Fox News Apologizes for Inappropriate Comments about Obama – Again

By Ben Haber

June 13th, 2008

By Ben

Last month I wrote how Fox News correspondent Liz Trotta joked about a possible assassination of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Well, Fox News apparently hasn’t learned from their mistakes.

Media Matters reported that Fox News’ America’s Pulse, host E.D. Hill apologized for her June 6 comments about a ‘fist bump’ between Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, when she took a hint from Michelle Malkin’s criticism of Dunkin’ Donuts, and called the act a terrorist move. “A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently,” Hill said during the broadcast.

Now, The New York Times reports that for the third time in less then three weeks, Fox News is apologizing for more inappropriate comments and/or judgment towards or about Obama:

The network has released a statement saying it should not have referred to Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle, as “Obama’s Baby Mama,’’ as it did on Wednesday in an on-screen headline commonly called a “chyron.”

“A producer on the program exercised poor judgment in using this chyron during the segment,” Bill Shine, a Fox News senior vice president, said in a statement.

While Fox News has clearly been stepping over the line, it’s interesting to see how many of these slip-ups are going unpunished. Could this be a result of the comments being laughed at and not taken very seriously, or the one-sided views of the network?

In order to take a stand against the false statements, Obama’s camp has launched a new site, FightTheSmears.com. The site acts as a fact and fiction differentiator, separating the truthful and fictional statements and comments about Obama and his campaign.

Entry Filed under: Mainstream media