How FNC Tried To Apologize To Conyers

What really happened after FNC aired video of John Conyers during coverage of William Jefferson‘s indictment?

The network quickly extended apologies to the congressman. DC bureau chief Brian Wilson called Conyers’ office first. He was told someone would get back to him and no one ever did, a Fox insider says.

On Tuesday morning, Jonathan Godfrey (communications director for the House Committee on the Judiciary) e-mailed FNC’s Capitol Hill producer asking for a correction. “Your bureau chiefs and higher ups don’t need to talk to Conyers. They need to run an on-air apology,” Godfrey apparently told the producer.

DC bureau chief Brian Wilson e-mailed Godfrey and left a voice mail to personally apologize. He said an on-air correction was coming this afternoon.

“We are deeply sorry — and, in fact, mortified — at the mistake. It occurred because of the actions of a very junior member of our library staff in New York. This egregious mistake is getting attention at the very highest levels of our company,” Wilson wrote.

He offered to apologize directly to Conyers. According to the Fox insider, Godfrey forwarded Wilson’s message to Conyers’ press secretary, Melanie Roussell. She later told Wilson that “they had a laugh” over the mistake.

The apology aired on The Live Desk today. After Before it had aired, “an aide to Mr. Conyers” told the NY Sun: “They were very contrite about it and we take them at their word.”

But Godfrey never replied to the e-mail, and didn’t call Wilson back until 5:30pm — after Conyers’ staff started sending around this statement. It expressed offense that FNC “did not personally apologize to Mr. Conyers” — though Wilson offered to, two hours before the on-air apology occurred.

“It didn’t become an issue” until Conyers’ staff realized “they could get ink off of Fox News and turn a junior staffer‘s dumb mistake into something more sinister,” the Fox insider says…

> Update: 1:18am: “The blow-up is serious because the Congressional Black Caucus and FOX are trying to sponsor debates for Democratic candidates and have run into strong opposition from liberal bloggers who view FOX as right-wing and, to put it charitably, insensitive to African Americans,” Josh Gerstein writes…