A Fox News video of “Navy SEAL” and “Purple Heart recipient” John Garofalo went viral after the network aired a report about a humongous presidential seal he made for Donald Trump. But it turns out Garofalo was never a SEAL and never served in battle.
From the Navy Times:
The piece was broadcast nationally and featured cascading shots of all Garofalo’s medals. Online, it went viral, racking up 1.5 million Facebook views on Fox’s Facebook page.
“The Vietnam War veteran served seven years as a member of the nation’s first Navy SEAL team,” Fox News reporter Bryan Llenas said. “He was awarded 22 commendations, including two Purple Hearts.”
Llenas later called the 72-year-old New York State resident a “tough, tough man.”
“He was listed twice during his service in Vietnam as missing in action,” Llenas noted at the segment’s close.
“God bless John Garofalo,” an anchor said. “We certainly hope maybe the president is listening.”
Once again, Fox has acted as though fact checking is someone else’s job. Fortunately for truth lovers, a real retired SEAL did some digging into Garofalo’s background and relayed his findings to Navy Times. When Navy Times contacted Garofalo, he admitted to having lied.
Although Fox was notified on October 10 that Garofalo was a phony, Navy Times reported that the slobbering video was still posted on its Facebook page as of yesterday afternoon. It seems to have since been removed. Yesterday, Fox issued a correction on its website:
Unfortunately, all of Garofalo’s claims turned out to be untrue. The fact is that he did not serve in Vietnam. He was never a U.S. Navy SEAL. Even though he showed us medals, Garofalo was not awarded two Purple Hearts or any of the other nearly two dozen commendations he claimed to have received, except for the National Defense Service Medal.
It is true that Garafalo [sic] is a glass artist and a veteran. He served in Spain and he gifted two presidential seals to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Today, in an on-air correction, Llenas acknowledged he “should have done more to verify [Garofalo’s] information.” Llenas added, “I sincerely apologize to our viewers, especially our veterans and service men and women."
There was no banner on the lower third to explain what was going on, as you would normally see in a Fox News video.
Even if Trump saw the piece, I doubt you’ll ever hear Trump call Fox “fake news.”
Watch Llenas’ on-air correction below, from the October 20, 2017 Happening Now.
- fake news network
- fake US president
It all fits.
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NOTE TO FOX “NEWS” SUITS
You get what you paid for, you cheap clowns.
Howard Kurtz will most likely will just read a 30 second statement written the network on his Sunday morning program without a panel discussion or any psychoanalysis.
I find it hard to believe this guy thought he would get away with it. Never mind the Navy exposing him as a fraud, his family and friends would know the truth.
