Fox News immediately pounced on a 60 Minutes Benghazi report to continue a baseless smear campaign against Hillary Clinton in an attempt to make sure the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate will “be politically relevant for Hillary Clinton down the road.”

After CBS' 60 Minutes aired a segment of correspondent Lara Logan and producer Max McClellan's year-long investigation of the Benghazi attacks regarding a long-answered “lingering question,” Fox's America's Newsroom host Martha MacCallum hosted Tea Party News Network's Scottie Nell Hughes and contributor Leslie Marshall to discuss the report. These politically-oriented guests were selected in an apparent attempt to smear former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as MacCallum admitted to the pair, “the reason we're talking to you about this is because it is going to be politically relevant and it may be politically relevant for Hillary Clinton down the road.” One such attack discussed was the long-debunked myth that the administration told the military to “stand down” rather than proceed with a Benghazi rescue mission.

MACCALLUM: Yeah, they had made repeated cries for help, for increased security. Those were turned down. And the reason we're talking to both of you about this is because it is going to be politically relevant and it may be politically relevant for Hillary Clinton down the road. She, we also remember, shook her hands in the air and said 'what difference does it make whether it was a bunch of crazy individuals or something that was planned and plotted.' I am paraphrasing a bit of what she said, but you all remember it well.

MARSHALL: That is great paraphrasing, taking one sentence a bit out of context.

[...]

HUGHES: They asked for help, a month before there was a meeting where they sat there and laid out the entire plan that this embassy was going to be under attack, and that night when the calls for help went out and the soldiers wanted to go in and help, there was a call somewhere from this administration to stand down. We don't know who made that call.

MARSHALL: Really, really?

[Crosstalk]

MACCALLUM: The “Stand Down” order is very controversial, but we know they did not go in and help. 

After Marshall called out MacCallum for taking Clinton's Benghazi testimony out of context, Hughes turned the conversation to the myth that the Obama administration told the military to “stand down” and cancel any planned rescue missions -- one of Fox's favorite myths.

In fact, multiple sources, including the commander of the Special Forces team that was allegedly told to stand down and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, have all said that no such order was given. The House Armed Services Committee also released a statement putting the myth to rest, stating that, according to testimony and “contrary to news reports,” the commander “was not ordered to 'stand down.' ”

Fox has now entered its second year of using the tragic attacks in Benghazi to smear the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton to score political points.

For more on conservative media myths about the September 2012 attack, read The Benghazi Hoax, the new e-book by Media Matters' David Brock and Ari Rabin-Havt.