MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell botches attempt to fact-check Sen. Ted Cruz on Shakespeare quote
'Oh dear Andrea, this tweet is a Scottish tragedy,' one critic reacted
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell was brutally mocked on Twitter Wednesday for her botched attempt to fact-check Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, over a Shakespeare quote.
During his Wednesday appearance on "America's Newsoom," Cruz invoked The Bard to summarize the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
"It's reminiscent of Shakespeare [in] that it is full of sound and fury, and yet signifying nothing," said Cruz, referencing part of a well-known soliloquy from "Macbeth."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}However, that reference was apparently lost on Mitchell.
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"@SenTedCruz says #ImpeachmentTrial is like Shakespeare full of sound and fury signifying nothing. No, that’s Faulkner," Mitchell tweeted.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mitchell was quickly backed up by Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, who wrote, "and it says volumes about his lack of soul. That's Any Thinking Person."
The NBC News chief Washington correspondent's error led to a tsunami of fact-checking from critics, who pointed out that the title of William Faulkner's 1929 novel "The Sound and the Fury" came from Shakespeare's words.
"Oh dear Andrea, this tweet is a Scottish tragedy," Washington Post correspondent Annie Gowen reacted.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Faulkner wrote the book 'The Sound and the Fury.' But the phrase comes from Shakespeare's Macbeth: 'It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.' The whole passage is beautiful," New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof gently corrected Mitchell.
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"Um, Andrea. You know how 'Out, damn spot!' might SOUND like it's from a Tide commercial, but it's REALLY from Macbeth? Well..." Bloomberg Opinion writer Robert George wrote.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Unless Faulkner predates #MacBeth, @tedcruz wins this round," Daily Caller editor Virginia Kruta declared.
"It pains me to say this but Ted Cruz wins this round," The Nation correspondent Jeet Heer similarly admitted.
Cruz also had some fun at the expense of Mitchell and Rubin.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Methinks she doth protest too much," the senator reacted, adding, "One would think NBC would know the Bard. Andrea, take a look at Macbeth act 5, scene 5: '[Life] struts & frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound & fury, Signifying nothing.'"
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Cruz added, "Between NBC & the Washington Post, you’d think somebody would have read Macbeth."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mitchell eventually admitted her error and apolozied to the senator.
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"I clearly studied too much American literature and not enough Macbeth. My apologies to Sen. Cruz," the MSNBC anchor tweeted.