Dear Commons Community,
Fox News was caught misleading its viewers on Monday night while reporting on President Trump rescinding his invitation to the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles to visit the White House. Fox News showed an Eagle player kneeling supposedly during the national anthem. The photograph was actually of Eagle Zach Ertz kneeling in prayer. It turns out that none of the Eagle players ever knelt in the regular season during the playing of the national anthem. As reported by CNN:
“Fox News was forced to apologize after fumbling its coverage of President Trump’s cancellation of the Philadelphia Eagles White House visit.
The conservative news network said it was sorry Tuesday after airing pictures of Eagles players supposedly kneeling in protest during the national anthem — a form of demonstration against racial injustices that the President has condemned — when it became clear the photos were of footballers posed in prayer.
No one on the Eagles’ 2017-18 regular season roster knelt during the anthem at any point during the season.
Fox aired the photos Monday night after Trump linked the canceled invite to Eagles players taking a knee during the anthem, but the White House later said the team had planned to send too small a delegation.
“During our report about President Trump canceling the Philadelphia Eagles trip to the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl win, we showed unrelated footage of players kneeling in prayer,” Fox producer Christopher Wallace said. “To clarify, no members of the team knelt in protest during the national anthem throughout regular or post-season last year. We apologize for the error.”
The fumble became apparent after Eagles tight end Zach Ertz called out the news outlet.
“This can’t be serious …” he tweeted. “Praying before games with my teammates, well before the anthem, is being used for your propaganda? Just sad.”
Trump scrapped the Eagles planned White House visit on Monday, with some aides saying he was furious when he found out that only a few Eagles planned to attend Tuesday’s event.
He instead ordered the event be turned into a “celebration of America.”
Trump has long fixated on the NFL national anthem controversy that began in 2016 with then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling on the sidelines during the song. Kaepernick said he was protesting to raise awareness about racism and the killing of black men by police.
Trump has accused players of being unpatriotic and has suggested they be fired for disrespecting the flag.”
Trump and Fox News are birds of a feather with the way they mislead and lie to the American people.
Tony
