It was probably the most-watched segment Fox News has aired in months. Last Friday, “Fox and Friends” host Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade, and Gretchen Carlson spent the better part of the morning demonizing Barack Obama over the “typical white person” flap, mainly by removing the quote from context.
Enter “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace. “Hey, listen, I love you guys but I want to take you to task, if I may, respectfully, for a moment,” Wallace said on the air. “I have been watching the show since six o’clock this morning when I got up, and it seems to me that two hours of Obama bashing on this ‘typical white person’ remark is somewhat excessive, and frankly, I think you’re somewhat distorting what Obama had to say.”
It was only a matter of time before Wallace started backpedaling.
On Monday afternoon — with clips of the confrontation having seemingly ricocheted to every far-flung corner of the Web and with everyone from official Obama bloggers to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews rushing to pat Mr. Wallace on the back — [The Observer] caught up with Mr. Wallace via phone. The longtime newsman said that in retrospect he had mixed feelings about making the remarks.
“I didn’t have any second thoughts about the substance because I still believe what I said was right,” said Mr. Wallace. “But after the fact, you do think to yourself — on a professional level with colleagues I very much like and respect — should I have done that off camera?”
“It’s a close call,” said Mr. Wallace. “I’m not sure I’d do it again.”
Oh, Chris. You’d come so far in the minds of so many.