Making stuff up at Fox

Ready for another lesson in how voters learned about the 2024 presidential campaign? We'll start with the No. 5 story on the Fox News homepage, around 8:30 a.m. Oct. 26.

First, a little gaffe context. This is Fox's 19th unique headline of 2024* using "gaffe." Of those, 12 gaffes belong to Biden, two to Tim Walz, and one each to Chuck Schumer (bad grilling technique in a social media post), Bill Clinton (something something border something crime), the Pentagon (too DEI for comfort), "Pittsburgh sandwich shop" (being mean to JD Vance) and Donald Trump (mentioned by Nikki Haley in a Republican debate after he had "seemed to confuse" her with Nancy Pelosi). Gaffing, you may fairly infer, is distinctly directional at Fox.

Now, was this actually a gaffe, and if so, what kind? We can (literally) go to the videotape on that, but first, let's enjoy the Fox text:

President Biden sparked confusion during a mumbling saga, remarking that there was ‘nothing wrong’ with him as he discussed Sen. Mark Kelly's wife in the past tense.

"I'm Joe Biden, I'm Jill Biden's husband. And God, thank you for the introduction to the Gila Indian River community here… the Gila… nothing wrong with me. The Gila River Indian community for welcoming me today," he said while visiting the Indian Reserve on Friday.

One lie is evident from the text: the "nothing wrong with me" bit has nothing to do with Gabby Giffords. You can find another lie from the video (at the one posted by the White House, it's around the 19:00 mark). The person he's addressing isn't "God," but "Gov" -- as in Stephen Lewis, governor of the Gila River Indian Community, who had just introduced him (and praised Jill Biden in the process, if you're wondering how she got into the quote). You'll also note a beat for reaction after the "Jill Biden's husband" line.

The big thing you'll probably notice is what "nothing wrong with me" is doing, which is speech repair. When you get a words couple out order of, as Biden did, you might or might not notice. If you do notice, you can either sail blithely on or fix it. Following Levell and Cutler (1983), you can cut down on the audience's confusion a bit by drawing attention to the repair. Note the beat after "nothing wrong with me"; the laughs suggest that the audience picked up on the repair correctly. But back to our story:

"You know, I say this with all sincerity, this, to me, is the most consequential thing I've ever had the opportunity to do in my whole career as President of the United States," he said. "It's an honor, a genuine honor, to be in this special place on this special day."

Another lie. Biden -- news flash -- mumbles a lot, but even if you're dickish enough to transcribe it as "wunnada" instead of "one of the," there's unquestionably more going on between "is" and "most consequential" than Fox indicates. And if you need another cue, "things" is clearly plural.

Those are also in the subtitles. If Fox wants to assert its journalistic independence by not trusting the White House transcription, that's fine, but -- OK, let's just say, leaving-your-business-card-at-the-crime-scene-wise, that Fox is not the sort of people you want on your side in a sophisticated fraud spree. But on to the substance of the gaffe:

Biden offered Sen. Mark Kelly, D-AZ, a shoutout, and then referred to Kelly's wife, former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, D-AZ, in the past tense.

"It is an honor, a genuine honor to be in this special place on this special day," he added.** "Thank you to Senator Mark Kelly, a great friend who also was married to an incredible woman [Giffords] who was my friend."

Those two cases of "was/is/'s" are -- to be fair -- a little trickier, but I don't hear the "w" clearly in either of them. Given that the transcription has a better record than Fox does so far (and got his speech repair and the response), I'd be happy to trust my ear on that -- if, for some reason,  it was worth mentioning. If the whole story isn't a lie, it's hanging from a fearfully thin thread.

Should you be wondering what struck Biden as so consequential (or what evidence there might be that he sparked "confusion" in anybody but a dimwitted Fox reporter), too bad. Fox is in the outrage business, not the news business. Other outlets, though, were paying attention; here's NPR (which even quotes Gov. Lewis on the importance of the "Native voter wall"):

President Biden on Friday formally apologized for the federal government's Native American boarding schools, calling it a "horrific era" in the nation's history.

“The federal government has never, never formally apologized for what happened. I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did,” he told Native American tribes and others gathered at the Gila Crossing Community School at the Gila River Indian Community outside Phoenix. “It’s long overdue.”

Somehow the mysterious Confusing Past Tense seems to have blown right by NPR. 

Just for comparison, here's the No. 2 story on the page from around 12:30 p.m. the same day. Trump is rallying the faithful in Traverse City, Michigan:

"You know where she is tonight?" Trump asked the crowd. "She's out partying. So Israel is attacking. We've got a war going on, and she's out partying. At least we're working to make America great again. That's what we're doing. Kamala, Kamala, she's the worst president in the history of our country."

Promoting Harris to the presidency is so gaffely that Fox keeps track of it, at least under some circumstances (neither of these seems to have made the top of the page):

The gaffe marks the latest instance in which Biden has mistakenly referred to Harris as the "president," which has happened on at least six prior occasions. (Nov. 6, 2023)

Though the reporting seems a little shaky on that score as well:

President Biden referred to Vice President Harris as "president" at least five times throughout his term, according to a new Fox News Digital analysis. (Aug 6, 2024)

You learned a lot if you were a Fox reader in the waning weeks of the campaign. Too bad none of it made you smarter.
 

* Four screen grabs a day of the top 10 stories.
** No he didn't . Roll the tape.