White House Calls For Fox News Retractions Of Its Coverage Of Joe Biden Bribery Claims
29.02.2024 - 16:30
/ deadline.com
The White House is demanding that Fox News retract or revise its coverage of claims that Joe Biden was involved in a multi-million dollar bribery scheme after the key witness in the allegation was indicted for making it all up.
In a letter to top executives, Ian Sams, White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, cited Fox News Digital stories on the bribery claims, including ones headlined “The Explosive New Evidence of Biden Family’s Breathtaking Corruption,” labeled an opinion piece from Gregg Jarrett, and “Joe Biden Allegedly Paid $5M By Burisma Executive As Part of Bribery Scheme, According to FBI Document,” a story from Brooke Singman. Other stories reported that the allegations came from a “highly credible” source.
“I would cite the number of times Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity promoted this allegation and made false statements about President Biden on primetime television throughout this time period, but the footnote citations would fill multiple pages,” Sams wrote in the letter, which was obtained by Deadline.
Read the White House letter to Fox News.
The source of the allegation, Alexander Smirnov, was an FBI informant who was charged earlier this month with lying to his handler and falsifying records. He has plead not guilty. Prosecutors later said that Smirnov told them after his arrest that “officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story” about Hunter Biden, the president’s son, who he also claimed was involved in the bribery scheme.
“Despite this, Fox has taken no steps to retract, correct or update its reporting on this false allegation from 2023,” Sams wrote.
The letter, first reported by CNN’s Reliable Sources newsletter, was sent to Fox News Media CEO