Maddow Apologizes For Constitution Gaffe With Schoolhouse Rock

November 7th, 2009 10:20 AM

Rachel Maddow on Friday apologized for her previous day's Constitution Preamble gaffe by using "Schoolhouse Rock" to educate her viewers.

As NewsBusters reported, Maddow on Thursday ridiculed House minority leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) for claiming during that day's "House Call" rally the historic phrase "We hold these truths to be self-evident" came from the Preamble to the Constitution.

In so doing, Maddow gaffed herself by claiming there isn't a Preamble to the Constitution.

Maybe after reading our article on the subject the MSNBC host felt the need to make a correction (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, h/t Jeff Poor):

RACHEL MADDOW, HOST: And finally to our department of corrections. On last night's show I made fun of who House minority leader John Boehner because at yesterday's whites of their eyes Michele Bachmann-led anti-healthcare reform rally on the Capitol steps, he waggled a copy of the Constitution at the crowd, bragged that he was standing with the Founding Fathers and then said he was quoting the Preamble to the Constitution while he actually quoted from the Declaration of Independence. Being myself constitutionally incapable of leaving well enough alone, I then excitedly exclaimed not that he wasn't reading from the Preamble to the Constitution but that there wasn't a Preamble to the Constitution at all, which of course is total nonsense and which I'm very sorry to have said. However, it does also give me the opportunity to do penance to the Preamble by -- you know what's coming, don't you? Get up, get out of your chair and let me not only apologize to the Preamble but join us all together now in civics geek karaoke to "The Schoolhouse Rock" version to the Preamble. Go, go, go, go! [...]

♪♪ America. Never fun to have to correct a mistake but this one was close to fun. Thank you, Schoolhouse Rock. I'm very sorry.

Well, at least she showed some character and admitted her mistake -- which puts her in a whole different league than her cowardly colleague Keith Olbermann who almost never issues a correction or offers an apology for his frequent gaffes.