Fox Continues To Ignore Dissolution Of Menendez Smears
They Previously Trumpeted

After repeatedly promoting the original allegations that Sen. Robert
Menendez solicited prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, Fox News'
evening and primetime shows ignored an Associated Press report that
Dominican police now believe that three women who claimed to have been
paid by Menendez for sex were actually paid to make those false
allegations.

Following a November report from the Daily Caller that two Dominican
prostitutes had told that outlet that they had been given money by
Menendez in exchange for sex, Fox News' evening and primetime programs
discussed the allegations in at least 20 segments, according to a search
of the Nexis database. Fox's The Five, Special Report, The O'Reilly
Factor, Hannity, and On The Record all reported on the claims.

In the intervening months, the story has fallen apart as several
important details have emerged. In March, the Washington Post reported
that a woman who had previously claimed she had been paid by Menendez
for sex had retracted her story and signed an affidavit saying she had
actually been paid to lie. (The Daily Caller disputed that the woman in
the Post report was one of the women they had spoken to for their
initial story.)

Fox was slow to report on the Post revelations. In fact, according to
the Nexis database, The O'Reilly Factor is the only Fox News evening
program to report on the Post story about the woman recanting her story.

Several news outlets, including ABC News and the New York Post, have
also claimed to have been approached by a GOP operative with the
Menendez allegations, but declined to run with the story because it
seemed flimsy.

On March 18, in a report that severely damages the already shaky
Fox-promoted Caller stories, the AP reported that Dominican police
officers had traced payments of several hundred dollars from a Dominican
attorney to three women that were taped making the Menendez allegations:

Police in the Dominican Republic say they have determined that
three women who said they had sex with U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez for
money were in fact paid to make false claims by an attorney in the
Caribbean country.

Police spokesman Maximo Baez says officers traced the payments to
attorney Melanio Figueroa. Baez says two women received about $425 each
and the other was paid about $300 to falsely state on camera that they
had sex with Menendez (D-N.J.).

Baez said at a news conference today that authorities were seeking
to interrogate Figueroa about the payments. Figueroa did not respond to
messages left at his office. The women's videotaped statements were
published on a conservative U.S. website. Menendez denied the allegations.

Fox News completely ignored the AP report during their March 18
primetime programming.
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But Fox puts on more news and less talk. More bull**** news.


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