Great Moments In Journalism: President Obama Is Dead
There were several examples last night of people in haste typing, or saying, “Obama” instead of “Osama.” Here are two of the most notable
First from the local Fox affiliate here in Washington, D.C.:
President Obama dead? He looked pretty healthy walking away from the podium just then.
Then, there was Geraldo Rivera who, unfortunately for Fox News Channel, was live on the air when the news broke:
Perhaps more embarrassing was the manner in which Rivera acted when he first reported the news:
That’s why they pay these guys the big bucks.
After watching that last clip, I really can’t say who acted like the biggest dipshit last night. Wolf Blitzer said about three different times, “we don’t want to speculate, but if it’s the news we think it might be, we want to let you hear it from the President.” Two minutes later, he and John King are reporting the news.
And frankly, I’m okay with them reporting the news if they’ve confirmed it with several sources, which they had. But don’t tell me minutes before that you’re better than that and you won’t spoil the news. Oh, and I deserve some blame for believing him.
It’s not the reporting the news part that makes the Rivera clip so idiotic, it’s the way he acted. The man is an idiot
Ah, good ol’ local FOX, perhaps the worst local affiliate in American history.
Tim,
Indeed this is true.
Yeah, but Doug, he is a RICH idiot…..
Look, I know that this sort of error can happen in extemporaneous situations–even Ted Kennedy once made it. But why is it that the only news media to make this “error” just happen to be Fox and its affiliates?
If any non-Fox news reports made the error, I’d be interested to hear.