Fox News Posts FAKE Story Disparaging Kerry

[Northgate]

This morning on the Fox News website, Fox was running a post-debate story about Kerry with several apparently fabricated quotes meant to disparage the Democratic candidate.

Some examples ...

"Women should like me! I do manicures"

About himself and the president: "I'm metrosexual — he's a cowboy."

Now Fox has pulled the article from the front page without explanation. And on the article itself the passages I quoted in the post below have all been removed -- again, without explanation.

[Josh Marshall saved a copy of the offending article in its original form.]

So what's the deal here? Where did the fabricated piece come from? Who made up the quotes? How long did it run? Why did it get taken down? What happened?

-- Josh Marshall (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_09_26.php#003552)

[Northgate]

Josh Marshall Updates:

Okay some more details on that bogus Kerry story that ran this morning on the Fox News website. As we noted earlier, this morning the front page of the Fox website ran a story with a series of phony Kerry quotes (see post below). After questions were asked the offending material was quickly pulled from the site, without explanation.

So what happened?

Late this afternoon I spoke to Fox spokesman Paul Schur who told me the following ...

“Carl [Cameron] made a stupid mistake which he regrets. And he has been reprimanded for his lapse in judgment. It was a poor attempt at humor.”

So the Fox reporter covering the Kerry campaign puts together this Kerry-bashing parody right out of the RNC playbook with phony quotes intended to peg him as girlish fool and somehow it found its way on the Fox website as a news item.

Imagine that.

More to follow ...

-- Josh Marshall (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_09_26.php#003554)

[Northgate]

Around this time tomorrow I believe Sean Hannity will be repeating these deliberately, maliciously, LIES as fact, over and over, until it does indeed become fact. It's the Republican way.

Josh Marshall Updates:

Fox News has now posted a retraction and apology for the piece with the fabricated Kerry quotes ...

Earlier Friday, FOXNews.com posted an item purporting to contain quotations from Kerry. The item was based on a reporter’s partial script that had been written in jest and should not have been posted or broadcast. We regret the error, which occurred because of fatigue and bad judgment, not malice.

The only retraction doesn't name the reporter in question, Carl Cameron, which was noted in the statement Fox News gave TPM this afternoon.

-- Josh Marshall (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_09_26.php#003555)

[Wrong Robot]

I didn't know dan rather worked for fox.

:smokey:

[giant]

More fake Kerry quotes?!

[Towel]

You'd think these guys would have no problems writing a satirical Kerry story just using the stuff he actually does say.

[/rimshot]

Edit: In other news, did FoxNews photoshop (http://www.conspire.com/fox-photoshop.jpg) pictures from the debate to give Mr. Bush the illusion of more height? We report, you decide.

To see the FoxNews photo in its natural habitat, go here (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134151,00.html) and click on "Photo Essays", then "Round One". Actually, before you do that, check out the first image in the "Photos" box, too - nice camera angle, or photoshop?

[pfflam]

Originally posted by Towel

Edit: In other news, did FoxNews photoshop (http://www.conspire.com/fox-photoshop.jpg) pictures from the debate to give Mr. Bush the illusion of more height? We report, you decide.

To see the FoxNews photo in its natural habitat, go here (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134151,00.html) and click on "Photo Essays", then "Round One". Actually, before you do that, check out the first image in the "Photos" box, too - nice camera angle, or photoshop?
:wow: :wow: :wow: :wow:

Where did the comparisons come from?

FOX is having a PANIC attack and forgetting to pretend that they are NOT a bunch of lying propagandizers . . .

[pfflam]

Originally posted by pfflam
:wow: :wow: :wow: :wow:

Where did the comparisons come from?

FOX is having a PANIC attack and forgetting to pretend that they are NOT a bunch of lying propagandizers . . . Nevermind . . . conspire.com . . . . let's keep it moving folks . . .

[giant]

We were watching fox for a second yesterday (flipping through channels, story about mt st helens) And they started this big story about the candidates giving speeches about the debate and making their cases against their opponents. The whole time they are showing video of bush going up to some stage and then show a good minute of him ripping kerry with the same tired BS.

Logically, we expected to next see something from a kerry speech, but all they showed was no more then 1-2 sec of him shaking hands while they transitioned to introductions of talking heads.

I'm not kidding that for years now every time I watch fox for even a couple minutes I see at least one or two bits like that.

[pfflam]

Its sad, but it really only takes a minute or two to hear such bias from them.

[faust9]

ScreenShot (http://www.imagevenue.com/host/web1/b9ed8_foxnews.jpg)

Screenshot of the original article. While FOX's broadcasting(over airwaves and on the web) never surprises me, this one made me chuckel. I'd expect to see this story--verbatum--in the Onion, not on a "news" web site.

[edit]Changed image post to a link to the image.

