An Obama rape graphic (shown above) is probably one of those facepalm moments that the producers behind Fox 5 News wish they had back.
The President of the United States was implicated in a San Diego sexual assault case when his picture was mistakenly shown during a live broadcast.
Unfortunately for the network, it went viral and ended up on the front page of reddit before it could be scrubbed from the Internet.
Anchorwoman Kathleen Bade gave the details on this story, not aware that she was about to become a central player in a viral mishap.
“The only suspect in a sex assault at SDSU will not be charged,” she stated as the “NO CHARGES” caption ran along with a picture of the President.
Mike Wille, an assignment editor, said that everyone in the newsroom noticed the foul-up immediately, but the broadcast continued for 56 minutes longer with no acknowledgment of what had occurred.
“Yeah, there was an accident when they had an over-the-shoulder” display, Wille told Times of San Diego. “It wasn’t on purpose.”
Wille also explained why there was no apology or acknowledgement.
“They really don’t do that when it’s a small thing like that.”
In the actual case on which Bade, an Emmy winner, was reporting, the District Attorney’s Office had decided to not file charges against 20-year-old Francisco Sousa “because the evidence was weak.”
Here’s the video from the broadcast.
Online, commenters were not so dismissive of the Obama rape graphic.
“If I made this ‘accident’ at work, I would not only be fired — I would be sued. Yet when the Republican Party’s cable network made the ‘accident,’ they just shrugged and said it wasn’t intentional. Is there REALLY anyone out there who believes the network’s ‘news’ shows are news?”
[Side note: this was a Fox affiliate, not the Fox News cable channel, but you can see how people were upset.]
Another commenter said they didn’t “believe by any stretch of the imagination that these low life racists [sic] m***s accidentally posted the picture of POTUS but unfortunately I feel it was intentional.”
Others saw some humor in it.
“This made me laugh until I almost cried,” wrote one. “LOLOL,” another.
And some saw it as a chance to attack the President, noting that “truth be told, ovomit [disparaging reference to Obama] should be facing a host of charges, any of which should land him in a prison cell for the remainder of his unnatural life.”
One thing is certain, as seen in the reaction to the Obama rape graphic — love him or not, the President has made an impact.
What do you think, readers? Was this just an unfortunate mistake, or did the network intentionally use the Obama image for the rape suspect?