'Fox & Friends’ Apologizes For Falsely Alleging Nashville Coronavirus ‘Cover-Up’
“Fox & Friends” issued an apology Monday after it aired a segment last week that falsely claimed the Democratic mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, tried to “cover up” data that showed low transmission rates of coronavirus at bars and restaurants.
The allegation stemmed from a report published Wednesday by Fox 17, a TV station in Nashville. The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, a brazenly pro-Trump media group. Fox 17 has since retracted the report and removed it from its website.
During Monday’s broadcast, “Fox & Friends” host Steve Doocy apologized for “any confusion” that might have occurred as a result of his show spreading false information about the Nashville mayor’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
“We wanted to give you an update on a story we shared last week,” Doocy said. “On Friday, we reported on allegations that the mayor of Nashville had hidden coronavirus numbers. That was according to our local Nashville Fox affiliate. They have since retracted their story. And we now know the mayor’s office apparently did not conceal those numbers and did release them to the public.”
Fox & Friends apologizes for its Friday segment demanding the resignation of the Nashville mayor over some leaked emails hyped into a secret lockdown conspiracy by a Sinclair-owned Fox affiliate. https://t.co/m8O0YNk7irpic.twitter.com/tjo2WmCnfR
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) September 21, 2020
In his initial story, Fox 17’s Dennis Ferrier reported about an email exchange that he obtained between Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s office and the city’s health department.
CNN’s Oliver Darcy wrote a thorough breakdown of what went wrong with Ferrier’s reporting, but essentially Ferrier grossly misrepresented what was said in the emails between the city officials.
A city health department official told an aide with the mayor’s office that they’ve refused to publicly release some coronavirus “counts per bar because those numbers...
