Fox's Cavuto Claims Network Covered Protests Before Network Was Founded

[UPDATED, below.]

Fox News' Neil Cavuto has gone on the defensive lately, defending his network's coverage of the coming political fringe tax day Renaissance Faires known as Tea Parties. Naturally, no one in the wide world is reasonably disputing that Fox is out of bounds in covering the Teabaggers. The more stringent objections lie with Fox's decision to promote and support these events. But this is what they want to spend their capital on, I suppose!

Anyway, what Cavuto shouldn't be allowed to do is, you know ... make stuff up, and yet there he was, this past Saturday, saying the following:

CAVUTO: Just a reminder, we are going to be right in the middle of these protests because at FOX we do not pick and choose these rallies and protests. We were there for the Million Man March, even though, as I pointed out, it turned out to be well shy of a million men. We were there for the Iraq War protest, and the protest against the Iraq War protest. So see, we really don't decide what populist causes matter. Just that when a whole lot of people gather, in a whole lot of towns and cities across America, it is indeed worth checking out, not just shutting down. Which is why we are in Sacramento on April 15 for the one of the biggest of these, at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time.

[WATCH.]

Unfortunately for Cavuto, the people at NewsHounds did one of those things where you go and you "look up" the available facts and "verify" them for "accuracy."

Neil Cavuto has been defending FOX News' coverage of the upcoming tax day tea parties by repeatedly suggesting that FOX News gave similar coverage to the Million Man March. But the Million Man March occurred October 16, 1995 whereas FOX News was not operating until October 7, 1996, nearly a year later.

This should make for a very awkward correction.

UPDATE:

Story continues below

advertisement

Okay. We hear the erroneous segment, which has FOX covering an event that occurred before the network was founded, was an error made by Cavuto during taping on Thursday. At some point after that, Cavuto realized or regretted his error and began noting the distinction between the original Million Man March, and its follow-up marches, which Fox was around to cover.

Here's a video in which such a distinction was made:

From there, the erroneous report - taped Thursday, pre-regret/realization - ran on Saturday, For some reason uncorrected.

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to [e-mail] -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

Comments

[ThomasMc]

Face it, truth is about as foreign to Fox News as silence is to Rush Limbaugh.

[Soundofthunder]

"And Fox was also there for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s march on Selma, Alabama, the Women's Suffrage movement and the Trail of Tears."

SOT

[Didactic Curveball]

It used to be that I could effectively deal with any differences in values and ideologies that I had from my conservative friends and acquaintances. Things have changed with this election, however. I have seen a level of hatred, recklessness, dishonesty and malice that I never imagined would rise to the surface of the conservative base the way it has. It sickens me and it has alienated me almost entirely from those people that I once considered my friends.

I'm not sure how it happens that people from the same country can be so divided in every important belief system and look at the same set of facts yet see entirely different results.

What the hell is going on?!!!!! Is the conservative base just plain evil or am I imagining it?

[bellabeach]

They have turned to everyone's most basic instinct and that is fear, they did it to win the second election and they keep doing it because they know they are losing more than an election, they are losing the majority of Americans who have had their tired and racist ways, and it is scaring the hell out of the GOP!

[valkyrie607]

No, but be careful because they think you're evil too. It just that people are living in increasingly divergent realities.

[Cloball]

It was this way with Clinton, if you're old enough to remember it.

They freaked out when Clinton beat Bush Sr. and gave him a hard time the entire eight years.

[feltdizz]

this network is too funny. Talk about entertainment.

[Wynterkat]

Pfft. He'll just come back and say he meant to say "We WOULD have covered the Million Man March, because that's how dedicated Fox News is!" *eyerolls*

However, I think the best coverage of Fox's NON-coverage had to have been David Schuster covering for Keith O on Countdown tonight. I about lost it when David said (something along the lines of) "We'd like to now show you Fox's news coverage of the Million Man March" and said to roll clip where they showed a black blank screen with just the date and Fox news at the top. I about lost it. I did in fact spit my drink - right at my husband who was too busy gasping and wheezing with laughter on the couch across from me.

David rocks. I

[filo]

I expect Fox to say they covered the original Boston Tea Party because that's just the kind of patriots they are.

[ReelBusy]

I loved the FOX News teams coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis too.
They were there doing it live!
Boy did they show the world what a panty-waist President Kennedy was.

[fishretired]

As krugman points out - these guys are getting as embarrassing as the Republican Party. hard to fathom what the strategy is and I think they probably feel the same.

[jeanrenoir]

Since the Republican "base" is now reduced to people who handle snakes during their "Christian" services, before they consult their witch-doctors to exorcise them, it's no wonder that the Republican appeals to their constituency seem curioser and curioser.

[flossophy]

I think Cavuto was at NPR during the shy of million man march.

[flossophy]

I mean PBS

[killpack]

Unless you belong to the 26% or so who approves of Congress right now, how could you not be opposed to giving these guys your hard earned money. These guys are total crooks. Who cares what Fox News or Rush Limbaugh says? I know I sure as hell don't.

Don't buy all the BS that the Feds are going after the top 5%. The Feds just BAILED OUT the top 5%! Hello! Did we all just forget?!?! And with all that money Congress gave them, they sure as hell aren't going to pay taxes on it. They have lawyers and accountants and people in Washington (like Congressmen) to make sure that doesn't happen.

If you hate Fox News and it'll make you feel better to not affiliate with them, FINE! Find your own way to protest giving your hard earned money to the total incompetance in Congress! But please do it! This thievery has to stop.

[beaupritchard]

They really are trying to make something out of this teabag thing ... Trying to revive the "no taxation without representation slogan" ... can you manufacture a populist theme with half a million jobs being lost and the greedy having raked in billions of taxpayer money and millions in bonuses.

Catchy phrase though ... how about something to counter like ... "the dream of 2010 ... 1776 and not a republican in sight" or "wake up all consuming profit is a failed ideology" or "brought to you by the people who declared Mission accomplished" or "trickle down is just what you think it is"

[TovSquirrel]

it's the peyote

[Dee AZ]

I could possibly try to look past Faux News' self promotion of these teabagging protests if the business news superbrain Cavuto could explain what makes this year's April 15th different from last year's when we're all paying taxes based on the Bush tax rate.

[bongstradamus]

Its amazing that these tea parties get this kind of coverage but none of the thousands of anti-war protests did.

[realspear]

If Fox had actually covered the Million Man March, James Earl Ray would have been their commentator. Since there is no record of Ray doing any on-air appearances for Fox before his death, there is no way that Fox could have covered the event.

[SoCalNick]

I don't get this one. How is this notable? They lie EVERYDAY 100 times. What makes this one different? NEWS would be FOX CITES FACTS!