Fox News anchor Bret Baier, who hosts “Special Report” on the cable channel, apologized Friday for reporting that indictments were “likely” in an ongoing investigation into Clinton Foundation investigation, adding that the reports were a mistake, reports Politico.
“All the time, but especially in a heated election on a topic this explosive, every word matters — no matter how well-sourced,” Baier told Fox News’ Jon Scott in the Friday broadcast of “Happening Now.”
"Which brings me to this: I explained a couple of times yesterday the phrasing of one of my answers to [Fox News host] Brit Hume on Wednesday night, saying it was inartful the way I answered [a] question about whether the investigations would continue after the election. And I answered that, yes, our sources said it would, they would continue to likely an indictment. Well that wasn't just inartful. It was a mistake. And for that, I’m sorry.”
Baier apologized for the use of the word “indictment,” but said he and the network stand by their reporting.
His comment came a day after several news outlets rebutted the Fox News report.
CNNMoney reports throughout the day on Thursday, NBC News, ABC News and CNN all reported that Fox's assertion was not true. And Baier, the Fox host responsible for the original assertion, seemed to backtrack from it, saying he had spoken "inartfully."
News outlets like The Hill and RealClearPolitics published stories repeating Baier's original claim, and countless conservative blogs and forums claimed it as fact and celebrated Clinton's possible legal peril. Some sites wrote hopefully about prison time.
By Thursday evening, Clinton's campaign responded by calling on the FBI to make a public statement "to put a stop to these baseless Fox News reports."
Campaign press secretary Brian Fallon cited reporting by NBC's Pete Williams, who said "the idea that indictments are near is just not true."
Fallon tweeted, "This reporting has been debunked far and wide, and even by Fox News' standards, it was shameful for them to air it."
No comments:
Post a Comment