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Fox News ripped for airing 11-yr-old pic of bare shelves in JAPAN to slam Biden: 'That's lying'

The graphic aired by Fox showed an image of President Joe Biden superimposed on top of a photo of the bare shelves

Fox News was called out for promoting false information after the network displayed an 11-year-old graphic of empty shelves at a grocery store in Japan to highlight the Biden administration's supply chain failures.

Fox displayed the photo to underscore rising inflation during the opening segment of Fox News Primetime on Wednesday, January 12. The US has experienced a 7% inflation since last December, which is a 39-year high according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The graphic aired by Fox showed an image of President Joe Biden superimposed on top of a photo of the bare shelves. However, eagle-eyed observers pointed out that the image was actually from a 2011 NPR story about residents fleeing the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, Mediaite reported.

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“How can you expect to feed a family in Biden’s America with those food prices?” guest host Rachel Campos Duffy asked after Fox aired clips of shoppers bemoaning steep prices at the grocery store. “Throughout the country, supermarket shelves remain barren," she continued. "From New York to Virginia, all the way to Alaska, people are left without groceries and can’t put dinner on the table. And they are upset. No surprise, #BareShelvesBiden was trending on Twitter. But, perhaps, what is most troubling is this might only be the beginning," she added.

That said, this is not the first time the network has aired photos of empty shelves that are from the past and don't reflect the contemporary US economy. 'The Ingraham Angle' issued a correction in October after airing photos from the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic during a segment about global supply chain problems. Host Laura Ingraham later displayed photos of empty shelves across the county that had been taken within the last couple of days. “I hope that clears some things up for the fact-checkers who were very concerned with the eight seconds from our October 19th show,” she stated.

Supporters of Biden pounced on the opportunity to defend him while blasting Fox News for its bungled reportage. "Japan's supply issues were so awful 11 years ago, Fox repurposed them for America today. This GOP propaganda is pathetic," author Aldous Pennyfarthing tweeted. 

"Fox News used a 10-year-old graphic from Japan as proof of empty shelves to attack the Biden Administration. When will people wake up and stop falling for these disinformation campaigns from the right?" Texas Democrat Russell Foster added. "Let's be damn clear: That's not news. That's called lying, deceit and disinformation," one Twitter user wrote.

"Wassamatter, #FoxNews? Couldn't stage a closed down supermarket yourselves. Lazy," someone else commented. "Just thinking about all those Fox "News" viewers sitting at home smugly thinking how nice it is to live where the store shelves are not empty like those poor other places they keep seeing on TV, oblivious that Fox is showing them 11-year-old footage from another country," another chimed in.

Fox News later issued a correction the following day, saying, "During last night's broadcast we aired a graphic that was believed to contain a current image of empty shelves here in the U.S. It was not and we regret the error.”

While Fox News was mocked on social media for promoting false information, the ongoing supply chain shortages leading to empty store shelves are very real. MEAWW previously reported how the hashtag 'BareShelvesBiden' trended on Twitter as Americans nationwide documented an alarming number of empty shelves in produce, meat, and dairy areas of their local grocery stores. Meanwhile, Biden and his administration have continued to face flak for failing to address the supply chain crisis plaguing the nation.