Conyers has to sue Fox News IMHO

[brettdale]

While doing a story on the Jefferson indictment, they showed footage of Conyers.

I guess they all look the same to Faux News.

[Oeditpus Rex]

1. Just footage?

No comment, in audio or text? What was the context of the footage?

If it was just, "Oh, and incidentally, there's John Conyers," he'd have a hell of a time proving malice.

[blogslut]

2. Talking Points Memo has more

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

[Oeditpus Rex]

5. Oy!

Yeah, that seems pretty blatant.

I'm reminded of something that happened a few years ago at... I think it was either the St. Paul Pioneer Press or the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Anyway, in a murder story, the paper ran a mug shot of the accused. Trouble was, there was someone else in the mug file with the same name, and that's whose photo wound up on the front page. Right name, wrong person.

A defamation suit was filed, and I don't know if the paper had to pay a settlement, but they did have to print a retraction. (That's opposed to a correction, which is a simple "We goofed." When a newspaper runs a retraction, it's to save it from becoming a parking lot.)

And that was an honest mistake. I don't believe this was.

[pnwmom]

4. They took old footage of Conyers walking around on the floor of the house

and played it while the voice off-camera talked about the Jefferson indictment. They clearly were indicating that Conyers WAS Jefferson. And they showed someone flashing a sign in that direction saying "RESIGN!"

Except that the sign wasn't meant for Jefferson, who wasn't anywhere near. It was meant for Gonzales, who was talking to Conyers.

It was old footage of Conyers, and they had the nerve to put it on for a segment on Jefferson.

[Double T]

3. Incompetent and false reporting, as usual.

[BlueManDude]

9. It was not incompetence - they intentionally do this stuff all the time

remember when the put a D instead of an R next to the name of disgraced House Page predator Mark Foley?

[Kiouni]

6. Do they have to report an "error?"

I know misprints and errors in magazines and papers are published in the next one but what about news channels? do they?

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. Depends on what's at stake

There's no law that says they do. There's none for newspapers, either, but they don't enjoy the immediacy that electronic media do. When it's in print, it doesn't just flash on a screen; it's there as long as someone saves that issue, which, of course, is proof of the error. Of course, with so many people monitoring and recording teevee news now, there's proof of their screw-ups, too.

Typically, teevee hacks will just repeat the story the right way, with no acknowledgment of the error. Only rarely do they admit error, and fault rarer still. When they do, it's usually because someone with some clout (i.e. an advertiser, or an attorney who can make trouble) is breathing down their neck.

[oldgrowth]

8. Fox would have to run 4days for corrections and one of lies!!