Fox News edits video to make it appear Biden used racist slur about Satchel Paige

For two days, Fox News repeatedly promoted the false claim that President Joe Biden used the word “negro” when referring to baseball legend Satchel Paige. Video of Biden’s speech showed that he was actually referencing the Negro Leagues, where Paige played.

In a speech at Arlington National Cemetery in honor of Veterans Day on Thursday, Biden used an anecdote about Paige to make a joke about his own age.

At one point, Biden appears to stutter while talking about Paige, who was a pitcher in the Negro Leagues and, later, in Major League Baseball. Biden has spoken in the past about his struggles with stuttering, which he has dealt with since childhood.

Conservative media latched on to Biden’s verbal misstep, taking it out of context to make it look as though Biden had referred to Paige as “the great negro.”

Here is the full context of Biden’s quote that Fox News left out:

I want to welcome all the Cabinet members and honored guests joining us today, including the father of our Secretary of State, who served in the Army Air Corps during World War Two, Ambassador Donald Blinken, whose birthday is today. Happy Birthday. Thank you for your service to our country.

 

And I just want to tell you, I know you’re a little younger than I am, but, you know, I’ve adopted the attitude of the great Negro — at the time, pitcher in the Negro Leagues — went on to become a great pitcher in the pros — in the Major League Baseball after Jackie Robinson. His name was Satchel Paige.

 

And Satchel Paige, on his 47th birthday, pitched a win against Chicago. And all the press went in and said, “Satch, it’s amazing — 47 years old. No one’s ever, ever pitched a win at age 47. How do you feel about being 47?” He said, “Boys, that’s not how I look at it.”  They said, “How do you look at it, Satch?” He said, “I look at it this way: How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?”

 

I’m 50 years old and the ambassador is 47.

On Thursday night, Fox News host Sean Hannity said Biden’s comments were “disturbing” and “troubling.”

On Friday, “Fox & Friends” edited out Biden’s reference to the Negro Leagues entirely to make it appear as though he’d used a racial slur to refer to Paige.

On a third Fox News program, substitute host Julie Banderas claimed Biden was “drawing new ridicule with his latest gaffe” and introduced the clip by saying, “Let’s cringe together.”

Fox News also falsely portrayed Biden’s comment in a story on its website headlined, “Biden calls Satchel Paige ‘the great negro’ in latest gaffe.”

In a fact check, Politifact noted, “Biden was in the process of describing Paige as a great Negro Leagues pitcher, but stumbled with his words and initially stopped at the word ‘Negro.'”

Fox News has a long history of deceptively editing videos of Democrats in an attempt to make them look bad. When former President Barack Obama was in office, Fox News routinely took his comments out of context by using deceptive video and sound editing techniques.

The network has also edited videos to make Republicans look better. After attendees booed former President Donald Trump at the 2019 World Series, “Fox & Friends” edited the booing out.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.