Last Call

Hey look, FOX rolled the wrong video suggesting crowds for a teabagger event were really much larger than the crowds actually at the event being reported on. Hey look, this is not the first time they've done this even this month. Hey look, Think Progress caught them red-handed again.

This afternoon, Fox News host Gregg Jarrett proudly announced that Sarah Palin is “continuing to draw huge crowds while she’s promoting her brand new book. Take a look at — these are some of the pictures just coming into us.” But the pictures that the network chose to display on-air appeared to be old file footage of Palin rallies from the 2008 presidential campaign. Individuals in the crowd are seen holding McCain/Palin signs, and others are holding pom-poms and cheering wildly. “There’s a crowd of folks,” an enthused Jarrett observed, referring to the old footage.

Hey look, nobody at FOX News gives a damn. Fair and balanced, you know...

...but wait! With the Obama administration attacking FOX News as being nothing more than a propaganda arm of the GOP, suddenly there's a lot more scrutiny on FOX about their journalistic integrity and practices.

The unwelcome mishap follows soon on the heels of another FOX Pas - when the network's Sean Hannity ran video of a hugely attended TEA Party protest rally in Washington in September as Hannity was talking about a less-attended Nov. 4 rally outside the Capitol.

Comedy Central's Jon Stewart called out Hannity on that video, and Hannity apologized, on air, for what he called an "inadvertent'' error. Hannity has a book-tour interview of Palin on his show tonight, and we're betting Stewart's Daily Show crew will be watching.

So, as you might suspect, the No. 1-rated cable news network is taking today's mixing of videos quite seriously;

How seriously?

The Swamp hears tonight that it's highly like that serious disciplinary action will be taken for those responsible behind the scenes in the control room. News executives there consider this to have been a sloppy and unnecessary error.

It's only a sloppy and unnecessary error if you get caught, you mean.