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

[luckyoldson]

Gives new meaning to the white man's catchphrase: "All black people look alike."

[dajay]

I can almost bet that no one on Fox News ever heard of Stephen A. Douglas.

[Pennsylvanianne]

Of course not. Faux is run by a bunch of idiots who apparently not only don't know history but are incapable even of using Google. And those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. All the more reason not to watch Faux!

[hannibalBarca]

The wanna-be news crew!
Posting historically correct and accurate information would actually mean one of those testicles for brains employees of that ever so fine organization Fox would actually had the appropriate education, present of mind, what ever you want to call it. To actually due diligence and research the historical achieves before they posted their dribble and presented that crap called news to the America public as would-be-called facts.
(Ok, I"m done! I"m selling all of my shares of Fox stock!)

The scary thing is they didn"t even have the common decency to do the following:
a. recognized their mistake
b. correct the mistake
c. acknowledge the mistake (to their viewers)
d. apologize for the mistake
What a bunch of lazy, uneducated, arrogant idiots!

And they say inner city schools are educationally inept due to the low resources and funds provided by the local and federal government(s), which furnished the lack of appropriate text books, teachers etc to provide adequate education to the inner city youth!

Well from the serious of mistake made by Fox, you know

[dukeitout]

Can you believe that Fox network? Everyone knows Lincoln was the black guy in the debate. Thanks Sean fo catching this.

[mikebythesun]

Stop the press. Fox didn't do its homework? Holy fukcing shit...

[Quackers]

This wasn't a mistake at all. Some wiseass decided Frederick Douglas could be Obama . I can visualize some knuckledragger at FOX saying" Hey the name's right and the dude is black like Obama, har har har".

[MuchMadness]

Fox & Friends can't keep the McCarthys straight either. They still confuse Joe, Eugene, Charlie, and Jenny.

[laocoon]

Fox's true motto is Anything to make them more ignorant.

[Ronp]

With such a media frenzy afoot I'm surprised no one has raised Fredrick Douglass' "Fourth of July" speech.

[Pyrrhus]

Ronp-

Nope, we lucked out. Fortunately cell phones and Youtube didn't exist in 1852.

Although Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan are rumored to be working on it for a miniseries.

[allpoliticiansaretraitors]

I suspect Ann Coulter DID exist in 1852. Damn vampires.

[adecker31]

Well, 1858...just in the interests of hammering this all down.

Douglas tried to make hay out of labeling Lincoln a flip-flopper oddly enough, and then of course in 1860 he himself was labeled by people within his own (split) party as being a flip flopper ("dancing for eels") - perhaps his analogue politically speaking might be McCain...

Finally, Lincoln was often depicted as a black man by politically motivated cartoonists who wanted to show him as a dangerous extremist. He was not the moderate that text books try to paint him - that would have been more akin to Seward, a tried and true political lifer who, while being a staunch opponent of slavery from the 1830s on, tended to moderate his views on slavery during the 1860 campaign for the Republican nomination. While Lincoln struggle mightily with ideas of race throughout his life, unafraid to turn on his own thoughts or others, it was rightly clear to observers, from Karl Marx to Horace Greeley to the slave owners of South Carolina et al, that Lincoln, while speaking softly and often with honest and grappling confusion in regards to what should be done, was the more radical. His one idea was unity, and eventually his idea of unity was one of justice as it applied to all people, rather than to the platform that he thought would bring this to the people - he moved his political philosophy, it seems to me, from the Constitution to the Declaration of Independence.

[Pyrrhus]

adecker31-

Sorry about the date confusion- I was referring to Frederick Douglass' speech in 1852 not the Lincoln- Douglas debates in 1858. See what Fox News has done to us?

Also agree with your assessment of Lincoln. Though others (like Catton) have suggested he was really for emancipation the whole time, but took him a year or so to get the courage up to issue it. And remember that emancipation is not equal rights by any stretch- a quick read of the dabets shows this- but rather being free from bondage. A contorted proposition at best.

Being depicted as African American was the least of Abe's problems. Edward Stanton used to call him "The original gorilla". And that was when he was in Lincoln's cabinet.

[ErikW65]

This SHOULD affect whether Murdoch is allowed to own any more media!

[lefilmnoir]

Cheap labor.

This is what happens when you hire ignorant 12-year olds.

[escobar]

He is much better looking than Osama...I mean Obama...what does anyone expect from Fox? Too bad "Weekly World News" is no longer in business to compete with them.

[cdub1991]

All of you who think this was done on purpose really are overestimating the intelligence of these people. I guarantee you they were just so ignorant of American history that they didn't even know there was a Stephen Douglas. Or maybe Frederick D.--same difference.

[newworldman777]

I agree. The I.Q. level of the average American is steadily dropping, and at alarming degree. This incident is similar to the one in which Bush's press secretary, Dana Perino, believed that a direct correlation existed between the Cuban missile crisis and the Bay of Pigs. What bothers me is the fact that these people get the good jobs paying the big bucks, while I, with an I.Q. that places me in the top 1% of the country, have never been able to get a decent job in America -- even with six years of college. Absurdity reigns in America.

This disturbing display of such ignorance regarding our history largely explains why people get so up in arms when the Jerimiah Wrights and the Ward Churchills criticize America for our past sins. Most people evidently are not aware that America has past sins -- very large, 800-pound gorilla-types of sins which have profound repercussions and negative legacies, even as I write this. America is obviously going down the crapper. Glad that I chose to remain childless...surely wouldn't want to force children to have to deal with this pitiful downfall.

