Fox Affiliate News Channel Mistakenly Identifies President Obama as Rape Suspect; Apologizes Two Nights Later
Fox News affiliate KSWB-TV San Diego, California, apologized two nights after it mistakenly presented a photograph of President Barack Obama as an exonerated rape suspect.
The suspect, San Diego State University student Francisco Paiva Sousa, 20, was arrested last December on charges of oral copulation with force and false imprisonment with force by campus police.
In a report at about 10:04 p.m. Friday night, KSWB-TV anchor Kathleen Bade revealed that Sousa, who was the only suspect in the sexual assault case, would not be charged by the district attorney's office because the evidence against him is weak. While the report was being made, however, a picture of Obama appeared with the legend "NO CHARGES."
Mike Wille, an assignment editor at the news channel, told the Times of San Diego that the mistake lasted about 5 seconds and they had noticed it immediately.
"Yeah, there was an accident when they had an over-the-shoulder" display said Wille. "It wasn't on purpose."
He explained that the news channel did not apologize for the blunder right then because: "They really don't do that when it's a small thing like that."
On Sunday night, however, Fox 5 anchor Misha DiBono delivered an on-air apology for the error.
"And we have an apology now. Friday night at 10 o'clock, we inadvertently used a photo of President Obama while reporting on a story about charges being dropped in a local case. We regret the error," she said.
A top spokesman for the station's corporate parent acknowledged that Fox 5 San Diego "made a very unfortunate mistake during Friday evening's newscast" according to the report.
