...and, as they say, hilarity ensues. Coming soon to Jon Stewart, I'm sure...
[Updated the title of the diary to indicate that Drudge & Fox deliberately lied or misled their audiences, smearing the President with the false attacks. (thanks Fickle).]
In recognition of International Talk Like a Pirate Day on Wednesday, the President's social media staff tweeted a picture of Obama meeting with one of his speechwriters dressed in a pirate costume in the oval office, with the caption "Arrr you in?". The actual picture was taken in May 2009.
The Drudge Report picked up on the tweet and, in an attempt to attack President Obama for not having time to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on his recent trip to New York, headlined the picture with the banner "BUT NO TIME FOR NETANYAHU..." (link: Drudge archives) (Media Matters indicates that Drudge may have been intentionally 'misleading' the reader, instead of being 'punked', though I think that gives Drudge too much credit).
Anyway, of course having done zero research of their own or confirming the source, the dumbasses at Fox & Friends grabbed the Drudge headline and ran with this 'controversy' all Thursday morning, believing Obama had plenty of time to stage the pirate 'meeting' this week, though had "no time for Peace in the Middle East", and was "Too Busy for Israel".
TalkingPointsMemo has the comedy gold from Fox & Friends on Thursday... Steve Doofus and the other two empty chairs falsely accusing the president of choosing a sit-down with a pirate over Netanyahu:
Just a bit more after the orange terrorist fist squiggle...
from TPM:
“TOO BUSY FOR ISRAEL / PRESIDENT FINDS TIME FOR PIRATE, LETTERMAN,” Fox and Friends’ screen read Thursday. “This pirate got a sit-down in the Oval Office yesterday,” Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade said on-air. “So much for the Middle East peace. The White House doesn’t even have time to meet with Israel, but the president got a private sit-down with a pirate yesterday in the Oval Office. Sorry, Bibi,” Steeve Doocy added.
One small problem: the photo was taken in May 2009 for use as a joke during the White House Correspondents’ dinner.
Fox and Friends’ Twitter account later acknowledged the photo was not exactly breaking news, but so far no sign of a correction. Fox News did not respond to TPM’s request for comment.
What should have been a dead giveaway that the picture was more than three years old: Obama looks ten years younger than he does today!
(hat tip to another Kos member for the "orange terrorist fist squiggle" reference. I don't remember the username, though the terrorist fist squiggle stuck...)