FOX failed to correct Kerry misquote as right-wing media figures continued to repeat it

Written by Gabe Wildau

Published

Ignoring a letter from Media Matters for America, FOX News Channel's Special Report with Brit Hume failed to correct its misquote of Senator John Kerry; meanwhile, members of the right-wing media repeated the false quotation.

The misquote of statements Kerry made during a 1997 appearance on CNN's Crossfire originated in John McCaslin's September 24 “Inside the Beltway” column in The Washington Times. MMFA documented the phony quotation at the time and requested a correction from the Times; the newspaper published a correction in its September 25 edition. (However, as MMFA also noted, that correction also rewarded the original source of the phony quote, Representative Peter T. King (R-NY), with space for more attacks on Kerry.)

Apart from FOX News Channel, other right-wing media figures have repeated King's phony quotation.

Michael Savage, nationally syndicated radio show host, repeated the misquote on the September 24 broadcast of Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: Kerry said he would go preemptively, you heard that it came up from Representative King in New York. From a 1997 Crossfire interview. King is saying that John Kerry said we had the right to act preemptively. Against Iraq no less. Oh, if they ever find that archival tape -- I don't think CNN would ever turn it over. That's the end of Kerry's campaign. King's a good guy, I had him on the show years ago.

Mark Simone, co-host of NY1's What a Week and WABC (New York) radio host, repeated the misquote as substitute host of the September 27 broadcast of the Mark Levin Show, citing it as “a perfect example of a flip-flop”:

SIMONE: Let me give you an example. Here's a perfect example of a flip-flop. On CNN in 1997, now you know what, that's three years before Bush came in. That's 1997. ... Bush was no where to be found in Washington. 1997, John Kerry goes on CNN and he argues that we must go to war against Iraq preemptively, unilaterally without the allies. You want me to start quoting him here. He said, “Forget about the French and the Russians.” This is a flip-flop. He says, “We can't count on the French. We can't count on the Russians. We know that Iraq is a danger to the United States.” ... He's on Crossfire on CNN and he says, “We reserve the right to take preemptive action.” ... I'm just saying, that's a flip flop.