Fox News Revises Headline Following White House Criticism

Fox News on Wednesday changed a headline on its website after the White House accused the network of misrepresenting the piece when it sought a Biden administration comment.

The article, centered around a pride flag that hung from the White House portico between two American flags during last weekend’s pride celebration, was originally titled: “White House flew controversial new transgender flag that promotes grooming and pedophilia, say critics.”

Those critics include Jamiee Mitchell, founder of the right-wing group “Gays Against Groomers,” who told the outlet: “The flag represents to us an ideology, a political statement of indoctrinating kids and trans kids and pushing kids to sterilize and mutilate themselves.”

The piece also cited a now-removed TikTok video by the founder of Black Guns Matter, who called it a “pedophile flag.”

The author of the Fox report, Kerry J. Byrne, shared a now-deleted post using language from the original headline.

Andrew Bates, White House deputy press secretary, fired back in a tweet linking the writer’s post, accusing the conservative network of lying to his office about the “foundation of this article” when it sought a White House response.

Bates also referenced Fox News’ $787.5 million defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems. The lawsuit discovery process unearthed documents showing top anchors shared baseless theories around the 2020 presidential election that they knew to be false.

“Fox never even communicated the malicious and discredited foundation of this article to the White House,” Bates wrote. “Then they lie about whether we responded at all.”

In a follow-up tweet, Bates included a screenshot of the email Byrne sent to the White House. The email doesn’t mention that the article would focus on criticism of the flag by right-wing groups, and offers the White House no chance to respond to those critics.

Following Bates’ tweets, Fox adjusted the headline to read: “White House flew controversial new transgender flag that troubles some critics in the gay community.”

The flag in question, called the Progress Pride Flag, isn’t new. It was created by Daniel Quasar in 2018.

“Quasar added a white, pink, and light blue stripe to represent the Trans community,” says the Human Rights Campaign website. “While the black and brown stripes still represented communities of color, the black stripe is also a nod the thousands of individuals that the community lost during the HIV/AIDS crisis in 1980s and 1990s.”

The updated version of the article also added a White House statement that the Progress Pride Flag had been displayed by the administration for the last three years. The article added that the administration “did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment on the flag’s design and meaning.”

Fox News’ parent company wrapped the company’s FOX logo in that same flag in its 2022 corporate social responsibility report.