Fox retracts, you deride

[JollyRoger]

It was George Orwell, who first coined the term "memory hole," in his classic novel 1984. For Winston, the book's main character, his full-time job with the Ministry of Truth is to rewrite history, spiriting away the inconvenient details.

Someone like Winston appears to be hard at work behind the scenes at Fox Nation.

This morning, an article and comment thread related to a piece of satire the site and its readers took seriously, went missing.

The page was preserved through Google Cache, but the comment thread, which showed dozens of loyal Fox readers reacting to a joke story from The Onion as if it were real, is gone.

Some of the comments were preserved by Raw Story in the story below.

For a news outlet to retain credibility, standard industry procedure dictates that reporters and editors not only correct mistakes, but acknowledge them as well. Fox Nation had done neither at time of this writing.

Fox News' opinion website Fox Nation and their readers don't seem to know satire when they see it.

The Fox News sister site re-posted a joke from the satirical website The Onion Friday about President Barack Obama sending a 75,000-word e-mail to the the entire nation. At no point does Fox Nation note that the story is a satire.

The Onion story joked that Obama had "reached the end of [his] rope" and sent out the "rambling" stream of consciousness e-mail that addressed everything from the war in Afghanistan to his live-in mother-in-law.

The story goes on to say that the fake Obama e-mail was 27 megabytes and 127 printed pages.

If Fox Nation knows the story is a joke, they aren't letting on, and many of the comments on the post treat the story as if it were actual news.

"It is really sad that in a time of crisis in this country with troops on foreign soil the economy lack of jobs and now N. Korea once again rattling their saber we have a President sitting in the White House that by what I read in the email is utterly losing it," Goofy1954 wrote. "We can not afford to have him in the White House at such a critical time."

"I must not be on his email list, I didn't get it," another commenter said. "Oh well, I didn't miss anything. He thought running the country was just giving speeches to throngs of people."

"If this story is correct, that he did send out this email, it is very concerning about his current state of mental health," Famnp worried. "I am surprised he would be allowed to send something like this out and if he is not functioning very well why there isn't some attention being paid to his current state."

"This should be enough to have him removed from office immediately......he is now the highest security risk to this nation," Obamababble observed.

"What you are seeing folks is the human unraveling and development of a self-delusional, irrational madman becoming unhinged. Can anyone say Hitler?" Mmttomb3 asked.

Janerogers wrote:

OK. Long, rambling tirade typed at 4 am. Judgement impaired as he didn't think twice before sending it. Didn't think of the consequences. Diagnosis: Bipolar Disorder. And we already know he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Omama is mentally unstable and should be removed from office at once. Can't wait to hear what Charles Krauthammer has to say about this psychotic episode.
Freedomfighter2 said he e-mailed The Onion to ask them to confirm the story.

Markejohn commented:

God Help Us . . . what person in their right mind would send a 75,000 word email.

The guy is losing it and we should all be SCARED . . . Obama is unstable and who knows what he might do
Some commenters have even reported knowing people who received the e-mail. "A friend of mine got the email because she was an Obama supporter," Bettybonnie said. She forwarded it to me. It was pitiful. My friend thinks he is losing it. I told her I knew this a long time ago."

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/fox-nation-readers-confuse-onion-article-real-news/

This story is crazy. Obama obviously didn't send this email. He did it in a series of tweets.

 

[Azale]

So when is Shepard Smith going to weigh in on whether or not Obama is a cactus?

 

[Berzerker]

they're propagandists and they got buckets of blood on their hands

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Best thread title in a while.

And of course, obligatory condemnation and ridicule for failing to fact-check.

 

[Tacitusitis]

So when is Shepard Smith going to weigh in on whether or not Obama is a cactus?

SO much win

And of course, obligatory condemnation and ridicule for failing to fact-check.

TBQH, more ridicule on the right wing commenters for not being able to detect basic humor.

They did a study once that showed a sizable number of conservatives thought Colbert was for real.

 

[Leonel]

HHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I saw the article before it got pulled down. That was a great Thanksgiving laugh for me.

 

[Skwink]

Seems legit to me.

 

[cubsfan6506]

Although i can't really blame the posters who read the story, except for the one who said he had narcissistic personality disorder. Fox should be embarassed.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

Although i can't really blame the posters who read the story, except for the one who said he had narcissistic personality disorder. Fox should be embarassed.

what about the one who said that his friend got the email?

 

[Tacitusitis]

Seems legit to me.

Yes it would seem pretty legit for Obama to exasperated that people think he raised taxes when he cut them, that they don't give him credit for averting a depression, and that they're mad at him for implementing healthcare when that's what he campaigned on.

See, the thing is

 

[Hygro]

Did he explain in his email the high speed bus system? Because that one still doesn't make sense to me

 

[RedRalph]

Did he explain in his email the high speed bus system? Because that one still doesn't make sense to me

No, he explained that through one of his increasingly avant-garde addresses

 

[Tacitusitis]

Did he explain in his email the high speed bus system? Because that one still doesn't make sense to me

He doesn't have time, too many MoveOn emails to delete

 

[Hygro]

which is why I unsubscribed from moveon a number of years ago. I think the Patreus Betray-us was the final straw.

 

[amadeus]

I think the "memory hole" comparison is unfair to FOX... online articles, etc. that have this happen are taken down from the sites all the time and they never put up an explanation page.

 

[Atlas14]

How embarrassing....if this isn't proof of Fox's conservative bias and incompetence to report facts, I don't know what is.

If you are a fan of Fox News, read this and still continue to watch Fox News, then you fail at life. The end.

 

[Cutlass]

"They're not going to let red and green into the classroom...How do you equate red and green with Jesus?...Take away the nativity scene and now you're going to take away red and green?"
— Gretchen Carlson on Fox & Friends, reporting a false story about a Florida elementary school banning Christmas colors. Five years ago Bill O'Reilly was forced to retract a similar false report about a school in Texas.

 

[JollyRoger]

Why do we commie and enviro-commie colors in our classrooms anyway?

 

[Quackers]

I can't believe Obama is writing pointless emails with the country in such a mess.

 

[Theige]

I still think it could be true.

Obama hasn't denied it, nor shown any proof that he did not write a 75,000 word email.

A buddy of mine told me he saw the email on a friend's computer.