President Trump set off a firestorm by disinviting the Philadelphia Eagles from celebrating their big Super Bowl win at the White House. The team has been engaged in a back-and-forth with the White House ever since Trump made the decision. (RELATED: Trump Cancels Super Bowl Champion Eagles’ Visit – Taunts NFL Players for Kneeling During National Anthem).
So here’s the thing about the whole invitation kerfuffle: Both parties involved are exercising their rights according to their beliefs. President Trump can rescind an invitation to any party he thinks is not worthy of visiting the White House. Any invitee can decline to visit the White House.
Either way, everyone gets their freedom.
What’s not OK is to misconstrue what happened in the lead up to this squabble. And that’s exactly what Fox News did. During a segment of Shannon Bream’s evening show, a picture was shown of Eagles players kneeling to pray, implying that they were actually kneeling to protest the National Anthem. It’s a fact that no Eagles player ever actually knelt during the National Anthem during the season. The only protest that occurred was a few players raising their hand in a fist during the Anthem.
Here’s the segment:
Here’s #Foxnews playing lackey to the #WH with #Fakenews How petty can #Foxnews be? The @Eagles players were praying “BEFORE” the anthem. A penalty flag should be thrown and #Foxnews should forced off the air for 15 hours. pic.twitter.com/Wc8Dn9fMvN
— Marcus Allyn (@FedFlyr) June 5, 2018
To their credit, Fox issued the following apology:
“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.” (1 of 2)
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 5, 2018
“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.” -Christopher Wallace, Executive Producer of FOX News @ Night with Shannon Bream (2 of 2)
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 5, 2018
Host Shannon Bream also issued her own apology:
I hope you’ll accept our humble apology. https://t.co/NRSH2UTB8y
— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) June 5, 2018
It’s good Fox did the right thing here. What they reported was factually incorrect. And they made sure to correct the record.
You can criticize the Eagles for not being grateful and honor their invitation to the White House. You can criticize Trump for disinviting them. But you can’t lie about what happened.
Share this story if you’re glad Fox News apologized!