Fox News apologizes to the Gold Star’s family after it faced backlash over a false story

CNN
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Fox News on Saturday apologized to the Gold Star family for publishing a false story last month alleging that the family had to pay $60,000 to have the remains of their fallen relative shipped out of Afghanistan because the Pentagon refused to pay.

“The unpublished story has been processed internally and we sincerely apologize to the G family,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the marine sergeant’s family. Nicole G, who was one of 13 service members killed in a terrorist attack at Kabul Airport in 2021 while assisting the US withdrawal effort.

The apology came after a Military.com report This week, he drew attention to the issue and noted that senior executives at the right-wing enforcer had been repeatedly told by senior members of the Marine Corps that it was spreading a false story.

In an email to Fox News President Jay Wallace and other network staff, Marine Corps spokesman Maj. James Stinger privately accused the outlet of taking advantage of Gee’s death to “score cheap attractions,” according to documents obtained by Military.com through records. the public. to request.

Stinger, who is a chief spokesperson for the Marine Corps, added that he views Fox News’ behavior as “disgusting,” according to Military.com.

Initially, after being notified of the false report, Fox News merely changed the story’s headline to attribute the allegations to Republican Representative Corey Mills of Florida, who provided the narrative. But he later backed down. The outlet later removed the story from its website without correction or explanation. It remained deleted on Saturday after the apology.

Omission of the entire story is extremely rare in the news media and is seen as a measure of last resort if the premise of the entire article is incorrect. Deleting a story without offering readers an explanation or correction is widely considered immoral.

In this case, Fox News did not publicly address the incident until the Military.com story sparked a backlash against the outlet.

Although unethical, this behavior is typical of Fox News. This medium often goes against traditional news ethics and trades in unfair reporting and commentary.

And earlier this year, Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit with election technology company Dominion Voting Systems over lies about the 2020 election. Fox News paid Dominion a historic $787 million to avoid prosecution.

However, Fox News still faces a $2.7 billion lawsuit from voting technology company Smartmatic. This lawsuit is making its way through the court system.

This story has been updated with additional information.