Fox News‘ “Fox & Friends” yesterday claimed that President Obama spent the day talking with a pirate in the Oval Office rather than meet with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The “proof”? A three-year old photo the Obama White House team tweeted in honor of yesterday being “Talk Like A Pirate Day.” The photo, by the way, was taken as part of a joke for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Gawker surmises that Fox, “likely taking its cue from Drudge, claimed Obama preferred to meet with the pirate than with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.”
That meeting didn’t take place due to scheduling conflicts, so the two spoke on the phone for an hour instead.
But the truth hardly makes for a compelling narrative, so instead host Brian Kilmeade informed Fox News viewers that “this pirate got a sit-down in the Oval Office yesterday.” Quipped Steve Doocy: “So much for the Middle East peace.”
Noting that “Netanyahu has said that Obama has met with him more than ‘any other leader in the world’,” Media Matters is less forgiving, and rightly so.
Fox & Friends “displayed the picture and featured the caption: “TOO BUSY FOR ISRAEL: President finds time for pirate, Letterman,” Media Matters wrote:
 Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy characterized the picture as “a quick look at what President Obama has been up to.” Doocy added: “Here he is, sitting down with a pirate, making sure he didn’t forget to mark International Talk Like A Pirate Day.”
Time for “Fox & Friends” to walk the canceled plank?
http://mediamatters.org/embed/static/clips/2012/09/20/26490/fnc-ff-20120920-obama-pirate
Â
Related:
Amateur Hour: Romney, Fox, Drudge, RNC Team Up To Defend 47% Comments
Fox News: ‘Obama’s 9-11 Proclamation Does Not Mention God’
Local Fox News Radio Cancels Show, Fires Host For Interviewing LGBT Advocate
Geraldo On Fox Suggests ‘Lesbian Cabal’ Running Homeland Security
Fox News: Obama Is ‘Officially Gay For Class Warfare’
Fox Again Injects Racism Into Olympics By Attacking Serena Williams