For once, I might be glad to be wrong

In recent weeks, I and others have made much of Fox's repeated dances around the truth. In the spirit of intellectual honesty, however, I feel obligated to present a recent memo going around Fox's offices, recently leaked to the public. In it, they essentally claim that the recent video splices and the like are purely accidental, and if they are continued, jobs will be lost. As follows:

Subject: Quality Control

We had a mistake on Newsroom today when a wrong book cover went on screen during a guest segment, the kind of thing that can fall through the cracks on any day with any story given the large amount of elements and editorial we run through our broadcasts. Unfortunately, it is the latest in a series of mistakes on FNC in recent months. We have to all improve our performance in terms of ensuring error-free broadcasts. To that end, there was a meeting this afternoon between senior managers and the folks who run the daytime shows in which expectations were reviewed, and the following results were announced:
Effective immediately, there is zero tolerance for on-screen errors. Mistakes by any member of the show team that end up on air may result in immediate disciplinary action against those who played significant roles in the "mistake chain," and those who supervise them. That may include warning letters to personnel files, suspensions, and other possible actions up to and including termination, and this will all obviously play a role in performance reviews. So we now face a great opportunity to review and improve on our workflow and quality control efforts. To make the most of that opportunity, effective immediately, Newsroom is going to "zero base" our newscast production. That means we will start by going to air with only the most essential, basic, and manageable elements. To share a key quote from today's meeting: "It is more important to get it right, than it is to get it on." We may then build up again slowly as deadlines and workloads allow so that we can be sure we can quality check everything before it makes air, and we never having to explain, retract, qualify or apologize again. Please know that jobs are on the line here. I can not stress that enough. I will review again during our Monday editorial meeting, and in the days and weeks ahead. This experience should make us stronger editorially, and I encourage everyone to invest themselves one hundred and ten percent in this effort.

Now, given Fox's long track record of 'errors' like these, I am DEEPLY cynical about this. My instincts tell me to interpret this as either a "hey, lay low, people are noticing" or, alternately, an intentional 'leak' aimed at damage control. HAVING SAID THAT, this is a case where I would absolutely love to be proven wrong. As such, I'm going to do my best to suspend my natural cynicism, and adopt a 'wait and see' approach. Fox presents a right-wing view on matters, that's their stock in trade, there's nothing likely to change there, but I hold out hope that just maybe, these little 'glitches', as with the party mislabeling for Republicans under scandal in times past, have really been simple mistakes. Hey, you never know.

Hat Tip: TPM