Fox Mocks US Olympic Team For Sporting “French” Headgear

Written by Melody Johnson

Published

Fox & Friends contributed several minutes of their Wednesday program to mocking the United States Olympic team uniform which includes a “French beret.” While suggesting that the wearing of berets is unpatriotic, the co-hosts seemed to forget that most of the United States military wear berets until receiving emails from their viewers pointing out this fact.

On NBC's Today, American company Ralph Lauren unveiled the design for the United States Olympic team opening ceremony uniforms, which are topped off with a navy blue beret with red and white stripes. Fox mocked the decision to top the uniform off with a “French” hat.

Not only did they fail to mention that the United States military wear berets as part of their uniforms, but that the 2002 Olympic uniforms for the Salt Lake City Olympics also featured powder blue berets.

DOOCY: Should the American team be wearing a beret? Why not a baseball cap? Why not a cowboy hat like when we went to Calgary?

A basic Google search reveals that berets have been in use by the United States military “unofficially as early as 1954,” and as part of the official uniform as early as 1961.

Fox's mockery of the “French” headgear continued until they received “a lot of email” from viewers pointing out the military connection to the Olympic team's headgear, forcing co-host Steve Doocy to make a disclaimer: “There is a team that's already wearing a Beret for America, and that's the special forces guys, and they look great.”

UPDATE: During today's edition of Fox News Radio's Kilmeade & Friends, guest host Peter Johnson Jr. and Fox News anchors Martha MacCallum and Bill Hemmer also mocked the U.S. Olympic team for having a “French” uniform.

Johnson Jr. wondered: “Is this the American team or the French fashion team?” 

Hemmer asked: “How about a baseball hat? How about a cowboy hat? How about no hat?”

MacCallum replied to Hemmer: “I had the same reaction. I was flipping through the paper this morning and I was like, 'What the heck is this? It looks like a French flight attendant.' Nobody looks good in a beret, OK? Show me people who look good in berets. You know, it's very rare. I think no hat would look better.”