Fox Affiliate Confuses Baltimore With Venezuela

By now, many people have seen the incredible photos depicting downtown Baltimore in flames during the recent protests over the death of Freddie Gray, as previously reported by the Inquisitr. Flames sweep across an entire city block as an easily-identifiable McDonalds burns alongside trees and apartment buildings.

The photo, shared by Fox 13 Memphis on Facebook during a fire at a CVS pharmacy in Baltimore, as reported by CNN, unfortunately does not depict the fire in question — or the city, as a keen-eyed Imgur user spotted that the picture was actually from the Venezuela riots 15 months ago; a far cry from Baltimore.

“Now I understand why people mock Fox news so much…..”

The Imgur post racked up over 80,000 views before Fox 13 Memphis took note, and is currently over 140,000 views. The original post was captioned “BALTIMORE IN FLAMES: A massive fire has broken out in a building that was under construction and the Baltimore mayor’s spokesman says it’s related to the riots…” ReverbPress reported on the error and Fox 13 Memphis‘ subsequent correction, also issued via Facebook.

“We messed up. As violent protests broke out in Baltimore Monday night a member of our team posted a photo of buildings burning and people rioting. It wasn’t Baltimore. Our team didn’t fact check the picture the way we should have. We know you depend on FOX13 for accurate information. We will work to hold ourselves to a higher standard as we post to this page.”

In this case, while the mistake was surely embarrassing, Fox 13 is likely feeling grateful that it was picked up so quickly; it’s very common for mistakes like this to be picked up by news outlets everywhere and published to the world before the mistake is spotted, and likely very few could tell Baltimore apart from Venezuela in an image such as this one.

As The Examiner notes, the Baltimore protests have not made for a good week for Fox News in general, as several Fox News personalities ranted about the Baltimore riots, culminating in a face-off between Fox News reporter Geraldo Rivera and a Baltimore protestor, as reported by MSNBC. Twenty-year-old Kwame Rose stood in front of Rivera’s camera and told the reporter to leave Baltimore.

“This is my city. This is our city. We want you gone.”

Rivera, 71, later declared the interruption of his Baltimore broadcast to be “annoying” and “obstructionist” in spite of the fact that Rose was hardly the only Baltimore protester to make it clear they did not want Rivera there. Rose later told The Guardian that he “still can’t fathom” what had happened.

“I still can’t fathom the thought that that’s me. I didn’t do it for the attention … I hope everyone understands that it was a genuinely raw moment.”

[Photo courtesy Imgur user popoteloco]