Fox News Mistakenly Shows Sen. Kamala Harris In Alert About Shooting Suspect, Apologizes
Fox News messed up majorly during a Tuesday morning broadcast, showing images of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) during an alert about a shooting suspect and registered sex offender at the University of Utah.
The network later aired a correction and an apology.
The initial report concerned a student shot dead outside a dorm at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. As host Jillian Mele mentioned the suspect ― Melvin Rowland, a registered sex offender believed to be the victim’s ex-boyfriend ― images of Harris appeared on screen instead.
Fox News ran footage of @KamalaHarris during a segment about a murderer/sex offender thought to be on the loose. pic.twitter.com/t18JTI4xOD
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) October 23, 2018
About 45 minutes later, Fox News corrected its error and aired the alert again, this time with an image of Rowland.
“Now in an earlier version of this story, we showed you the wrong video,” Mele said. “We showed you pictures of Senator Kamala Harris instead of Melvin Rowland’s mug shot. We apologize for that error.”
About 45 minutes later they got the correct footage and "apologize[d] for that error." pic.twitter.com/tY1AA04uDP
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) October 23, 2018
The error did not go unnoticed on social media:
dafuq https://t.co/7eaUfCwyKi
— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) October 23, 2018
Trump's favorite channel @FoxNews uses photos of @KamalaHarris to depict a murder suspect in Utah. #WhenAnyBlackWillDopic.twitter.com/19qLmhPjLC
— Mark Elliott (@markmobility) October 23, 2018
Fox News “accidentally” shows footage of @KamalaHarris instead of a perpetrators mugshot because there is no bottom. https://t.co/IhqSCzyUK0
— Molly Jong☠️Fast (@MollyJongFast) October 23, 2018
I’m sure Fox News running footage of Kamala Harris during a segment about a black male murderer was just a totally not racist accident like when they spelled Jared Kushner “Jared Kosher” and Obama “Osama”.
— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) October 23, 2018
This wasn't a mistake. https://t.co/rHiEwpwUev
— Rick Waldron (@rwaldron) October 23, 2018
Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.