Fox News apologises for Kerry fabrication

 Oliver Burkeman in New York
Monday October 4, 2004
The Guardian

 Fox News, the influential rightwing US television network, said yesterday it
had "reprimanded" its chief political correspondent after its website carried
fabricated quotes attributed to John Kerry, in which he called himself a
"metrosexual" who enjoys getting manicures.

The network, owned by Rupert Murdoch, apologised for the article in which the
Democratic challenger was quoted telling a rally in Florida: "Didn't my nails
and cuticles look great? What a good debate!" Comparing himself to the
president, Mr Kerry was supposed to have said: "I'm metrosexual - he's a
cowboy." Women voters, he purportedly added, "should like me! I do
manicures."

The article appeared under the byline of Carl Cameron, who has been following
Mr Kerry on the campaign trail. It had been posted on the site, the network
said in a statement, because of "fatigue and bad judgment, rather than
malice."

"Carl Cameron made a stupid mistake and he has been reprimanded for his lapse
in judgment. It was a poor attempt at humour and he regrets it," a Fox
spokesman, Paul Schur, told the Los Angeles Times, though he would not give
details of what action would be taken against Mr Cameron.

The "metrosexual" story taps into a persistent theme underlying the election
race, in which the Republican party and its supporters in the media have
sought to make a campaign issue of the candidates' perceived masculinity.

At the party's convention in New York last month, California governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger called Mr Kerry's advisers "economic girlie-men".

A metrosexual, the fake Fox article helpfully concluded, "is defined as an
urbane male with a strong aesthetic sense who spends a great deal of time and
money on his appearance and lifestyle".