Fox Business host Lou Dobbs reported a baseless claim that someone from Hillary Clinton's campaign demanded that the Laugh Factory comedy club founder take down a video compilation of Clinton jokes from his website. The claim was based on an anonymous phone call from an unidentified caller, but reported as fact by conservative media outlets.

In a November 19 piece, Slate's Michelle Goldberg debunked the right-wing claim that a Clinton staffer contacted Jamie Masada, founder of the Laugh Factory Comedy clubs, and demanded he take the videos insulting Clinton down from the club's website. Goldberg called the founder of the Laugh Factory comedy clubs, who admitted that he could not identify the caller, adding “maybe it was a prank, I have no idea.” 

Goldberg also explained how Clinton smears spread in right-wing media, noting that the stories get “reported in one outlet and amplified on Twitter ... Maybe Fox News follows. Eventually the story achieves a sort of ubiquity in the right-wing media ecosystem, which makes it seem like it's been confirmed.”

Even after Masada walked back his accusations against Clinton's campaign, Fox Business' Lou Dobbs repeated the dubious claim on the November 19 edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight:

LOU DOBBS (HOST): This is the video the Clinton campaign took issue with demanding it be scrubbed from the internet by the Laugh Factory in Hollywood.

[...]

DOBBS: Are you offended? Hurt?

JUAN WILLIAMS: No! I was amused. But I just -- I tell you what offends me is, why would you say shut up to anybody? A comedy? I mean, alright, so we're all going to be mocked. She went on Saturday Night Live and she made fun of herself and her husband. I think she should have some sense of humor. What's going on here?

DOBBS: Yeah, it's peculiar. 

TOM SHILLUE: It's a little shadowy. I don't want to doubt Jamie Masada, the owner of the Laugh Factory. It's a great club, but he does have a flair for self-promotion. I will say that.

DOBBS: Well he's done pretty well here. Now although even Salon noted is they tried to rationalize what was happening here, perhaps correctly -- I don't know. They tried to point out that he, you know, he does not have an ideological ax in all of this. I like the way I sort of clashed those clichés together. Keeps me fresh. The idea that the left is now becoming though, I mean it really is becoming oppressive in language.