Washington Post issued an apology to Fox News on Friday for its harsh criticism of a Fox news anchor’s accidental NCAA gaffe.
On Tuesday, Fox and Friends First host Heather Childers mistakenly referred to the UConn Huskies Men’s Basketball Team as the “NAACP champions” instead of the NCAA following their defeat of the University of Kentucky.
Ms. Childers quickly corrected herself but the host and Fox News still suffered a barrage of backlash for the mistake, including a harshly worded critique from Washington Post blogger Erik Wemple.
Mr. Wemple called for the network to “pull the plug on the show.”
However, the mix-up between the two acronyms has happened numerous times on other news stations, town hall reported.
In 2010 Wolf Blitzer made the same mistake on CNN while referring to President Obama’s bracket selections.
MSNBC’s Ronan Farrow did the opposite on Thursday, calling the NAACP the NCAA.
Mr. Wemple issued and apology on his blog on Friday to Ms. Childers and Fox News, saying that his original post was too harsh.
“In this space, we’ve been known to criticize Fox News. On Tuesday, for instance, when we participated in something of a pile-on vis-a-vis Fox’s Heather Childers. On the early-morning show “Fox & Friends First,” she confused the NCAA with the NAACP in delivering the news that the University of Connecticut’s men’s basketball team had won the national collegiate championship. “Stupid” mistake, we determined,” the statement read.
“Well, not that stupid. As the post didn’t note, other media folks have made the same goof. We judged too harshly, and our apologies go to Childers and to Fox News.”
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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