless you just like picking on people for no good reason.
They are the press, and they were reading a PRESS release.
No, what they did is they used this source as if it were their own. Then, they later lie about the reason for the typo, by making it seem as if they made the same mistake as the source, when in fact, they copied it verbatim.
Even worse, the source is the kind of biased organization that FOX claims they are not reliant upon.
The "Big Deal" here is that Fox "News" got caught being informational conveyer belts for the Republican party.
It was so blatant that the didn't even bother to proofread the text on the charts they were, evidently, given to broadcast.
There's nothing illegal about Fox being a PR tool of Republicans; it's when they deny that that they look stupid, at best.
Lrt's face it, Fox is the media arm of the Republican party.......they might as well change their broadcast call letters to "WGOP TV".
There's nothing illegal about Fox being a PR tool of Republicans; it's when they deny that that they look stupid, at best.
It's worse than that. They're denying they copied the source.
The citation was not at the bottom of each screen shot. The citation that was missing was one that would have said that the data being presented was entirely from the "Senate Republican Communications Center's press release".
Lacking that citation, they are deceiving their viewers. On purpose.
In addition, FoxNews claimed that the wrong date was their error. It wasn't their error. Their error was in not saying who the slideshow came from. The date error was the Senate Republican Communications Center's press release's error!!!!
Their story wasn't "prompted" by the Republican press release... it WAS the Republican press release with date typo included.
Their story wasn't "prompted" by the Republican press release... it WAS the Republican press release with date typo included.
GOPDude,
They are presenting a GOP Press Release as a news story. That is wrong. If they would have said, "According to a GOP press release..." it would have been fine.
Would you appreciate it if one of the news stations presented, verbatim, a Democratic Press Release as "news?"
I've been thinking this through and I've come to realize that Fox's "apology" is nothing but a very large FU to anyone that is not a Fox News viewer.
I'll bet Rupert handled this one personally.
Their core audience could really care less if Fox News uses GOP Press Releases as their own data, really not one little bit.
And this story will certainly not be covered in any right-wing echo chamber.
Remember, their core audience thinks President Bush did a great job and that Sarah Palin would make a great President.
Crazy, like a Fox.
They (at Fox Republican News) so egotistically believe that all of their viewers are stupid and vapid, not to mention intellectually lazy, that anything they do will be swallowed like tonic.
And are they wrong about that? I wonder if Mencken's famous old quote abour no one ever going broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people is hung on Rupert's office wall...
I mean just read the Fox Repulican News supporters posts here. They just don't get it; they don't see what the point is. "So what" says one, then they go on to repeat everything they have swallowed by listening to Fox. They have no clue that the issue is about the GOP feeding the Fox dogs their 'news reporting'.