'Not accurate': Fox News apologizes for publishing quote attributed to Revolutionary Guards commander
Fox News issued an on-air apology after ynet's exposé revealed it had echoed a fabricated quote attributed to the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Ahmad Vahidi. Anchor Bill Hemmer admitted the quote was 'unverified and inaccurate.' The quote originated from a dubious Indian account, gained traction on Channel 14 and via Yair Netanyahu, and even reached the PM's speech at Mount Herzl. The New York Times also addressed the quote, noting that the first questions appeared on ynet.
Fox News was forced to apologize on air after ynet's exposé revealed it had echoed a fabricated quote attributed to the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Ahmad Vahidi. Anchor Bill Hemmer admitted that the quote, which claimed 'as long as the US and Israel possess nuclear weapons, we will continue to work on ours for national security needs,' was 'unverified and inaccurate.' 'We regret the error,' Hemmer said on air. An article on Fox News' website containing the quote was also updated following the publication. According to Ronen Bergman's exposé on ynet, the fabricated quote originated from a dubious Indian account, gained traction on Channel 14 and via Yair Netanyahu, and even reached Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at Mount Herzl on August 5. US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz also shared a tweet with this claim, which was never made: 'Finally admitting what has been clear for years,' Waltz wrote. The next day, Fox News used the quote, with Bill Hemmer himself presenting it during an interview with former CENTCOM commander General Joseph Votel, asking if Vahidi had 'said out loud what should not be said' regarding the regime's nuclear ambitions. The latter responded affirmatively to the attributed remarks, which were never made. 'I think he absolutely did,' Votel said, later claiming that the Revolutionary Guards leadership is an extremist factor that sees the struggle as existential, does not care about Iran's economy or citizens, and focuses on maintaining power in Iran. At the end of the interview, Hemmer repeated the fabricated quote and said: 'We will continue to work on them for our national security – that's the closest admission I've heard, and we've been following this story for years.' The New York Times also addressed the fabricated quote today, the ease with which it was used, and the disregard for red flags along the way. In their investigation, they noted that 'the first questions regarding the source of the quote and how it was created first appeared on ynet.' Under the headline 'How a false nuclear claim about Iran traveled from India to Washington,' it was written that the Twitter account in India, with about 175,000 followers, had previously faced criticism from fact-checkers and the Pakistani government for spreading false and Islamophobic content. The fabricated quote was accompanied by an image of Vahidi next to an AI-generated mushroom cloud, and the English text contained spelling and grammar errors. The newspaper also claimed that the timing of the quote's publication was not coincidental. It was distributed three days after US President Donald Trump announced he was halting strikes against Iran to give negotiations a chance. Iran's Foreign Ministry responded that Vahidi had indeed spoken extensively since the start of the war, but had not addressed the nuclear program. Moreover, in one of his real statements on the matter last year, Vahidi said Iran's position on nuclear weapons 'has already been clarified in the past.'