Huffington Post (echoing Gawker) just caught the Fox Network putting Baghdad in the wrong country. Such mind-numbing errors must be no surprise to Media Matters For America, who do a great job tracking Fox News follies. But this new one's a Daily Kos exclusive.
With just a one minute Google search, Fox News might have avoided another face-palm moment, this one related to the Mars landing. FoxNews.com has, in effect, reported (erroneously, it would appear) that there is Twitter on Mars. Taking nothing whatsoever away from the brilliance of the technology, nor from the dedication and insight of the responsible NASA engineers and other professionals, Curiosity's Twitter account has used first-person humor to great effect; the tweets are written as if they are relayed from the rover itself. And Fox News has fallen for the joke:
"... [Curiosity] won't be able to release higher resolution images for a few days, the rover itself happily chirped on Twitter..."
That statement from Fox News
linked to this image:
Although I found the tweet amusing, I found the Fox News assertion an unlikely prospect. It took just a few seconds for me to discover that "a trio of NASA social-media specialists are behind the account." (If Curiosity really was tweeting, wouldn't these be tech guys instead of social-media?)
Actually, Fox News didn't need to search the web. They could simply have followed Curiosity Rover's Twitter history, and they would have discovered this first tweet (from 2008):
That, plus a moment of reflection might have bailed them out of yet another faux pas. Maybe Fox News can blame it on the AP, which contributed to their report.
1:36 AM PT: A search for "rover itself happily chirped on Twitter" turned up the article at Fox News as the oldest, one hour earlier than any other articles containing those words. I think Fox News gets full credit for this blunder.