Fox News host Bret Baier has been forced to apologize for a series of anonymously-sourced, Trump-friendly reports that Hillary Clinton was about to be indicted and that her email server had been hacked by at least five different foreign intelligence serviecs. Unfortunately, his apology comes after Fox spent more than two hours of airtime promoting what has been debunked by other outlets.
Media Matters explains:
During the opening segment of the November 2 edition of Special Report with Bret Baier, Baier cited unconfirmed allegations from “two separate sources with intimate knowledge of the FBI investigations into the Clinton emails and the Clinton Foundation” to claim that “agents are actively and aggressively pursuing” the bureau’s investigation into whether Clinton, in her position as secretary of state, engaged in “possible pay-for-play” behavior in accepting donations for the Clinton Foundation. Baier claimed his sources said the FBI “had collected a great deal of evidence” that suggested Clinton acted criminally, but Baier did not cite any information that would verify such claims.
Baier later claimed that the same anonymous sources told him FBI officials are claiming with “99 percent accuracy” that Clinton’s private email server was breached “by at least five foreign intelligence agencies” and that the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server “will continue to likely an indictment.”
Overnight, Baier’s anonymously sourced and unconfirmed information was parroted by other Fox hosts, prominent right-wing blogs, and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The next day, on America’s Newsroom, Baier was forced to walk back his explosive claim of a “likely” Clinton indictment, acknowledging that he “inartfully answered” Fox host Brit Hume’s question on that topic and because of that, his reporting “got picked up everywhere.”
Now, Baier has gone beyond walking back to outright apology. But he has not completely retracted his reporting.
From today’s Happening Now show (transcript via Media Matters):
BAIER: I was quoting from one source about his certainty that the server had been hacked by five foreign intelligence agencies. And while others believe that is probable because of the confirmed hacking of email accounts Secretary Clinton communicated with, as of today there are still no digital fingerprints of a breach no matter what the working assumption is within the bureau. All the time, but especially in heated election on a topic this explosive, every word matters, no matter how well-sourced. Which brings me to this. I explained a couple of times yesterday the phrasing of one of my answers to Brit Hume on Wednesday night, saying it was inartful, the way I answered the last question about whether the investigations would continue after the election. And I answered that, yes, our sources said it would. They would continue to likely an indictment. Well, that just wasn’t inartful, it was a mistake, and for that I’m sorry. I should have said, they will continue to build their case. Indictment obviously is a very loaded word, Jon, especially in this atmosphere and no one knows if there would or would not be an indictment no matter how strong investigators feel their evidence is. It is obviously a prosecutor who has to agree to take the case and make that case to a grand jury. We stand by the sourcing, on the ongoing active Clinton Foundation investigation and are working to get sources with knowledge of the details on the record, and on camera. Hopefully today.
It’s not as though the correct information wasn’t out there. As Media Matters noted, several other networks debunked Baier’s reporting before he apologized.
On Happening Now, host Jon Scott nevertheless helped suggest that Baier's retraction was only the result of cautious journalism:
SCOTT: But clearly there are some within the FBI who believe that the email system was hacked by foreign operators. It’s just not something that the FBI is putting out there as being a certainty?
BAIER: Exactly. They’re sticking with what Comey said back in July. But to be clear, you know, when you’re quoting someone, you have to be clear that there is this cut and dry determination that you have to have the digital cyber fingerprints to make a complete determination. We should have made that distinction.
Meanwhile, the damage has been done. Media Matters points out:
But according to Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, even if Fox’s reporting is wrong, “the damage is done to Hillary Clinton” and the facts don’t “change what’s in voters’ minds right no
So retraction or not, it looks a lot like “Mission Accomplished” for Baier.
Watch him below, from the November 4, 2016 Happening Now.