Fox News mocked for referring to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras as 'Mexican countries'
Fox News issued an apology on Sunday after it aired a graphic referring to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras as "three Mexican countries."
The incident occurred when 'Fox & Friends' was airing news of President Donald Trump's plans of cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the three Central American countries over the flow of migrants from these regions to the US-Mexico border.
The president has also warned of closing the border altogether.
The report stated, "Trump's action was the culmination of a months-long battle in the U.S. government over the aid program, which grew substantially under the Obama administration and was intended to address the root causes of migration - violence, a lack of jobs and poverty."
As 'Fox & Friends' hosts Ed Henry and Pete Hegseth talked about the president "going full-court press on Mexico" and spoke of "cutting payments, aid payments, to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras," a chyron appeared on the screen, referring to the three nations as "3 Mexican countries."
"We want to clarify and correct something that happened earlier in the show," 'Fox & Friends' host Ed Henry said on Sunday.
"We had an inaccurate graphic on screen while talking about this very story. We just want to be clear, the funding is being cut off to the three Central American countries. We apologize for the error. It never should have happened."
Although the graphic was on the screen for about 30 seconds, multiple social media users noticed it and seized on the embarrassing error as they took to Twitter to mock the television network.
A screenshot of the Fox News chyron was originally shared by the account called @BadFoxGraphics and was swiftly picked up by other journalists too.
CNN's chief media correspondent Brian Stetler shared the image of the graphic on Twitter with the caption: "This is an actual banner from "Fox & Friends Weekend." 6:03 am today. I double checked because I didn't believe it at first."
While Florida radio host Grant Stern tweeted: "Is Fox News staffed by fourth graders?"
A staff writer for the Atlantic Edward Isaac Dovere also took a dig at President Trump's favorite network and tweeted: "So many Mexican countries to choose from."
Actor Ron Perlman wrote: "I guess we should thank God it’s only three Mexican countries. Amd not all of them. (sic)"