All morning long Fox News has been broadcasting a story out of Alaska concerning a recording of reporters from KTVA whom Fox News alleges were conspiring to sabotage Joe Miller’s senate campaign. There is only one problem with this story: There is no evidence to support it.
The only thing that Fox News has to back up their claim is a recording that was made from an open phone line. The recording is of poor quality with much that is unintelligible. But what makes this utterly unreliable is that Andrew Breitbart is the source of the recording. Breitbart is best known for promoting tapes and video that were proven to be either fake or deliberately edited to give a false impression of what actually occurred.
A statement from KTVA affirms that the reporters had called Miller but deny that they ever discussed any plot to harm his campaign. They were merely speculating on what others may do and how they would cover an upcoming event.
Leave it to Fox News to broadcast materials they received from a known producer of lies and disinformation. When they first began airing the story even their chief correspondent, Carl Cameron, confessed on air that he could not confirm the allegations from the Miller camp. You have to wonder why any reputable news organization would go to air with a story that they admittedly can’t confirm. But you don’t have to wonder why Fox would do so.
As part of their coverage Fox interviewed both Joe Miller and Sarah Palin. Both were outraged at the assertions that even they could not prove. Palin called the KTVA crew “corrupt bastards” on Fox News Sunday. They both castigated the media for fabricating stories. But going on Fox News to complain about the media fabricating stories is kind of like Dracula complaining about vampires drinking blood.
It’s almost too ludicrous to comprehend that, while in the midst of fabricating a story they scold others for fabricating stories. But I suppose it’s all that we can expect from Fox News.
