Fox News got their Queens of Soul mixed up on Thursday. But just in case they were hoping no one noticed, there’s a video floating around on Twitter and it was an epic fail.
The mishap occurred during an “America’s Newsroom” segment with hosts Bill Hemmer and Sandra Smith, who were reporting on Aretha Franklin’s legacy. Hemmer said, “She sang with a smile on her face when she performed, and that is what she emitted for so many millions and for so many years.”
Yep here's video pic.twitter.com/IIkMDuKB7e
— Zachary Pleat (@zpleat) August 16, 2018
The main picture is right, but behind the “Respect” singer you can see a picture of Patti LaBelle dressed in green in the upper right corner. The image comes from when LaBelle sang for Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House in 2014.
Fox apologized in a statement obtained by Variety. “We sincerely apologize to Aretha Franklin’s family and friends,” a Fox News spokesperson said. “Our intention was to honor the icon using a secondary image of her performing with Patti LaBelle in the full-screen graphic, but the image of Ms. Franklin was obscured in that process, which we deeply regret.”
To play devil’s advocate, Franklin did perform that night but she wasn’t in that picture and didn’t share the stage with LaBelle.
