Anna Kooiman, a Fox News Channel anchor, has apologized for falsely saying that President Barack Obama had offered to pay for the operation of a museum of Muslim culture “out of his own pocket” during the government shutdown.
Anchor Anna Kooiman made the remark Saturday on “Fox & Friends” during a discussion about closed facilities. She said it didn’t seem fair that a World War II monument in Washington was closed, especially in the context of other things funded.
“The Republican National Committee is offering to pay for it to keep it open so that the veterans from Honor Flight are going to be able to go and see this because who did it honor? It honored them. It really doesn’t seem fair, especially -- and we’re going to talk a little bit later in the show too about some things that are continuing to be funded,” she said. “And President Obama has offered to pay out of his own pocket for the museum of Muslim culture out of his own pocket, yet it’s the Republican National Committee who’s paying for this.”
She didn’t name her source, but Kooiman appeared to be influenced by a satirical news site that said Obama would use his own money to keep a Muslim culture museum open.
The report on the National Report claimed that Obama held a press conference to say that he was going to use his own money to help keep the “International Museum of Muslim Cultures” open.
“I have taken it upon myself to use my own personal funds to re-open this historic piece of American culture,” he said.
No such museum exists.
The satirical report has 100,000 shares and dozens of comments, with some people believing that it is real.
The website said in a disclaimer that has since been removed: “National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental.”
At the bottom of its website it still includes several lines pointing to its status as a fake news site, including “The National Report is an online portal for ‘citizen journalists.’ The views expressed by writers on this site are theirs alone and are not reflective of the fine journalistic and editorial integrity of National Report.”
Kooiman tweeted an apology Sunday. It’s not clear yet whether the mistake will be addressed on the air.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
