Oh, they thought they had Fox News right where they wanted it. The proof they’d been waiting for that Fox News was racist.
Heather Childers on Fox & Friends First mistakenly referred to U. Conn. as the NAACP champs rather than NCAA champs.
There was pure joy in Mudville. As of this writing, this TPM video has over 800,000 views:
The Raw Story headlined it as “A Freudian Slip?” (emphasis in original):
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People — or NAACP — is a civil rights organization focusing on equality for African-Americans and other minorities.At least 10 of the 15 players on the winning UConn team were African-Americans.
The never subtle Gawker proclaimed it outright racism:
Well, Fox News almost made it through this year’s NCAA basketball tournament without saying something sorta racist. This morning, Heather Childers of Fox & Friends First introduced highlights of the University of Connecticut’s men’s basketball championship victory by calling them the “NAACP national champs.”Immediately after the words left her mouth, Childers smiled brightly into the camera as if she hadn’t just been thinking “black people black people black people those people are black people.” She quickly corrected herself moments later.
Mashable noted that SNL almost predicted this:
But given Fox News’ rather, ah, right-of-center stance on social issues — and the fact that 11 of the 15 players on UConn’s roster are African American — the verbal stumble sounded more like a Freudian slip to many.This story gets better, too. As Mother Jones points out, Saturday Night Live came freakishly close to predicting Childer’s gaffe in its most recent episode.”It’s tough to sign up for things, I’ve tried for years to join the NAACP,” actor Bobby Moynihan says while portraying a Fox & Friends host.”Brian, why would you do that?” actress Vanessa Bayer asks.”Well, I just loved college basketball,” Moynihan says.Art, life and imitation — just more proof that it’s harder than ever to tell where one ends and the other begins.
Even Eric Wemple, WaPo’s media writer, joined in:
A while back, after a particularly egregious mistake arose on the Fox News morning program “Fox & Friends,” this blog called for the network to pull the plug on the show, which consistently produces the most embarrassing content in the embarrassing category of cable news. Today, a morning show on Fox News added another really dumb mistake to the pile. This show is not “Fox & Friends”; it’s “Fox & Friends First,” which airs really early (5 a.m. EST). Slightly different name, same stupid result: “Fox & Friends First” host Heather Childers today said that the Connecticut Huskies had become “NAACP national champs,” in which case they would have done something phenomenal to rid the world of race-based discrimination. As opposed to, say, “NCAA national champs,” which would indicate that they won the basketball game last night.
You know, because only supposedly racist Fox News could make such a mistake on live TV.
Oh, wait (via Johnny Dollar):
Oops.
Double Oops.
Now Wemple has apologized:
In this space, we’ve been known to criticize Fox News. On Tuesday, for instance, when we participated in something of a pile-on vis-a-vis Fox’s Heather Childers. On the early-morning show “Fox & Friends First,” she confused the NCAA with the NAACP in delivering the news that the University of Connecticut’s men’s basketball team had won the national collegiate championship. “Stupid” mistake, we determined.Well, not that stupid. As the post didn’t note, other media folks have made the same goof. We judged too harshly, and our apologies go to Childers and to Fox News.
The others? No apologies needed, apparently.
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