Fox News reported that Pres. Barack Obama held frequent political correctness meetings. But, in fact, he held what were called Principals Committee meetings and Fox News got their “PC’s” mixed up.
The Fox News article, “CIA staff complained about Obama White House’s political correctness, new book claims,” reported on a book by Doug Wead about Pres. Trump’s White House. It originally claimed that an unnamed source in the book said CIA officials were upset about the Obama “PC” meetings.
Fox News blamed its error on the author of the book in question, which made the initial mistake over the meaning of “PC.” The Daily Beast noted, “It didn’t take long, however, for journalists and national-security experts to point out that the ‘PC meetings’ intelligence officials would be grousing about referred to the National Security Council Principals Committee, which is convened by the national security adviser and consists of cabinet-level officials and top advisers.”
iMediaEthics asked Fox News how it learned of the error and how long the article was posted before the editor’s note was added. Fox News pointed to the editor’s note.
An editor’s note attached to the Fox News article now reads:
“EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story accurately quoted the book as describing “PC” as standing for “politically correct” in characterizing certain Obama administration meetings. The author has since informed Fox News this was due to a misunderstanding between him and his source and that the initials referred to “Principals Committee.”
“Next thing they said was that, in the previous administration, they spent a lot of time in the White House doing nonstop PC [political correctness] meetings. They would have a meeting every week, and at the conclusion of the meeting there was always the suggestion, ‘Let’s meet again in two weeks.’ Nothing was ever resolved. Nothing was ever good enough.”
The article’s headline has been changed to “CIA staff complained about Obama White House, new book claims.”
The article now states that the book called them political correctness meetings, but two Obama administration officials and the author of the book later told Fox News the meetings were about the Principals Committee meetings.