On September 9, Vance amplified implausible internet rumors that had made their way up the right-wing media food chain, claiming “that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country.” The racist smears were quickly debunked by city officials, multiple major news outlets, and even the Republican governor of Ohio. But that didn't stop Vance, former President Donald Trump, and Fox News from continuing to propagate the baseless smear, with Trump even mentioning it during the presidential debate.

After days of right-wing media pushing the racist smear — and mainstream media and local officials debunking it — Vance defended pushing the false claims on the September 15 edition of CNN's State of the Union, stating he is willing to “create stories” to push narratives that will help drive media attention to right-wing talking points.

Media Matters reviewed programming on Fox News from September 15, when the Republican vice presidential nominee admitted to the deceptive strategy, through September 16, and found that the network largely ignored the confession, with only one program, MediaBuzz, acknowledging it.

After host Howard Kurtz noted that the conspiracy theory “has been pretty well debunked,” Fox News contributor Ben Domenech praised “the enormous amount of very funny and shareable memes” that emerged from the racist smear and argued that Vance's strategy of sharing the false claims “gets you to pay attention.” In response, Kurtz briefly acknowledged that Vance had admitted as much just prior on CNN. 

Fox Business anchor Liz Claman later added that the smear “has unleashed something really upsetting on Springfield,” citing a wave of bomb threats to local hospitals and elementary schools.

It comes as no surprise Fox News was largely unwilling to inform its viewers about the confession – the network did exactly what Vance wanted, allowing his manufactured tale to drive negative coverage of migrants in Springfield on the network.

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “JD,” “J D,” “J.D.,” Vance," “vice presidential,” “State of the Union,” or “CNN” from September 15, 2024, when GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance admitted on CNN's State of the Union that he was willing to “create stories” on the campaign trail, through September 16, 2024.

We included claims, which we defined as instances of uninterrupted blocks of speech from a single speaker. For host monologues, correspondent reports, and headlines, we defined a claim as the speech between read quotes and played clips. We did not consider the speech within the read quote or played clip unless a speaker in the segment positively affirmed said speech directly before or after the quote was read or the clip was played.

We then reviewed the video and transcripts for claims that mentioned Vance's admission in any capacity.