Huffington Post apologizes after accusing Fox News of doctoring Romney speech

The Huffington Post has issued an apology for reporting that Fox News Channel had apparently aired doctored footage of Mitt Romney introducing his running mate, Paul Ryan.

The assertion revolved around Romney’s introduction of Ryan as his running mate on Saturday morning, when Romney on one occasion accidentally called Ryan “the next president of the United States.”

Footage that Fox News later aired showed Romney correctly introducing Ryan as “the next vice president of the United States,” leading HuffPo to report that Fox “appears to” have doctored the footage to erase Romney’s mistake.

In reality, Romney introduced Ryan correctly several times as a candidate for “vice president,” and that is where Fox pulled the clip in question from.

The original HuffPo piece credited “a reader” with the now-debunked news tip. “A reader points The Huffington Post to footage from 12:33 ET on Fox News that appears to have been doctored,” read the original story.

HuffPo has since taken down the report and issued an apology for the mistake:

A HuffPost story about Mitt Romney making a mistake during a speech incorrectly indicated that Fox News had edited the video clip to correct Romney calling Paul Ryan the “next President of the United States.” Fox News actually aired footage of another part of Romney’s speech in which he did say “Vice President.” We regret the error, have removed the story, and apologize for the mistake.