Mea Culpa Watch: "Terrorist Fist-Jab," Photoshop Smears
Today in Slate, writer Christopher Beam accepts full responsibility for the phrase "terrorist fist-jab" in reference to Barack Obama's exchange of daps with his wife. This characterization contributed to Fox blonde E.D. Hill losing her television show, only to be replaced by Laura Ingraham! (Is E.D. back? Can someone watch Fox and check on this?) How is this Beam's fault? Because he wrote an item about how a random commenter on a political blog used the phrase "Hezbollah-style fist jab," and then that item ended up on other blogs, and then E.D. kinda changed it and said it on TV without explaining it, making it sound like a common response to the harmless gesture. You see? All Beam's fault! And in other "kind of apologizing for other people's idiocy" news, Fox has apologized for photoshopping two New York Times reporters! Sort of!
Fox News executive vice president John Moody totally feels bad about how the jokers at Fox and Friends did that thing they did.
"It was regrettable," Moody said.
Later Moody added that he "wished" Fox & Friends "hadn't done it. They didn't ask me first." But he said the incident will not result in any official standards adjustments at the show.
Moody called Fox & Friends a mix of news and entertainment but conceded that some of the "humor" on the show may not appeal to some viewers.
"Some of the humor gets edgy," he added, "and some people don't think it's funny."
See? The executive who wasn't consulted on it and plans no official response and also says it was just a dumb joke regrets it. So everything's fine.