[torrrep]

That goes to say something about you then now doesn't it?

[bepa]

I hope you get a chance to travel to other nations, because they have people who are more knowledgeable about the world. The problem for America is the very poor news networks and the general culture which does not value intellect.

Try Canada you might like it : )

[HighPlainsJoker]

I tried Germany for 30 years and I still like it. They no more about America than most of the American soldiers here defending them in the war on terror.

[jah2008]

"The I.Q. level of the average American is steadily dropping"

That's pretty obvious when you look at the large number of Hillary Democrats who think she will make a good president.

[lefilmnoir]

Join Mesa and start networking.

[srobert]

Mesa=Mensa?
I don't think IQ's are the problem. It's just that the culture emphasizes acquiring little of what was once considered essential knowledge. I'm experiencing some gaps in my own knowledge now. For example until a few days ago, I'd never heard of Miley Cyrus. I had heard of Frederick Douglass and Stephen Douglas. Guess I've been focused on the wrong things because apparently knowledge of Hannah Montana is more important in America today.

[Soundofthunder]

Some Fox News intern must have believed black people LOVED slavery so much that a black man actually argued in favor of it, or that Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, was a pro-slavery advocate until he debated Frederick Douglas and saw the light.

Delusional or just stupid, it's a hard call.

SOT

[meltingpot101]

That is funny. Ya know I'm not sure it was a mistake, these guys are twisted.

[ghostofgrrrl]

there is not one ounce of me that believes this was a MISTAKE

this is classic Faux News Tactic
just like they "accidentally" put a (D) next to any Rethuglican who gets caught with his pants down

[DeSwiss]

One would have thought that a basic minimum requirement to obtain a broadcast license in the US is that a company's employees be able to pass a high school or GED American History test. But I suppose that this is what one should expect when the majority of your employees are graduates from Liberty or Regent "University."

And that helium trick?, now that's what I call news programming at its finest! Edward R. Murrow would be so proud...

:-|

[nativeeyes]

It's all about playing the RACE CARD with Faux Spews!! NOW it's obvious that they are proven and pathetic RACIST!! O'Racist and Hackky are the are to bunch of mo'rons that would get pick'd in sports and couldn't amount to much in life. So they would just hop in the acestral racism of America to catapult their pathetic careers. Spew hate and you'll get the other racist to jump on board and hate with you..

This just goes to show you, not all people evolved.... Some are stuck in the 60's

GROW UP OR GET A REAL EDUCATION...

[rhetoricus]

This is hardly an accident. This is "Lincoln"= "good guy, freed slaves" vs. his opponent, who must have been a black racist.

These guys are shameless.

[whitewaterwillie]

Well none of the Fox commentators picked up the error. Do you think for a minute that any of the Foxtards are going to pick up on it?

[unscum]

How about a media watching quotient:

Average IQ of a FOX news correspondent + Average IQ of a FOX news watcher

It can't be more than 100.

[allpoliticiansaretraitors]

Actually, don't you mean 'average IQ of a Fox news correspondent + the average IQ of ALL Fox news watchers?

[tcolgan001]

Ever hear this one?:

"I stick to mainstream media for my news. The information on the internet is so unreliable."

Maybe it's time we all start to analyze what we hear and not simply digest it whole.

[Marrob]

They got the skin color correct anyways..Wait a fucking minute. Is this a racial thing playing out here by Fox News Channel? Obama = Black guy Douglas and Clinton = White guy Lincoln??

[dwillisno1]

Fox believes that Fredrick Douglas had the middle name of Hussein.

[oncethere]

Speaking of Frederick Douglas, a slave, Abolitionist and great orator, I heard he had some pretty bad things to say about Southern Whites. This is outrageous, we can't have that. Fox ought to devote some time to exploring his racist comments; maybe have on the show some of the good plantation owners who can enlighten us as to how well they treated their slaves.

[ProfessorDuh]

Lincoln should be made to explain his relationship to this racist Douglass.

[Fathoms]

It's cartoons for the 'adults'.
What a bunch of frickin' maroons! . . .
(. . . with a nod to Bugs)

[qdog112]

OK, they are dumb as rocks, but they are in complete lock -step with the condemnation of Rev. Wright. That should count for something.Membership is renewed to the group think MSM association? Facts, who needs facts. After all, Wright's rants were full of historical facts we missed in school. Was that due to some vast conspiratorial propaganda played on us all way before Fox came to TV? So Fox made a mistake. At least they are largely compliant with accepted journalism, which in my view is lacking in scope and depth.

Fox is low hanging fruit, an easy target. I would like to see more of us demanding MSM take some serious facts of historical significance and explain why certain facts are omitted or distorted. Everyone agrees Rev. Is a nut, but has anyone bothered to research any of his claims? Too easy to dismiss him and his claims. His most outrageous claim is that the US government was involved in the creation of HIV/AIDS. FOX, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC and every other corporate outlet has called this "absurd" and it may be. But sealing the subject rather examining or investigating relies on trusting our government and its well known "propaganda machine." It's so much easier to jump on FOX about a stupid error than to expect an in depth investigation regarding facts brought to you by someone everybody hates, even if it's important. At this rate, FOX will be the standard for what passes for news.