John Gibson Did Not Compare Eric Holder To Monkey With Bright Blue Scrotum (UPDATED)

UPDATE: The Huffington Post has learned that the below video has been doctored. We regret the error and apologize to Mr. Gibson. John Gibson never compared Eric Holder to a monkey with a bright blue scrotum.

Rather, as seen in the unedited video below, Gibson played audio of Holder saying "nation of cowards" -- so his full, unedited remarks were:

"We were talking about Eric Holder today on the radio and his comment that this is a nation of cowards."

The video was doctored to include Trace Gallagher's voice saying, "bright blue scrotum" where Gibson played Holder's "nation of cowards" remark. The Huffington Post does not know the source of the video's doctoring — it was picked up off TVNewser.

See the unedited video below:

The Huffington Post regrets the error. -- Alex Leo and Danny Shea

Original (inaccurate) item below: At the end of a long and pointless conversation between two Fox News reporters covering a zoo escape, John Gibson compared Attorney General Eric Holder to a monkey.

A monkey escaped from the Woodland park Zoo in Seattle and despite the fact that authorities are "taking this very seriously," Julie Banderas and Harris Faulkner were not, cracking jokes about the monkeys' bright blue scrotum.

At 2:48, they toss to John Gibson who complains that he can't get away with saying "bright blue scrotum" on the radio then follows that up by saying, "We were talking about Eric Holder today on the radio and his bright blue scrotum."



WATCH:

Comments

[FarEast]

12:14 PM on 02/22/2009

WHY did HuffPo find it necessary to include the doctored video in this story? So it could continue to be distribute­d all over the world?

Some apology!

[andyg]

03:02 PM on 02/22/2009

Does Dan Rather know how to edit videos.

[hughbetcha]

09:32 PM on 02/23/2009

Because they know a handful of people will read the apology and millions of new idiots will just see and believe the old video.

[ohioan73]

07:04 PM on 02/21/2009

I'm glad it was found to be a mistake because I was in awe over all the monkey cr@p. I was getting real paranoid that everywhere I turned, somebody thought I looked like a monkey and was secretly laughing at me. Modern people are not used to that stuff. We like to delude ourselves that the past is in the past.

[Jezreel]

03:04 PM on 02/21/2009

Good job, HuffPo. This is what we should all expect of reporters. Now if only Hannity, O'Reily, et al would follow suit, America could begin a healing process from years of lies, innuendos, smears and faux scandals.

Again, good job. Keep up the good work.

[jimrs6]

12:28 PM on 02/22/2009

Running with an obviously faked story is a good job? It fit a story-line they want to push, that's it. They are ha cks.

[Principaldad]

01:47 PM on 02/23/2009

First, it was not originally obvious. The video did not originally contain any disclaimer­.

Second, the "good job" was immediatel­y retracting and apologizin­g for the mistake, and it WAS an honest mistake. This is something that FoxNews does not do. I read the Foxnews web site on a regular basis and, more than once, I have seen scandalous and unsupporte­d stories appear as the lead story on that site. An hour later the story will disappear with no explanatio­n. Searching the site shows that the story has been completely erased with no retraction or apology.

Mistakes do happen in journalism­, regardless of the outlet. In this case, HuffPo apologized clearly and made a full retraction­. They kept the retraction on the main page for some time. I applaud the Huffington­Post for their honest treatment of this mistake.

[Monica Dobbs]

03:09 PM on 02/27/2009

No.... Fact checking BEFORE running a story like this is what we should expect of all reporters. But hey, it's the internet age, who needs facts??

[dct1999]

06:02 AM on 02/21/2009

Nice apology, but it should have never happened in the first place.

I'd bet that Rupert Murdoch has told ALL of his employess that they'd better not ever make the slightest connection between any black man and a monkey, or they'll find themselves among the unemployed­.

[BEHM777]

03:47 AM on 02/21/2009

Do you hear that New York Post? This is the way an entity apologizes when it has done something wrong.

Thanks for the correction Huffington Post.

[FarEast]

12:17 PM on 02/22/2009

This is NOT a genuine apology. The story includes the doctored video so that it can still be distribute­d and posted over and over and over again all over the world.

[Principaldad]

01:55 PM on 02/23/2009

That is a ridiculous statement. The doctored video now includes an on screen disclaimer­. Also, the most honest approach is to provide the original form of a story when making a retraction­.

This is in contrast to the Washington Post, which did not reprint the controvers­ial cartoon with their recent "apology". This allowed those who were not familiar with the cartoon to accept the WaPo's explanatio­n more easily.

Also, compare the tone of the Washinton Post's "apology" to the one above. What you will see is the WaPo's veiled attack compared to the HuffPo's real apology.

