Colbert ‘Forces’ Fox News To Apologize To Dominion With Doctored Video Of Fox Hosts
CBS host Stephen Colbert and his team fabricated a fake “apology” from Fox News over the Dominion settlement by selectively editing video clips of Fox personalities in an effort to humiliate the news network.
Fox News agreed to a settlement this week that included a $787.5 million payout in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit that was just about to play out in a weeks-long trial after volumes of damaging revelations were publicized pretrial.
The settlement has drawn criticism because it also included a tepid and conspicuously non-apologetic “acknowledgment” of “the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false,” and did not require an apology or retraction.
But the full Fox News statement, as read here by CNN’s Jake Tapper, reveals that the settlement is just a reflection of the network’s high standards:
“Fox issued a statement saying, ‘We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute.’ (laughs) “dispute.”
‘…dispute with Dominion Voting Systems. We acknowledge the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects’–I’m sorry. This is going to be difficult to say with a straight face.
‘This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards,’ (makes face) ‘We are hopeful that our’–sorry. ‘We are hopeful that our decision to resolve the dispute with Dominion amicably instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues.’
Without a trace of irony, the host and producers of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert took matter into their own hands by doctoring video of Fox News personalities — and former President Donald Trump — to create a completely fabricated “apology” in an attempt to attack the highest journalistic standards by violating them.
Host Stephen Colbert introduced the fabricated apology by falsely claiming that he and his show were “making” Fox News “apologize on our network” — then played clips that were strung together from other contexts to create the doctored apology:
STEPHEN COLBERT: Fox News is out of a whole lot of money, but they’re not telling their viewers any of that and they don’t have to because the settlement does not force them to own up to the damage they did to our country or apologize on their network. So… (crowd boos) We feel the same way. So we’ve decided to make them apologize on our network.
FOX NEWS PERSONALITIES MISLEADINGLY EDITED: Before we go tonight, we want to say we’re sorry to Dominion and to the American people. We here at Fox News lied to you about the 2020 election. Repeatedly and consistently. We admit that we are guilty of amplifying those voices. Insane people like this guy. Hello, I’m Mike Lindell. A guy like this is given a platform because we want to make sure when you are watching Fox News, it will make you dumber. My original. My slippers are back in stock. Please take us off television before we allow these crooks to turn our country into dumps. Big, massive dumps.
Journalistic standards do not permit the sort of manipulation employed by Colbert and his staff.
Watch above via The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.