Explosive bribery claims about President Joe Biden have imploded. However, Fox News and the broader MAGA Media universe have refused to retract their narrative.
They have stuck to corruption claims against Biden. These claims led to Republican-led investigations on Capitol Hill and fueled an eventual impeachment inquiry against the current president.
Special Counsel David Weiss has charged the FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, with fabricating the bribery allegations against Biden. In the wake of that, some prominent right-wing personalities are using the revelation as evidence of a more profound conspiracy theory.
The Theory? That the Biden administration weaponized federal law enforcement in retaliation against Smirnov for revealing the alleged scheme.
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“He was too credible,” were Fox News host Jesse Watters’ words to his prime-time audience in the wake of the informant’s arrest. He was baselessly suggesting Biden “is locking up the source” to “discredit” the allegations against him.
Sean Hannity, famous for using his powerful media perch to dishonestly attack Biden, shared the news in a heavy-handed fashion. Hannity’s reaction to the implosion of his narrative was to deflect and question the credibility of various news outlets. He ranted about their previous coverage of the Steele dossier and what he called the “Trump-Russia collusion hoax.”
He also assailed the integrity of Weiss, suggesting that he is a Democratic hack. This is even though Weiss is a Trump appointee. Then, after berating Weiss’ credibility, Hannity subsequently portrayed Smirnov as having been credible.
Fox News’ stable of hosts has declined to correct the record properly. The outlet’s news website has also failed to update its “EXCLUSIVE” reporting from last summer, publicly surfacing the informant’s false claims.
Articles by reporter Brooke Singman advancing Smirnov’s bribery allegations remain unedited on the FoxNews.com website. There has been no correction or mention that the one-time FBI informant is facing charges for lying to federal law enforcement about the claims she reported.
The lack of a retraction comes as the Smirnov allegations continue to implode. In court documents filed by Weiss on Tuesday, Smirnov admitted during an interview that “officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing” along dirt on the Biden family.
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“The false information he provided was not trivial. It targeted the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties in the United States,” Weiss said. According to him, the effects of Smirnov’s craftiness remain even today.
However, when presenting the news to its viewers on Wednesday, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner made the story about the network’s chief villains, saying, “Democrats and much of the media are insisting this is all a huge blow to the impeachment inquiry effort.”
Faulkner added that Republicans “say there is a lot of evidence.” However, she could not conclude that the central witness facing charges from federal authorities for fabricating claims was a big blow to the impeachment effort.
The Fox network functions as the main organ in the right-wing media universe and has huge influence over the Republican Party base. By refusing to fully acknowledge the false claims and pressing GOP lawmakers on their promotion of it, Fox News is permitting GOP lawmakers to keep doing so.
In fact, the outlet seemingly creates an incentive structure for Republicans to go harder on their corruption claims. After all, they will be rewarded with airtime on the network. Not that many find it surprising.
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The behavior is par for the course for the right-wing network. It is notorious for trying to control public discourse with dishonest propaganda aimed at propping up Trump and assailing his political opponents. Fox News rarely admits mistakes and sticks with narratives even after debunking them.
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