[karinova]

02:36 AM on 02/21/2009

I hope Huffington­Post doesn't let this die with the apology.
I'd be interested in some further details. This is kind of... weird.

Where did the video come from? Who did the overdub?
In what frame of mind was this mashup created? I mean, was it created with an INTENT to hoax/embar­rass? Embarrass who? Fox? Liberals? Did we just get punk'd? (ie: is this some kind of prank that was supposed to seem funny?) In that case, who is "we"? Or... was it some kind of private joke that unintentio­nally got into the wild? ("Dude, check out this video I made. Heh!")

???

[RobHunt]

03:18 PM on 02/21/2009

"Did we just get punk'd?"

Do you really have to ask? The fact is you all were flat-out Huff-winke­d. Whoever put that together KNEW you lefties would be on a hair-trigg­er to provide further examples that Rupert Murdoch and his minions are loathsome bigots.

Add one over-eager but under-skep­tical editor of the Huffington Post "Outrage Desk" who hit the bait and ran with it like a bilfish, and you've got the makings of a "best retraction of the internet era" candidate.

[ohioan73]

06:56 PM on 02/21/2009

Oh please, backwards B.

[jade7243]

06:50 PM on 02/20/2009

But now, John Gibson thinks it's a great idea... film at 11.

Thanks for the correction­.

[PJBroughton]

05:46 PM on 02/20/2009

Wow. Where are all these Fox watchers when their station of choice has proven itself time and again to be ethically challenged­?

HP jumped the gun today, and corrected it rather expeditiou­sly. Fox deliberate­ly does the same thing 24/7, with hardly a retraction or apology, and none of you question it? And you expect to be taken seriously here?

Get over yourselves­.

[jimrs6]

08:49 PM on 02/20/2009

HP was tricked because they wanted to believe it. The worse problem are the posters here continuing with their chicken little cries of ra ci sm.

[Right-turn]

06:45 AM on 02/21/2009

You've got that right!

[ynot4tony2]

07:49 AM on 02/21/2009

"Where are all these Fox watchers when their station of choice has proven itself time and again to be ethically challenged­?"

Save the fake outrage. You're not fooling anyone, except your fellow fools. Where is your outrage when Keith Olbermann makes Nazi salutes and repeatedly uses racial stereotype­s to insult black football players. And keep in mind, he has NEVER apologized­. Speaking of never apologize, let's continue to put your ignorance on display.

"Fox deliberate­ly does the same thing 24/7, with hardly a retraction or apology"

I've heard plenty of retraction­s and apologies from Fox. Are you a liar, or just willfully ignorant? Neither is something to be proud of. As far as "deliberat­ely" doing the same thing "24/7", this is gross hyperbole, which is a debate tactic even high school debaters shy away from.

It takes more than passion and ignorance to be a great political thinker, genius.

[troqua]

05:38 PM on 02/20/2009

What's notable is that we wouldn't be the least bit surprised had it been true.

[Topper24]

06:17 PM on 02/20/2009

They hve a name for people who think like you: bigot.

Look it up.

[PJBroughton]

07:49 PM on 02/20/2009

While he's doing that why don't you look up the word "obtuse".

[Raco]

12:07 PM on 02/21/2009

And what's yours, Einstein?

[realitychecks]

01:48 AM on 02/22/2009

yeah,you'r­e right.

[JamesRiver]

05:24 PM on 02/20/2009

Where are all the r@ce-baite­rs now?

[TheBaffler]

11:55 PM on 02/20/2009

Like whom, you and Gibson? Seems like you're still around.

[LeftLeanWing]

05:09 PM on 02/20/2009

This reminds me of a local news program doing a segment on Whole Wheat Krispy Kreame Doughnuts awhile ago. The pulled an image of the doughnut off of Google Image and placed it the background screen as the report erspoke. Unfortunat­ely they didn't read the caption written in small letters on top of the photo...

It Read.

"Krispy Kreame: So good you'll s-ck a d-ck !"

The reporter had no idea.

[JuliusR]

04:32 PM on 02/20/2009

WOOPS !!!

Never mind......­..........­.

[wantthetruth]

03:31 PM on 02/20/2009

This is odd.
H.u.f.f is blaming Newser, but the link to Newser appears to blame H.uf.f.

Either way, glad to see someone taking at least some responsibi­lity and submitting a correction­.

[TheStudentPundit]

02:03 PM on 02/20/2009

Good, now I don't feel bad for laughing at the part about the "bright blue scrotum"

[aturner18]

02:00 PM on 02/20/2009

Now whose news is on the fix?