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joe biden and the history of television

Katie Couric was interviewing Joe Biden about the recent financial upheavals and this is what he had to say:

“When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the princes of greed. He said, ‘look, here’s what happened.’”

A few quick observations:

  1. Franklin Roosevelt wasn’t the President when the stock market crashed in 1929 — Herbert Hoover was. FDR wasn’t elected until 1932.
  2. Even if FDR had been President in 1929, he couldn’t have gone on television and said anything about the stock market crash. NBC didn’t begin regular broadcasts until 1939.

And what did Katie Couric say to such an obviously wrong statement? Nothing.

See the video.