cnn
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Fox News apologized to a Gold Star family on Saturday for running a false story last month claiming the family had to pay $60,000 to ship the remains of their fallen relative from Afghanistan because the Pentagon refused to pay.
“The now-unpublished story has been addressed internally and we sincerely apologize to the Gee family,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the family of the fallen Marine sergeant. nicole geewho was one of 13 service members killed in a terrorist attack at the Kabul airport in 2021 while assisting with US withdrawal efforts.
The apology came after a military report.com this week drew attention to the issue, noting that senior executives at the right-wing outlet had been repeatedly notified by senior members of the Marine Corps that it was promoting a false story.
In an email to Fox News president Jay Wallace and other network staff, Marine Corps spokesman Maj. James Stenger privately accused the outlet of capitalizing on Gee’s death “to get cheap clickbait points.” “, according to documents obtained by Military.com through public records. order.
Stenger, who is the main spokesman for the Marine Corps, added that he found the behavior of Fox News “disgusting,” according to Military.com.
Initially, after being notified about the false report, Fox News only changed the story’s headline to attribute the claims to Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida, who had advanced the narrative. but then he retracted. The outlet later deleted the story from its website without correction or explanation. He remained out Saturday after the apology.
Removing an entire story is extremely rare in the media and is considered a measure of last resort if the entire premise of the article is incorrect. It is generally considered unethical to remove a story without offering readers an explanation or correction.
In this case, Fox News did not publicly address the incident until the Military.com story sparked backlash against the outlet.
While unethical, the behavior is typical of Fox News. The outlet often breaks traditional news ethics and traffics in dishonest reporting and commentary.
Earlier this year, Fox News settled a defamation case with election technology company Dominion Voting Systems for lies related to the 2020 election. Fox News paid Dominion a record $787 million to avoid prosecution.
Fox News, however, still faces a $2.7 billion lawsuit from voting technology company Smartmatic. That lawsuit is making its way through the court system.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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