Fox News admits on air to lying about President Obama

This article was originally published on Examiner.com on April 26, 2012.

Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy finds himself in a doozy of a situation after adding extra words to a quote from a speech by President Barack Obama given at Lorain County Community College. Doocy did this on the air, and fed the false quote to Mitt Romney who happily responded.

President Obama’s exact quote was:

“Somebody gave me an education. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Michelle wasn’t. But somebody gave us a chance — just like these folks up here are looking for a chance.”

Yet Doocy claimed the President said, “Unlike some people, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.” It is a matter of record that Doocy smirked after making this false misstatement.

Because of Doocy’s error, several news outlets wrote articles based on the false quote.

Multiple sources have reported Doocy’s error, which he personally and wrongfully described as a ‘paraphrasing’ of the situation. Dictionary.com defines a paraphrasing as :

A restatement of speech or writing that retains the basic meaning while changing the words. A paraphrase often clarifies the original statement by putting it into words that are more easily understood.

What Doocy did was not a paraphrase by any definition of the term. He did not restate the president’s words to retain their basic meaning. He added meaning to them, which by the way, suited his own political interests. He certainly did not clarify the original statement, but clouded it with innuendo and he absolutely did not make what the president said to be more easily understood!

It should also be noted that Doocy, while admitting his misstatement on television, has yet to address his equally false statements he made while co-hosting on Brian Kilmeade’s Fox News Radio. He said:

“And you know what? I think he’s loosening up a little bit. He — he did react to what President Obama said yesterday. Where he said, you know, I wasn’t — unlike some people, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.”