Fox Claims To Offer “Context” For Obama Comments -- Then Airs Another Deceptively Edited Clip

Fox News dishonestly addressed its deceptively edited version of President Obama's “you didn't build that” comments with an even more egregious form of editing. While claiming to be providing the missing context, Fox edited out the portion of Obama's comments where he discussed the role government plays in building roads, bridges, and “this unbelievable American system.”

Last Monday, Fox manufactured a fake controversy by cutting a crucial portion of President Obama's speech to portray them as an attack on business owners. As Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent noted, the idea that Obama said business owners do not deserve credit for building their businesses only works if the comments are stripped of their broader context - a celebration of the American infrastructure that helps private enterprise thrive. 

As if to prove Sargent's point, Fox & Friends played another version of the clip today:

OBAMA: You've been successful. You didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own! I'm always struck by people who think well, it must be because I was so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something, there's a whole bunch of hard working people out there.

[...]

If you have a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.

This edit is even worse than Fox's previous distortion. Here is the president's speech with the parts not included by Fox & Friends in bold:

OBAMA: If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. 

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. 

Rather than simply airing a single sentence completely divorced from its context, Fox has now actively edited the critical passage out of a longer portion of Obama's speech.