From CNN: “Fox’s Reporting Fail: On one of the busiest travel days of the year, with the country in a heightened security stance as millions hit the road and air ahead of Thanksgiving, Fox News recklessly smashed the panic button and stoked fear from coast-to-coast. In the early afternoon, the right-wing network went live with a dramatic report from correspondent Alexis McAdams. McAdams declared that there had just been an “attempted terrorist attack” at the international bridge connecting the U.S. and Canada in Niagara Falls, breathlessly reporting that a “car full of explosives” had exploded at a border checkpoint. That report was placed atop Fox News’ highly trafficked website and sent as a push alert to millions of phones via its app. The network went all in on it, even baselessly speculating on air about Islamic terrorist groups. It was careless — and it was wrong.
As it turns out, there was no car full of explosives. And there was no attempted terrorist attack. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said there had been “no indication” of any such thing. Fox News had made a massive error. The type of error that should have given network brass and the reporters involved a giant pit in their stomach. But unlike respected news organizations that acknowledge when mistakes are made, Fox News has refused to issue a correction. Instead, the network stealth edited its online story, with no editors’ note of any sort. And McAdams went on air, blaming her sources for bad initial information while refusing to accept any responsibility herself for the significant error.
Of course, while McAdams should have acted more responsibly, the entire episode underscores the lack of basic editorial standards at Fox News. Correspondents at news networks are not permitted to run to air with high-stakes reporting based on anonymous sourcing without vetting from senior personnel. And if the inaccurate reporting did somehow slip through the cracks, the network would immediately move to correct it. It was bad that Fox News screamed terrorism in a case where none had occurred. But the network did have an opportunity to own its mistake and be transparent with its audience. It failed on that too.
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