Via ConnecticutBLOG, I came across this article at MediaMatters:
During its initial coverage of Operation Swarmer — a joint U.S.-Iraqi military operation that began March 16 — Fox News aired video footage of the wreckage of New York’s World Trade Center following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The footage aired during the 11 a.m. ET hour of the March 16 edition of Fox News Live.[...]
Fox News aired the World Trade Center footage during Quinn’s interview with McInerney. Neither Quinn nor anyone else actually referred to the footage, and an onscreen caption bore the date “March 21, 2003″ — the same date shown on the “shock and awe” footage of Baghdad aired earlier. But the World Trade Center footage clearly depicted the wreckage of a portion of the steel exterior of one of the center’s twin skyscrapers, as well as onlookers at the scene, one of whom remarked — in English — “Oh my God.”
Naturally, more liberal folks are inferring that this is part of the great right-wing conspiracy to bolster support for the Iraq war by reminding folks of 9/11 (despite the fact that the links between the two were apparently at best very, very tenuous).
While that’s an intoxicating thought, I think an application of the first law of sysadmining is more appropriate: Never attribute to malice what can be blamed on stupidity.