Fox News continued to hype reports of an imminent Islamic State terrorist plot against U.S. and Parisian public transportation hours after the U.S. intelligence community discredited the rumor as “total bunk.”

News broke on September 25 that Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had informed reporters at the United Nations of “accurate reports from Baghdad” detailing a terrorist plot by the group calling themselves the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) in advanced stages against subways in the U.S. and Paris, France.  

The prime minister's remarks quickly spread across American media, but by early afternoon, U.S. intelligence officials had roundly discredited the rumor. As NBC News reported, “Virtually every major U.S. law enforcement agency and intelligence agency said they had no evidence of any such plot. The report is viewed as 'total bunk,' according to a senior intelligence official.”

CNN's Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto tweeted:

Multiple officials tell #CNN no indication of #ISIS plot targeting NYC subways & no such info shared by Iraqis w/US officials incl POTUS

-- Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) September 25, 2014

Yet over an hour later, Fox News continued to hype fears over the discredited plot. On The Real Story, host Gretchen Carlson repeated the Iraqi prime minister's warning despite noting that an Obama administration official had not confirmed the report, cautioning, “Apparently the plot has not been thwarted.”

Rather than acknowledging the fact that multiple U.S. intelligence agencies had discredited reports of the plot, Carlson simply said, “The other threat we heard about today from the Iraqi prime minister, which, by the way, the FBI says this administration doesn't know anything about it, but the word was that the attacks could be imminent on our subway systems here and in Paris.” 

Carlson continued fear-mongering over the rumor to network correspondent Ed Henry, asking, “America possibly facing a brand new terror threat. Iraq's new prime minister saying a plot was uncovered for an imminent attack on subway systems here in the United States and in Paris ... What's the latest from the White House on this alleged plot?”

While Henry cast doubt on the prime minister's claim, acknowledging that the White House had not confirmed the report, he neglected to point out that it had been discredited by the intelligence community:

HENRY: They're downplaying this big-time, because they say this information came in from the intelligence operation of the Iraqi government, and they are saying they don't have details of it. It's obviously a scary situation, but Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman at the White House, handles national security issues, telling us a short time ago: "We have not confirmed such a plot and would have to review any information from our Iraqi partners before making further determinations. We take any threat seriously and always work to corroborate information we receive from our partners.' Now, what's interesting is, President Obama met earlier this week with al-Abadi, the new Iraqi prime minister, and administration officials tell us nothing was mentioned in that meeting. So you would think that if there was an imminent plot that Iraq uncovered that ISIS was going to attack subways, it would have been pass on to President Obama. It raises questions about whether the Iraqis are sort of hyping this up to keep America and others engaged to say, you're focusing on Syria now. Don't forget about more air strikes in Iraq.

After Henry's appearance, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton held a press conference where they stated that NYPD intelligence found no specific, credible threat of an imminent terrorist attack. Yet hours later, on Special Report, Henry failed to mention that the threat was not found to be credible by intelligence and law enforcement agencies: