Fox News is using Candy Crowley to justify its campaign assist to Donald Trump, arguing that moderators should not fact check during a presidential debate. Unfortunately for Fox and Trump, the facts don’t go along with this latest propaganda.
On Saturday’s “Cost of Freedom” special, called “Countdown to the Showdown,” host Neil Cavuto and guest Brent Bozell did their part for the cause.
Cavuto played a clip of moderator Candy Crowley, during a 2012 presidential debate, correcting Mitt Romney’s claim that it took Obama 14 days to call the Benghazi attack an “act of terror.”
Cavuto followed up by saying, “It turns out Candy was wrong on that, that she was conflating two separate events.” He then “asked” if a moderator should act as fact checker.
“Never,” Bozell said. Then he echoed the “Crowley was wrong” meme. “This Candy Crowley moment is going to go down in the annals of journalism as a what-not-to-do when you’re moderating a debate,” Bozell said.
But the truth is that Crowley was right. Media Matters explains:
Obama Did In Fact Use The Term “Act Of Terror” The Day After The Benghazi Attacks. Discussing the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, the day after they occurred, Obama said, “No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.” [Remarks By The President On The Deaths Of U.S. Embassy Staff In Libya, The White House, 9/12/12]
Crowley Debunked Right-Wing Claims That She Later Walked Back Her Fact Check. After Crowley faced harsh criticism from conservatives over her correct fact check of Romney, she addressed the situation, saying, “So we knew that the president had said, you know, these acts of terror won’t stand or whatever the whole quote was.” She conceded that Romney was right in saying that it took the administration two weeks to clarify the cause of the attacks. Right-wing media claimed that Crowley was walking back her fact check, but she quickly debunked that narrative. [Media Matters, 10/17/12]
This was hardly the first time Fox has promoted this falsehood. On Fox & Friends last week, cohost Steve Doocy suggested Crowley cost Romney the election: “She was wrong, and it cost Romney because he just sat there,” Doocy said. In August, guest host Eric Bolling said “she was wrong” on The O’Reilly Factor. Also in August, The Five cohost Kimberly Guilfoyle accused Crowley of taking “President Obama’s side.”
Meanwhile, as Media Matters reported today, two new polls found that a strong majority of Americans want moderators to fact-check candidates during a presidential debate.
Will presidential debate moderator Lester Holt fact check tonight? We’ll find out soon!
Meanwhile, watch Fox’s attempt to work the ref below, from the September 24, 2016 Cost of Freedom.