A day after she had referred to Barack Obama as "Osama' and quipped that both of them should get bumped off, Fox News contributor Liz Trotta was given an opportunity today to offer a "clarification," as host Bill Hemmer put it.
After talking for a couple of minutes about Hillary Clinton's own "backtracking" on her comment about the Robert F. Kennedy assassination on Friday, Hemmer noted that "some people" were "criticizing you" for her Osama/Obama remark on Sunday.
Trotta said she was sorry, while also suggesting her remark was nothing particularly unusual or awful in this campaign year.
She said, " Oh yes, I am so sorry about what happened yesterday and the lame attempt at humor. I fell all over myself, making it appear that I wished Barack Obama harm or any other candidate, for that matter, and I sincerely regret it and apologize to anybody I have offended. It is a very colorful political season"-- she chuckled at this point--"and many of us are making mistakes and saying things we wish we had not said."
Hemmer replied: "Clarification noted."
Appearing on Fox News on Sunday, Trotta, a former editor with the Washington Times and broadcast TV journalist, was asked by the host, Eric Shawn, about the Clinton controversy and the 2008 race. This led Trotta to refer to the Clinton misstep.
Trotta, according to the now widely-circulated video, replied, "And now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama, uh Obama. Well, both, if we could." She laughed.
The host, Shawn, clearly understanding how far she had gone, quickly commented: "Talk about how you really feel."
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Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq (Union Square Press, $11). He is editor of Editor & Publisher.