It seems like Fox has a sudden interest in occasionally debunking MAGA lies, at least about the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

Last week, Fox & Friends cohost Steve Doocy pushed back on a suggestion that the derailment disaster is President Joe Biden’s fault. Doocy truthfully noted that the Trump administration undid rail safety regulations instituted by the Obama administration.

Now we have Special Report anchor Bret Baier pushing back on right-wing criticism of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for not visiting the derailment site sooner. Baier quoted a Politico article that said, “It is exceedingly rare for a transportation secretary to visit the site of a train derailment, especially one that resulted in no fatalities.”

Baier called Politico’s statement “fair” and “accurate.” Then he added, “there were train derailments in the Trump administration that actually had fatalities that didn’t have a visit by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.” (As far as we know, the Transportation Department’s inspector general hasn’t requested a criminal investigation into Buttigieg, either, as it did with Chao “over concerns she misused her office” during her tenure.)

What’s behind this sudden concern for the truth? Is it embarrassment in some corners of the network after they were publicly caught promoting lies about the 2020 election the top hosts and executives freely acknowledged were untrue in private? The Dominion brief that laid bare those lies in shocking detail was filed February 16, at 5 PM ET. Doocy made his comments on the morning of February 16. But it’s quite possible Doocy and/or Fox brass knew about the contents of the brief before it was filed. The brief is dated January 17, 2022, which is presumably a typo for January 17, 2023.

Or maybe it’s just part of the Murdochs’ half-baked effort to make Donald Trump go away. (Trump made a campaign stop in East Palestine last week. He gave out water with Trump stickers on them, handed out campaign hats and boasted about his non-existent ratings.)

But, like a bank robber taking a selfie in front of a bank he didn’t rob, these brief sojourns with the truth do not negate the Big Lies the network continues spewing.

You can watch Baier push back on criticisms of Buttigieg below, from the February 22, 2023 Special Report.