For roughly five seconds on Friday, Fox 5 San Diego portrayed an unusual sex-assault suspect: Barack Obama. On the 10 p.m. news, roughly four minutes into the broadcast, anchorwoman Kathleen Bade intoned: “The only suspect in a sex assault at SDSU will not be charged.” Simultaneously, a picture of Obama appeared, captioned, “NO CHARGES.”
Mike Wille, an assignment editor, told the Times of San Diego that people in the newsroom saw the problem immediately, acknowledging, “Yeah, there was an accident when they had an over-the-shoulder” display. “It wasn’t on purpose.”
When asked why the broadcast did not acknowledge the error, Wille told the newspaper: “They really don’t do that when it’s a small thing like that.”
Bade, an Emmy-winning anchor who has been the anchor since Fox 5 San Diego, KSWB-TV started in 2008, continued with the broadcast after the error. Wille said he was unsure when Bade was apprised of the mistake. The faux pas occurred when Bade discussed the District Attorney’s Office eschewing filing charges against 20-year-old Francisco Sousa because of a paucity of evidence.
Wille said the station did not receive any calls protesting the error.
Prior to working at KSWB, Bade was the anchor at CBS8 News.