[rok]

Originally posted by Towel
To see the FoxNews photo in its natural habitat, go here (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134151,00.html) and click on "Photo Essays", then "Round One". Actually, before you do that, check out the first image in the "Photos" box, too - nice camera angle, or photoshop?

actually, i was more impressed with this image in the same fox news photo essay.

http://www.foxnews.com/photo_essay/photoessay_168_images/debate_computers_450.jpg

[SDW2001]

Yeah, such bias. Except that they printed a retraction and didn't try to stick to the story.

[giant]

Look, SDW, they're streaming your favorite FOX News show right now!

FOX Newshour (http://www.atz.jp/~hypnosis/hypnodisc1.gif)

BTW, I loved that interview with Cameron and Bush in 00 ;)

[groverat]

Originally posted by SDW2001
Yeah, such bias. Except that they printed a retraction and didn't try to stick to the story.

There was nothing to "stick to". There was absolutely no source at all for the fake quotes. They were completely fabricated out of thin air by the reporter.

Trying to compare this to memo-gate is a pathetic joke.

[SDW2001]

Originally posted by groverat
There was nothing to "stick to". There was absolutely no source at all for the fake quotes. They were completely fabricated out of thin air by the reporter.

Trying to compare this to memo-gate is a pathetic joke.

Yes, and they admitted the mistake right away. These things do happen. CBS did not make a mistake. Their underlying political ideology allowed them to believe bullshit, even when experts told them the documents might not be real.

[groverat]

Originally posted by SDW2001
Yes, and they admitted the mistake right away. These things do happen. CBS did not make a mistake. Their underlying political ideology allowed them to believe bullshit, even when experts told them the documents might not be real.

How is writing false quotes and posting them a "mistake"? Did he trip and fall on the keyboard and mouse?

[Northgate]

Originally posted by groverat
How is writing false quotes and posting them a "mistake"? Did he trip and fall on the keyboard and mouse?

I was wondering the same thing. How does being "tired" and "fatigued" make you write fake quotes and then PUBLISH it!

A few questions and points about Carl Cameron's Kerry-bashing fabrications on Fox, or A Guide for the Perplexed (media reporters) ...

1. How long did the fabricated quotes run on the Fox News website?

2. Fox News says Cameron has been 'reprimanded.'

How?

Are there any consequences? What happened to him? How was he reprimanded? Fox spokesman Paul Schur, who first spoke to TPM yesterday afternoon, told The Daily News "We're simply moving on from this, we have no further comment." And that doesn't inspire a lot of confidence that the 'reprimand' is anything more than a 'Carl, Don't post any more fabricated quotes on the website.' Meanwhile, Schur declined to tell the LA Times what if any discipline Cameron faced.

3. Just for the sake of discussion, can there be any question that Carl Cameron has contempt and disdain for John Kerry -- contempt and disdain that he has great difficulty keeping a lid on?

4. Shouldn't Cameron be taken off the Kerry campaign beat? Assume for the moment that Cameron's fabricated story wasn't supposed to run on the site. If Cameron sits around writing up phony news stories only for Fox News colleagues which portray Kerry as a swishy fool, can he really credibly cover the campaign as a straight news reporter? The answer is obvious, I think. Of course, he can't.

5. Fox says Cameron made an "error" because of "fatigue and bad judgment." What was the error? Making up the fabricated quotes? Sending a Kerry-bashing parody around to colleagues at Fox News? Posting it on the website as a news story?

6. Did Cameron post the material to the site himself, not realizing there was a problem? Or did a tech person or editor at the website get a hold of Cameron's fabrications and post it not realizing it was a fabrication?

7. How tired is Carl Cameron and will Fox News be requiring him to get more sleep?

8. Why did comments very similar to Cameron's fabrications come up again and again from Fox commentators on debate night?

9. If CNN's John King posted a story on the CNN website with fabricated quotes that had the president joking about funneling money to Halliburton or telling a crowd how only saps went to Vietnam, what would the fall-out or consequences be?

[Northgate]

Fox News at it Again: (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134268,00.html)

"In an version of this article that was published earlier, the Communists for Kerry were portrayed as a group that was supporting John Kerry for president. FOXNews.com’s reporter asked the group’s representative several times whether the group was legitimate and supporting the Democratic candidate, and the spokesman insisted that it was."

Well, there you go. The reporter did everything possible to determine the legitimacy of the guy's claim. Everything. You know, except clicking on the "about (http://www.hellgate.org/disclaimer/)" section of their website.

For the clickable challenged:

"Communists for Kerry" is a campaign of the Hellgate Republican Club, a tax exempt non-partisan public advocacy "527" organization

[giant]

Originally posted by Northgate
I was wondering the same thing. How does being "tired" and "fatigued" make you write fake quotes and then PUBLISH it!
And does fox all of a sudden not have editors?

[Northgate]

Originally posted by giant
And does fox all of a sudden not have editors?

