Why on Earth would Fox News not air the Robert Mueller hearings this Wednesday? It's only the biggest news story of the past two years! Well, of course it will be airing it, as it is a news company. But for some reason, a fake headline was shared about how the network was planning to ignore the hearings, and it caught on fast.
The rumor is traced to MSNBC contributor Joyce White Vance, who tweeted, "Fox isn’t showing Mueller’s testimony Wednesday. Trump is afraid of what will happen if his base gets to hear Mueller’s testimony for themselves."
She says it was a joke, but Twitter apparently didn't get it. The "joke" was accepted as fact, and it spread far and wide. Even Stephen King wrote about it.
FOX news shows the president’s rallies but won’t show Robert Mueller’s testimony? What happened to “Fair and Balanced?”
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 21, 2019
Fox anchor Bret Baier was one of several anchors to correct the fake news.
Sorry you missed the promos. Thanks https://t.co/dp0zzV9w3c
— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) July 22, 2019
Realizing the mess she'd caused, Vance deleted the tweet and replaced it with the following explanation.
I’ve deleted an earlier tweet I intended ironically, but that some took as factual regarding Fox news coverage of Mueller’s testimony. My apologies to anyone I confused. I don’t like to delete tweets but that seems a better course than unintentionally misinforming people.
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) July 21, 2019
As Fox News indicated on Monday, its Mueller coverage will start bright and early on Wednesday at 8 a.m.