Fox News VP in May: We don't have an accuracy problem - how's that still going?

[struggle4progress]

November 23, 2009 3:24 pm ET by Eric Hananoki

In May, new Fox News senior vice president Michael Clemente told TVNewser that "probably the most important imprint has been the fact that no big story has ever had to be taken off the air, that for almost 13 years, there hasn't been the kind of issue that others have had in terms of having to take things down, or apologize, or pay out on. So I'd love to have the next 13 years be as strong as the previous 13 have been" ...

Fox News' first year under President Obama has been rife with errors, falsehoods and smears. We've documented that Fox News has apologized for some - but certainly not the vast majority - of its misinformation.

Over the years, Fox News has protected its brand by pushing the myth that it hasn't had to issue retractions for its stories. Like Clemente, in 2005, Fox News chairman and chief executive officer Roger Ailes was quoted by the Washington Post claiming that "in his nine years at Fox, 'I've never deleted a word, a phrase, a story. ... Unlike Newsweek and the Koran incident, adds, Fox hasn't just done a major retraction."

While Fox News management may quibble about the definition of "big" and "major," the Fox News "no retraction" line is silly. Even before Clemente and Ailes' remarks, Fox News issued multiple retractions and apologies. During the 2008 campaign, Fox News was one of the leaders in spreading the smear - later retracted - that Obama "spent the first decade of his life, raised by his Muslim father -- as a Muslim and was educated in a madrassa." If you followed the cottage industry of smears against Obama, this was certainly a "big" story ...

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200911230030