Fox News host Anna Kooiman has apologized for her false report last week that, while the government shutdown closed national parks and monuments, President Obama was personally funding a Muslim museum. She said this weekend, “We made a bad mistake by reporting a story based on poor research that was not true. We apologize for not checking the facts.” But there was something important she did not say.

What Kooiman didn’t do was explain why she and Fox News believed the report in the first place. Obviously, a host can’t fact check every story that is handed to her to report. But why didn’t this one, which was blatantly implausible, raise any red flags to anyone on the set? If the story of Fox’s gaffe had not gone viral, one suspects they never would have noticed nor said anything.

For Kooiman to merely pin the blame on bad research allows her to dodge an uncomfortable question about the depth of Fox News’ animosity toward our president and how its eagerness to blow the “secret Muslim/not really American” dog whistle trumped its interest in the truth. But not addressing that issue – which, believe me, was intertwined with the widespread fascination with this gaffe – doesn’t make it go away.

So Kooiman’s apology was quite appropriate as far as it went. But to suggest that the only problem was the sloppy work of some hapless underling allows the elephant on the set to remain, undisturbed. And as comfy, cozy as ever. 

Video below via Media Matters.