Obama depicted as rape suspect in Fox 5 news channel error

A snapshot of U.S. President Barack Obama was mistakenly used to represent a suspect in a college rape case by Fox News affiliate Fox 5 San Diego in recent days.

At 10:04 pm on Friday, anchor Kathleen Bade said: “The only suspect in a sex assault at SDSU will not be charged” as a picture of Obama appeared with the caption “NO CHARGES.”

The shot stayed on screen for about five seconds but was noticed immediately, assignment editor Mike Wille told the Times of San Diego.

“Yeah, there was an accident when they had an over-the-shoulder” display, Wille said. “It wasn’t on purpose.”

The news station has apologized for the incident, at 10:31 pm on Sunday anchor Misha DiBono read this statement:

“And we have an apology now. Friday night at 10 o’clock, we inadvertently used a photo of President Obama while reporting on a story about charges being dropped in a local case. We regret the error.”