Fox News Retracts A Lie - But The Damage Is Done

Click here for an article at The Washington Post by Callum Borchers entitled "Fox anchor Bret Baier on Clinton ‘indictment’ story: ‘It was a mistake, and for that I’m sorry.’"

As the saying goes, a lie can be halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on.

Baier breathlessly reported to Fox's Brit Hume that the FBI had a mammoth ongoing investigation of the Clinton Foundation which was "likely to result in an indictment."

Not true. But the damage was done, and although Baier and Fox News retracted the story and apologized for it, it was immediately picked up and spread by such sites as Drudge, Breitbart, Hot Air, and Infowars. Those sites haven't retracted it, and keep spreading it.

In his original report on Wednesday, Baier said his sources also told him this: “The Clinton Foundation investigation is so expansive, they have interviewed and re-interviewed many people. They described the evidence they have as 'a lot of it' and said there is an 'avalanche coming in every day.' "

That is very different from what the New York Times reported on the same day: “The investigation, based in New York, had not developed much evidence and was based mostly on information that had surfaced in news stories and the book 'Clinton Cash,' according to several law enforcement officials briefed on the case.”