Fox News removes story about a NorCal woman who died in Afghanistan

A Fox News story about a Northern California woman who died while serving in the Marine Corps in Afghanistan has been removed without explanation. The story appeared on the Fox News website on July 25 and was headlined “Family Forced to Pay to Ship Body of Slain Marine After Pentagon Policy Change: ‘Egregious Injustice’.”

The story details how the family of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee of Roseville, California, allegedly had to pay out of pocket to have her body transported to Arlington National Cemetery after her death in Afghanistan. “The Gee family was able to secure the funding, which totaled ‘a staggering $60,000,’ to move the body of their loved one after a non-profit organization stepped in to cover the cost,” the article said. He attributed the information to Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida, who was quoted as calling the incident “an unacceptable situation that demands immediate rectification.”

But according to a research by Military.com, who spoke to Gee’s family, did not have to pay out of pocket to bury Gee in Arlington. The outlet obtained emails showing that the Marine Corps reached out to Fox after the publication requesting that they retract the entire story.

“Using the grief of a fallen Marine’s family member to gain cheap clickbait points is disgusting,” Marine Corps spokesman Maj. James Stenger wrote in an email reviewed by Military.com.

Screenshots recovered by the Wayback Machine show Fox News changed the headline to “Family assumed burden of transporting body of Marine killed in Afghanistan, says Republican representative” in the days after publication. Once again, the Marine Corps spokesman allegedly sent an email demanding a retraction.

“This headline’s correction is still misleading and his story is still false,” Stinger wrote.

the story now results in a 404 error message. Retracting completely from a story is highly unusual in journalism, and ethical best practices generally stipulate that the organization should not remove the story because it results in an error page with no context for the reader; instead, the original article should be replaced with an explanation of why the story was removed.

also removed a post on mills site which linked to the Fox News story. She has since issued a statement on social media. “It is my understanding that Sgt. Nicole Gee’s family was, at her time of grief, confused regarding transportation procedures,” she read. “I am grateful that Honoring Our Fallen has been able to assist the family and that (the Department of Defense) has been able to provide clarification on this matter.”

For its part, Fox News apologized in a statement to CNN. “The now-unpublished story has been addressed internally and we sincerely apologize to the Gee family,” a Fox News spokesperson said.

Gee enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2017 and was deployed to Afghanistan as part of the Women’s Engagement Team helping evacuate women and children. In August 2021, she was killed along with 12 other people in an attack at the Kabul airport.

“Pain is something we will live with for the rest of our lives,” her father wrote in a eulogy read at Gee Memorial Service in Roseville. “It will become our new normal. I also carry my pain with pride. Pain means that I have loved.”