Fox News Lincoln-Douglas Graphic Shows Frederick Douglass

Hillary Clinton grabbed some headlines this past weekend by challenging Barack Obama to a "Lincoln-Douglas style" debate. Of course, she was referencing the debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during their Illinois Senate race.

But someone apparently missed that memo at Fox & Friends, and MSNBC noticed — last night on "Verdict" with Dan Abrams and tonight on "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann. noticed. Watch below:

Comments

[talkingclock]

Obama 08

[DeathandTaxes]

I have seen some revisionist history over at Faux but this a doozy.
I have a hard time thinking this was a mistake. The Lincoln-Douglas debate & abolitionist Frederick Douglass are basic .U.S. history. I know public schools are in bad shape but come on.

[60at]

I agree with you wholeheartedly. This could not have been a mistake. My 9 year old grandson knows better. This was an attempt to throw yet another sarcastic racist bait.

[indieminded]

This was the funniest video I've seen all morning! I doubt that many of Fox's viewership caught the mistake.

[joecharles]

Probably not...perh­aps they were tuned in to Rush or Little Rush (Glenn Beck) and missed that segment. White on, Bro!

[Meah]

Right! And WHY would they not catch it?

Just as stoooopid!

[EMBA30]

What brainiacs at Faux News. Frankly I am surprised that, even though incorrect, they chose a photo of Frederick Douglass. I did not think that the Faux "researchers" knowledge of American history extended back beyond Mike Douglas or Kirk Douglas.

[FreeHat]

Who cares? You guys are getting mad at a production guy making a mistake. Common.

[savertime]

There is a pattern of these kinds of mistakes that truly embarrass our educational system. That is what makes it newsworthy. Are these production people that uninformed and do they recruit these people at Fox?

[LINY516]

It's not just the production guy. Nobody caught it at Fox and corrected it. So, come on and get a grip.

[Meah]

The three dufus so called journalists did not pick it up!

Faux is so living up to its name!

Roger Ailes probably does not know the difference between Stephen Douglas and Frederick Douglass!!!

Fair and Balanced Ignorance!

[Stillhere29]

Was the intern who put this up Steve Doocy's idiot son?

[realpolitic]

Doocy's son has the same quizzical, profoundly smug look as the dad.

[MsLourdes]

What can you expect of Faux News/ They are entertainers, not journalists.

[ramal]

Shows just how little grasp and understanding of American History that Faux News does have. Oh well,, it really doesn't matter, none of their viewers would know any better anyway and don't care that they don't know.

[Strayker]

Fox News--Fair and Balanced and uh...Akkku­rate

[Grunty1]

Fairly Unbalanced you mean

[AMJordan]

I think the funniest part of this was that the morning crew was busy making fun of an intern who had asked if he should find video from the Lincoln/Douglas debates.

The fact that he found 50% of the correct photographs is amazing, for Fox.

[talkingclock]

That's a good response:-)

[Meah]

Double damned dumbasses!

[thirdgo]

I've been thinking about this, and I think the subliminal message is pretty obvious: Fox wants everybody to think of Obama as a fabulous black man with a great jawline, a great orator, statesman, and reformer, a firm believer in the equality of all people - and of Clinton as a homely bearded white guy.

[noamjunior]

Facts frighten and confuse the people at Fox - that's why most of their programming is a bunch of right-wing jerks talking out of their a$$
Bullsh!t is harder to prove wrong

[dooleynoted]

Yes the people who produce Faux news and their viewers are not the brightest in the world, but I think they may be getting a pass here for what was in essence a racist joke ala the kind that Rush Scumbag does. They could have put up a pic of Frederick Douglass as a joke about Obama. It wouldn't take a lot of smarts to do that, just that sick frat boy type of mindset that Rush plays to. For one thing, if they mis-googled Lincoln-DouglasS with two s's instead of Lincoln-Douglas with one s to get an image, you still come up with links to the Lincoln-DouglaS debate. This could be like that fake walk-off they pulled a few weeks ago.

[BrooklynB]

Completely intentional. The Faux News people are not stupid. Since most Americans don’t know who Stephen Douglas was and many may not quite be clear about Lincoln, the assumption will be the Douglas, the black guy, lost to Lincoln, the white guy who won. Typical Goebbels-Rove technique.

[zendem1]

I'm surprised the graphic wasnt' "Ernie Douglas" from "My Three Sons." Or maybe former talk show host "Mike Douglas."
Accuracy, historical otherwise, has never been a concern for Fox. The "See What Sticks" network.

[pbeat]

No that was the graphic they wanted. A black man always freaks out their helium heads. Why does a so called news agency use "interns" aka slave labor to do their research? So they can claim it was the slaves fault when anything goes awry.