Fox's shocking blunder

March is National Women's History Month. What better way for Fox to showcase all of the powerful women set to be at the State Capitol to celebrate than to air this segment on their show?

Shocked? So was I... I knew that it was National Women's month but I had no idea that this had occurred on one of the nation's leading news channels. How could they have let this happen? Even the broadcaster seems absolutely shocked and stumbles on her lines while discussing the story. Did someone switch out the video that was supposed to be shown? 

Whatever the case, this was obviously detrimental to the news outlet's reputation. The video emerged on various blogs and eventually ended up on other media outlets' shows. This quickly became a crisis and required Fox's PR team to step in and handle the situation. Fox immediately posted an apology on their Facebook page. The apology stated: 

“FOX CT apologizes for mistakenly airing inappropriate file footage in conjunction with this morning’s report on Women’s Day at the Connecticut State Capitol. The video should never have aired. FOX CT will publicly apologize on today’s newscasts, as well as through our social media platforms. We are also implementing procedures to keep this from happening in the future.”

Okay, so they apologized. However, my initial reaction to this was why is that video even in existence? Additionally, Fox never explained why this blunder had occurred. It is good that they apologized, however, in my opinion, this was something that required an explanation. 

Fox was asked what consequences would be faced by whoever was responsible and the network refused to comment. Despite the sheer absurdity of the video, this is a prime example of a crisis communications gone wrong. I do applaud Fox for immediately apologizing. 

However, it is necessary to give an explanation for something like this no matter how dumb it makes the organization look. Also, someone should be held responsible because it was simply disrespectful and the culprit deserves to endure consequences. By not giving the source of the blunder, Fox is making it seem like they perhaps thought this was completely acceptable, allowing for them to be put in an even more negative light.

To read the full Ragan article, click here.