UPDATE: Mitt Romney has weighed in on this matter by demonstrating his complete unreadiness for leadership, and a lack of character and diplomacy, with a statement that advances the same lies as Fox News did. He said that it was…

“…disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks. […] It’s a terrible course for America to stand in apology for our values.”

As described below, there was never an apology, and the remarks Romney is referencing were not the Obama administration’s first response – or a response at all – since they occurred before the violence took place. The administration’s actual response was an unequivocal condemnation.

So Romney jumped the gun with a clumsy, political attack on the President without having first gotten all the facts. That’s not a demonstration of the sort of leadership skills required by a prospective president.

The original article (published 9/11/2012 at 6:45pm) begins below.

Let’s start out this edition of Fox Nation vs. Reality with a message from PolitiFact:

Mitt Romney has been rated as untruthful 68 times by PolitiFact, and 15 of those were “Pants-on-Fire” lies. Three of his fiery pants lies involved the right-wing myth that President Obama has a habit of apologizing for America. It has been proven repeatedly that it isn’t true, but that hasn’t stopped Romney from saying it.

Now Fox News, whose pants are similarly ablaze on this matter, has posted a brazenly false article on their site for delusional wingnuts, Fox Nation.

The headline said, ” Muslims Attack US Embassy, Burn American Flag on 9/11, While Team Obama Apologizes?” It is true that protesters in Egypt breached the perimeter of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and took the flag down from the pole and subjected it to abuse it. However, there is no truth whatsoever to the assertion that Obama, or anyone on his team, apologized while that occurred.

The protesters were reportedly angered by vague news of either a film being produced in the United States that insulted the Prophet Mohammed, or the antics of deranged pastor Terry Jones, who has promised to burn copies of the Koran. In response to growing anger about the alleged insults, the embassy Tweeted:

“We condemn the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims, as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.”

That Tweet was posted well before there were any protesters at the embassy. So the assertion by the Fox Nationalists that an apology was offered “while” the protest was in progress is an outright lie. And in any case, the Tweet wasn’t an apology by any objective standard. It was, in very literal terms, a condemnation. It begins “We condemn…” That is not a typical way to commence an apology. And who could argue with the message in the Tweet? Is there anyone who favors misguided individuals offending religious believers?

Nevertheless, the Fox Nationalists chose to lie about an imaginary apology; to lie about when it occurred; and to lie by associating it with the President. Clearly they are going for some sort of record for most lies in a single headline.