Fox News Blames Drudge, Backs Off Of the Obama G-8 Photo

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:13 pm

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On FNC’s Fox News Watch today, the network did an about face on the misleading photo of President Obama supposedly looking at a teenage girl’s backside at the G-8. Fox News now blames Matt Drudge and The Drudge Report for the whole mess, while they ignored the role of Sean Hannity among others in promoting a smear about Obama.

Here is the video courtesy of Media Matters:

Jon Scott said, “A picture is worth a thousand words, but those words might not tell the whole story, and that’s exactly what got caught in the web this week. This photo of President Obama at the G-8 Summit was splashed all over websites this week. Now to the naked eye, it looks like the president is well, glancing at a certain part of a young Brazilian woman’s anatomy. Naturally The Drudge Report couldn’t resist giving the picture a lot play, but does the picture tell the whole story? Take a look now at the video from the same event. It looks like the president doesn’t even notice the young woman.”

Blaming Drudge doesn’t explain why the network, with the exception of Greta Van Susteren, treated the photo like real news.

On Fox and Friends yesterday, they played the picture off as real:

While, as late as last night, Sean Hannity slowed down the video on his program to prove that Obama was looking at the girl’s backside:

It isn’t Drudge’s fault that Fox News ran with the photo. The problem is that Fox News treats The Drudge Report as a credible source of information. Greta Van Susteren was the lone voice on FNC that debunked the story behind the photo, yet this didn’t stop them talking about the photo all day on Friday. This whole episode speaks volumes about the kind of journalism being practiced on the Fox News Channel.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association