Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:48 pm
It turns that there are some Fox News lies that can land that can land a person in prison. Wayne Simmons is facing up to 35 years in prison after he lied about working for the CIA for 27 years.
Simmons is accused of falsely claiming that he worked as an “outside paramilitary special operations officer” for the CIA from 1973 to 2000. On Fox, this was often shortened to “former CIA operative.”
He was also indicted for using that false claim to gain government security clearances and an assignment as a defense contractor, where he advised senior military personnel overseas.
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U.S. officials told CNN that there have been suspicions about Simmons’s resume and U.S. government agencies have received calls about claims he made on his website about his past work.
The Fox News/Simmons relationship goes back years. Simmons was a consistent and regular presence on the network’s coverage of terrorism.
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For example, here is a clip of Simmons on Fox and Friends from 2007:
The clip above shows Simmons inaccurately claiming that John Kerry called US troops terrorists, and claiming that he has been in the presence of terrorists.
Fox News ran away from Simmons as fast as their feet could carry them. A Fox spokesman would only say that Simmons “was never a contributor for Fox News,” and that he only appeared as an unpaid guest. One can always judge how good or bad a story is for Fox based on their willingness to talk about it. Fox’s refusal to comment beyond parsing whether or not Simmons was a paid contributor is a bad sign.
Fox News completely dodged the point that featuring a guest who was a complete fraud who made blatantly untrue statements was their responsibility. The right has had a lousy couple of weeks. Kevin McCarthy blew their Benghazi investigation scam to pieces. A Republican whistleblower confirmed that the Benghazi investigation is illegally partisan. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders stood together, and both looked strong at the Democratic debate. Now, Fox News gets walloped between the eyes.
All cable networks need to do a better job of vetting their guests, but Fox News sells itself as a source of truth.
When one of the network’s long-term “truth tellers” is facing 35 years in prison for lying, it is a devastating blow.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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