;)

[Northgate]

From The Nation (http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=1873) by Katrina vanden Heuvel

The Fox News Channel ran a splashy full-page ad in our recent GOP Convention issue. In fact, Fox has bought several ads in The Nation in the last year, including our back page, leading some fifty readers to cancel their subscriptions in protest of the magazine taking what they considered tainted money.

But we stand by our advertising policy--one which starts "with the presumption that we will accept advertising even if the views expressed are repugnant to those of the editors.... Blatantly misleading ads, or ads purveying harmful products will fall into a gray area of discretion, but as a general principle, we assume our readers will have sufficient knowledge to judge for themselves the merits of commonly known products (such as cigarettes)." (Click here for more info on our ad policy.)

In contrast, Fox News seems to believe its viewers must be protected from news free of White House spin and corporate agendas. More the cowardly lion than the faux-fierce Fox, the cable news network has just rejected a sixty-second TV ad that The Nation was planning to air during the Republican National Convention.

"Nobody owns The Nation. Not Time Warner, not Murdoch," the commercial says. "So there's no corporate slant, no White House spin. Just the straight dope." FOX rejected the ad "out of hand," according to the magazine's senior vice president for circulation Art Stupar, after our ad agency sent the commercial to the network. "I find it ironic." Stupar told the New York Times, which wrote about FOX's censorship. "They are the GOP cable station, a champion of free markets, and they got spooked at the thought of running an ad that doesn't publish spin or serve the agenda of corporate conglomerates." Could mention of Mr. Murdoch have been a problem? A man who takes money from some of the worst regimes in the world can't take a few bucks from The Nation?

Cowardly FOX may be running scared, but the ad appeared on Time Warner's CNN, as well as NBC Universal's MSNBC and Bravo, during RNC week.

[Northgate]

On The Abrams Report, anchor Dan Abrams accepted FOX News Channel's explanation while asking whether the network would be as generous if one of its competitors had made the error:

ABRAMS: My "Closing Argument": Why FOX News and one of its reporters deserve a break. A lot of you writing in about FOX mistakenly posting an article on its website by the political reporter Carl Cameron with made-up quotes from Senator Kerry after the debate. Jokingly, Cameron claimed Kerry had said, "Didn't my cuticles look great" and "It's about the Supreme Court. Women should like me. I do manicures." And the whopper: "I'm metrosexual. He's a cowboy."

FOX News removed the article and issued an apology saying it had been written in jest. It -- quote -- "should not have been posted or broadcast and it only made it on the website, they said, as a result of -- quote -- "fatigue and bad judgment, not malice." I believe that.

Now some of you saying it shows FOX's true colors, so to speak. That this is evidence that they're out to get Kerry. Whether they are or not, this doesn't prove anything. Reporters mock candidates all the time. They just don't usually get published. My concern is not about what Cameron wrote but about what may be a double standard. If a CNN reporter or a reporter for any other broadcast network, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, jokingly wrote mocking quotes of President Bush, come on, FOX would have wall-to-wall coverage of how this demonstrates liberal bias.

As I've said in the context of other media scandals, it is not always about bias. Sometimes it is just in FOX's words, bad judgment, not malice. I know a lot of people want to assume the worst, but mistakes happen, and when they do, it doesn't necessarily mean it was based on bias. It just may mean that the reporter is human.

On this one I give Carl Cameron the benefit of any doubt. I just wonder whether his network would do the same for me or anyone else.

Indeed. I wonder.

[Towel]

Originally posted by Northgate
Fox News at it Again: (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134268,00.html)

"In an version of this article that was published earlier, the Communists for Kerry were portrayed as a group that was supporting John Kerry for president. FOXNews.com’s reporter asked the group’s representative several times whether the group was legitimate and supporting the Democratic candidate, and the spokesman insisted that it was."

Well, there you go. The reporter did everything possible to determine the legitimacy of the guy's claim. Everything. You know, except clicking on the "about (http://www.hellgate.org/disclaimer/)" section of their website.

For the clickable challenged: They've since added an extra line to their editor's note:Editor’s Note:

In a version of this article that was published earlier, the Communists ]or Kerry group was portrayed as an organization_that was supporting John Kerry for president. FOXNews.com’s reporter asked the group’s representative several times whether the group was legitimate and supporting the Democratic candidate, and the spokesman insisted that it was. The Communists for Kerry group is, in fact, a parody organization.Who knows, after a little more kicking and screaming, they might even make note of the fact that it's a pardody organization created by a local Republican party chapter.

[709]

Originally posted by Towel
To see the FoxNews photo in its natural habitat, go here (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134151,00.html) and click on "Photo Essays", then "Round One". Actually, before you do that, check out the first image in the "Photos" box, too - nice camera angle, or photoshop? LOL. The 2 of Kerry are hilarious.

'L' is for loser:

http://www.foxnews.com/images/139825/7_23_kerry_fla_big.jpg


I can stick my thumb up my nose this far:

http://www.foxnews.com/images/139594/2_24_kerry2_Big.jpg

:lol:

:\

:mad: