We previously posted about how Steve Doocy had falsely quoted President Obama’s “I wasn’t born with a silver spoon” remark as "Unlike some people, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth." That, of course, made it sound as though Obama had taken a direct dig at Mitt Romney. The same misquote was then repeated by the Washington Post (later corrected) and Fox's sister media company, the NY Post. Yesterday, Doocy “clarified” his statement – and pretended he had correctly paraphrased Obama and then been misunderstood. He also failed to mention what the misquote confusion had been.
On Fox & Friends on Thursday (4/19/12), Doocy said to guest Mitt Romney:
Speaking of rhetoric, (Obama) had some fiery rhetoric pointed at you yesterday. He said, “Unlike some people, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.”
That’s Doocy’s exact statement. It comes at about 1:10 into the first video below. As Media Matters noted, Doocy appears to have picked up the “quote” from a blog post on the right-wing Hot Air. Apparently, Doocy didn’t see any need to factcheck the accuracy before he repeated it. But rather than own up to his error (whatever the cause), Doocy claimed he had been merely paraphrasing Obama. Even though Doocy said, “(Obama) said, ‘Unlike some people, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.’” And even though Doocy’s “paraphrase” just happened to quote Hot Air’s misquote verbatim.
Here’s how Doocy addressed it yesterday:
Last week, President Obama talked about not being born with a silver spoon in his mouth. That was interpreted as a big dig at Mitt Romney. When I was interviewing Governor Romney on this show, I asked him about it. However, I did some paraphrasing that seemed to misquote the president. So to be clear, the president’s exact quote was, “I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.” And I hope that clears up any confusion.
Seemed to misquote the president? Doocy did misquote the President - and didn’t have the integrity to admit it.
And did you notice how Doocy "forgot" to explain what he said that "seemed" to misquote Obama? Instead, he tried to make it sound as though he had gotten the gist of what Obama said correctly but had merely spoken so as to make the actual quote unclear.
Nice try, Doocy, but we're calling you out on your weaseling. Still, we can understand why you'd want to save face this way. But what's Fox News' excuse for letting you get away with it?
Doocy’s “clarification” via Media Matters, below.
(3/12/18 update: The Media Matters video is no longer available.)
Our Mission – Catapult The Hate
With a tip o’ the RW hat to Dumbya who said:
If you’ve retired, you don’t have anything to worry about. The third time I’ve said that. I’ll probably say it three more times, see, in my line of work you gotta keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kinda catapult the propaganda.
Truth… Propaganda… Pretty much the same thing as far as Dubya is concerned. A surprisingly candid statement, though… Greece, New York, May 24, 2005 [DubyaSpeak.com]
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/413071/april-23-2012/steve-doocy-s-subtext-reporting