As various news outlets and bloggers have already pointed out, last night Fox News accidentally labeled disgraced erstwhile GOP Congressman Mark Foley as a Democrat. Sure enough, on three occasions, shots of Foley were accompanied on Fox by a tag at the bottom of the screen mistakenly identifying him as “Former Congressman Mark Foley (D-FL).”
But before salivating bloggers on the left go completely bonkers spinning Fox’s mistake into some sort of grand conspiracy, they might want to go back and look at the actual record.
Oops, too late.
“Yes, that’s right, ladies and gentlemen,” writes Jaded Times. “Upon discovery of his pedophilic leanings, Fox has taken it upon themselves to drop him from the Republican Party. Apparently this wasn’t an isolated screen shot, as we’ve heard from several sources that Fox has been reporting the Republican representative as a Democrat for a few days now.”
Better double-check those sources. As it turns out, over the past several days, commentators and correspondents for Fox have time and again correctly pointed out Foley’s GOP affiliation. Herein a brief sampling.
Fox’s Bill O’Reilly (on Friday): “Republican Congressman Mark Foley of Florida has resigned for sending a series of e-mails to a 16-year-old former congressional page.”
Fox’s Bill O’Reilly (on Monday): “Hard times for the Republican Party … A one-two punch of Bob Woodward’s book and Congressman Mark Foley’s salacious e-mails to a 16-year-old boy has the GOP reeling just two months before the midterm elections.”
Fox’s Brit Hume: “Next on Special Report, House Speaker Hastert denounces the disgraced ex-GOP Congressman Mark Foley.”
Bill Kristol on Fox’s the Big Story with John Gibson: “Foley is a repulsive creep, but let’s not tar the whole Republican Party because one Republican congressman behaved badly.”
Fox’s Major Garrett on Special Report with Brit Hume: “First, who is Mark Foley? 54 years old. Six-term representative from the 16th District of Florida. He’s a member of House Republican leadership.”
Finally, anyone still clinging to a Fox conspiracy might want to go back and watch the section of the O’Reilly Factor in which the mislabeling occurred.
“In the ‘Personal Story’ segment tonight, the conservative Washington Times today called for the resignation of House Speaker Dennis Hastert over the Foley scandal,” reported O’Reilly. “The issue, it seems, is dividing conservatives.”
That’s right, he said “conservatives.”
Fox has another accident.
It is strange that another fox program made a similar error.
FOX NEWS ALERT
REID: DID DEMS IGNORE EMAIL TO PRESERVE SEAT?
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/gay/it-just-might-work-205295.php
Certainly accident is the most plausible explanation, but how often do you think the mistakes go the other way let alone tiwce on different programs?
Posted by Catch22 on Wed 4 Oct 2006 at 08:24 PM
You have no more than their word to go on that it was an accident, Mr. Gillette. Did you ask them under what circumstances they'd had similar accidents?
It's odd that another such accident seems to have taken place at AP in regard to the same scandal. They labeled both Foley and Dennis Hastert as Democrats just yesterday:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/04/google-news-ap-dennis-hastert-is-a-democrat/
Posted by darrelplant on Thu 5 Oct 2006 at 03:08 PM
This was a prerecorded show and they ran the messages three times.
They never corrected the messages labeling Foley a Democrat but on later rebroadcasts with lower viewership covered them up.
You took the word of their PR flack?
Posted by Easter Lemming on Thu 5 Oct 2006 at 05:58 PM
I hear that something like two-thirds of the arithmetic errors on tax forms favor the taxpayer...
Posted by Randomfactor on Fri 6 Oct 2006 at 02:33 PM
Here's the thing, If you believe there is a bias, it certainly is a little easier to spot, but even if you don't there are still some problems.
First, if you believe that images are more important than words (who in television doesn't?) then the words don't really balance with an image do they?
Second, a mistake requires a correction right? where was the correction? Not only was it not corrected, but instead of a correction the error was simply removed. Is that how CJR handles errors? My subscription has lapsed, but that's not how I remember it.
Finally, in two of your examples (Major Garret and Personal Story) the word Republican appears once, but not necessarily attached to Foley.
Garret at least puts Foley in the GOP, albeit down the line rather than as might typically be done on first reference as "Republican Congressman Mark Foley)."
How exactly does mentioning that "conservatives are divided" equate to "Foley is a Republican." There are certainly Democrats who consider themselves conservative. Also, conservatives could easily be divided regardless of Foley's party affiliation.
I realize people may be well aware that Hastert is a Republican, but he's identified in the media as a Republican 100 times a day, why not here?
Posted by Lindsey on Fri 6 Oct 2006 at 10:45 PM
Whatever! So Fox can boast of correctly implying Foley's party a few times since the scandal broke. Jannet Jackson only had her covered nipples shown once and the FCC had several heads roll. I think the official network of the Bush administration, Fox can be required to pay fines for this blatent exercise of propaganda lying. I guess they needed Foley depicted as a Democrat to keep the whole thing "fair and balanced".
Posted by Davol on Mon 9 Oct 2006 at 04:27 PM
Boy do you look like an idiot on this one! now that they have done the exact same thing once again, what is your excuse this time? Third times a charm!
Posted by JOhn C on Wed 24 Jun 2009 at 05:40 PM
Wow, you must feel like a dumbass with this at the top of Google ranking now that THEY'VE DONE IT AGAIN. hahahaha.
Posted by Jon on Thu 25 Jun 2009 at 01:54 AM
Really? Are all of these just coincidences?
http://intershame.com/on/Fox_News/
Posted by snrub on Tue 30 Jun 2009 at 01:23 AM