FOX Issues Apology To Cutler On National Broadcast
(CBS) After broadcasting fake news headlines regarding Bears quarterback Jay Cutler during the Bears season opener, FOX issued an on-air apology Sunday for the fabricated headlines.
During the Bears' 30-12 win over the Falcons, FOX aired graphics of three headlines that said "Cutler leaves with injury", "Cutler lacks courage" and "Cutler's no leader". While the graphics were shown, analyst Darryl Johnson said they were "actual headlines from local newspapers in Chicago" after last season's NFC Championship game against the Packers
"Before we move on, I'd like to go back to week one," Curt Menefee, the co-host of "FOX NFL Sunday" said, reading a statement. "During the Atlanta-Chicago broadcast when one of our production crews doing that game displayed an incorrect graphic. Now the production team told our announcer Daryl Johnston that a taped video package that they aired came from actual headlines concerning quarterback Jay Cutler's during last year's NFC Championship game. Well, in fact, they were not. Fox Sports regrets this mistake and apologizes to Cutler, the Chicago Bears organization and everyone involved."
Earlier in the week, FOX Sports Vice President of Communications Dan Bell issued a similar apology on The McNeil and Spiegel Show stating: "We were just trying to capture the sentiment of what everyone was saying following that game and we didn't. We just used the wrong word."
