Fox Anchor's On-Air Gaffe: 'President Obama Dead' (VIDEO)

In his excitement following President Obama's speech Sunday night announcing the death of Osama Bin Laden, one Washington, D.C. Fox news anchor misspoke...a lot.

"President Obama speaking from the East Room of the White House," the anchor says as the president walks away from the podium, "telling the nation and the world that President Obama is, in fact, dead."

The video shows his stunned co-anchor quickly realize the mistake. She tries to get his attention, although he continues before realizing what he said.

Watch the video below:

The gaffe is one many have been making in the wake of the news of Bin Laden's death. Among the most cringeworthy examples was MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell, who tweeted, "Obama shot and killed" before quickly correcting her mistake.

Comments

[Tampa64789]

11:42 AM on 05/29/2011

Just to make sure every gets that this is not the Fox News national cable channel its the local Fox channel WTTG in Washington DC. And he immediately corrected his mistake. The headline of this post is a little misleading.

[ScooterBob]

08:43 AM on 05/05/2011

Geraldo, on Fox, while he was reading the CNN news feed at the initial outset of reporting on Bin Laden, made the same exact mistake. He too, in the heat of the moment, momentarily mixed the two names. But seriously, what journalist doesn't proof their writing before hitting send? The rush to be the first to report, and the resulting sloppy habits, are to blame.

[Freedom58]

06:50 AM on 05/05/2011

The 2 names are very similar. I can understand why mistakes were made. Aren't we all human?

[aaronr2000]

03:37 AM on 05/05/2011

Mixing up two similar names while talking about them both in the same sentence can happen. I've done it a couple of times. What makes Fox News (I know this isn't about them) so interesting is not only did they do it in writing but also when the headline had nothing at all to do with Bin Ladin. Nevertheless these guys should google The War of the Worlds to see what can potentially happen if you make a mistake like this one.

[truthpro]

06:56 PM on 05/04/2011

Although it is an O & O, it was a local broadcast and not a national one, you knuckleheads. The Fox news cable channel that everyone loves to hate has no part in this.

[Jabberwock Oclock]

04:55 PM on 05/04/2011

I know that FOX is outright terrible with this kind of stuff, but I will admit that people I know and talking heads that I watch have done this long before now, including myself on at least 1 occasion. Not nearly as bad a situation as this, but still very common. I believe I remember Matt Lauer slipping up one time.

[aaronr2000]

03:25 AM on 05/05/2011

Same here, and a lot of people I talked to who love Obama and hates Osama. I'm not sure how easy it is to make this gaffe in writing, but verbally it happens.

[Logicnotfaith]

03:47 PM on 05/04/2011

Chris Matthews, Dan Rather and a host of others have made the Obama-Osama slip, get over it

[David305]

09:09 PM on 05/04/2011

slipping "Obama" with "Osama" is one thing. Replacing "Osama" with "President Obama" takes a little more effort.

[Sarita]

12:33 PM on 05/04/2011

Why hasn't this guy been fired?

[Eileen Schulte]

09:29 PM on 05/04/2011

Kindly cut this guy some slack. Believe me, no one is more upset at this error than the anchor himself. He's probably endured some mean messages. I feel sorry for him.

[Tampa64789]

11:45 AM on 05/29/2011

Because news anchors make mistakes all the time especially in breaking news. Its a local WTTG affiliate - and these news stations have had to lay off so many people that's it's easy to make this kind of mistake when doing a breaking story like this.

[lezanelson]

08:00 AM on 05/04/2011

Wow. I've never seen a more biased group of reporters and moderators, and I'm not talking about Fox News, either.

[lezanelson]

07:55 AM on 05/04/2011

Fox news wasn't the only one, it's just the only one HP chose to criticize, as usual. HP probably won't post this because they rarely do when I criticize them.

[demimckingwoodtx]

12:41 PM on 05/04/2011

At least they got headlines, lol!

[mmurphy1451]

08:18 AM on 05/05/2011

The article addresses gaffs in general. If you would take the time to actually read the entire article it does include the following:

"Among the most cringeworthy examples was MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell, who tweeted, "Obama shot and killed" before quickly correcting her mistake."

[cliffhammond]

01:30 AM on 05/04/2011

What he meant was that his ratings were dead. Unfortunately for Fox, both Obama and Osama have been resurrected.

[donnyh]

12:07 AM on 05/04/2011

It's not his fault. It was Obama's teleprompter.

[RobinD]

12:29 AM on 05/04/2011

Here we go pick a petty subject and beat up over and over until the false outrage is so old it just dies.

[cliffhammond]

01:34 AM on 05/04/2011

Hey, I'm a radically progressive socialist who refuses to wear a tie but sometimes wears overalls to union meetings, and even I thought that was funny.

[Rockwell]

11:17 PM on 05/03/2011

Its happening a lot. Chris Matthews kept calling Bin Laden "Obama" on his show today.

[Woods-shade]

10:59 PM on 05/03/2011

FOX's Freudian Slip is showing.

[gettingitright]

10:53 PM on 05/03/2011

How come no one on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc. made such a horrible mistake? It just figures it would be someone on FOX since they are such unapologetic Obama haters.