WFAN radio host Mike Francesa is long known for his “I never said that!” comments when anyone brings up something inconvenient he previously said on-air. On Friday, he tried that tactic again, blasting the New York Post story that discussed his comments that the parents of the young girl hit in the face by a foul ball at Yankee Stadium Wednesday “weren’t paying attention.” In comments Friday, Francesa said “I guess the Post wrote a story saying that I criticized her parents. To say that I said, or, they have a headline saying that I said the parents should have protected her, that is completely wrong. I never said that.” The problem? The Post story included audio of Francesa’s original comments, where he did in fact say that. Regular Francesa fact-checker Funhouse (@BackAftaThis) caught Francesa out on this Friday, releasing both his new comments and his original comments:
https://twitter.com/BackAftaThis/status/911402995631443968
From Friday: “We were talking before, I guess, about the foul ball and the tragic accident with the little girl, and I guess the Post wrote a story saying that I criticized her parents. To say that I said, or, they have a headline saying that I said the parents should have protected her, that is completely wrong. I never said that. And I did not say one thing, in any way, saying they were in any way responsible for what happened to her. That was an accident, that’s all it is, and that’s just them looking for a headline and to get some hits on their website. Which is typical of how they do their business and how all the newspapers do their business. I did not say anything, anything, about that family. Not one word. And to say I did is an absolute lie. Back after this.”
From Wednesday, which was initially another Funhouse tweet embedded in the Post story:
“No, I’m telling you her parents weren’t paying attention,” Francesa said (cutting off a caller who asked if the child was on a cell phone). “They’ve got to be able to protect — you couldn’t protect the person sitting next to you, in the seat next to you? You couldn’t protect the person next to you?”
Yeah, that’s definitely Francesa saying what he didn’t say he said. And, as that clip shows, he went on to blast the Post further for saying he said what he said:
“What annoyed me, just back to the other thing, is, you know what, I’m sure those parents or whoever took that little girl to the game felt terrible. So, for anybody to ever, ever, even hint that they did something wrong, would be so out of line it’s ridiculous. That’s not what anybody said. That’s not what I said.”
So, Francesa has now called himself “so out of line it’s ridiculous.” And blasted the Post, and somehow all newspapers by extension, for accurately quoting him. That sounds about right.
[@BackAftaThis on Twitter]
