Ahead of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s much-hyped congressional testimony on Wednesday, a “false claim” about Fox News made over the weekend by former Obama administration U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Joyce Vance started a new “conspiracy theory,” according to a report.
Vance, a frequent contributor for both MSNBC and The Washington Post as well as a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, on Sunday 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.”
This claim was reportedly almost immediately debunked on Twitter. However, Vance spent hours defending her allegation as “sarcasm” and “irony” before deciding to delete the initial tweet.
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
Since then, Fox News published a report detailing how Vance’s claim snowballed, with other media talking heads and prominent left-leaning social media figures spreading the assertion as factual.
Another frequent MSNBC commentator, Rick Wilson, even took to that network’s airwaves on Monday to parrot Vance’s claim. This was followed by ex-Democratic Congresswoman Donna Edwards doing the same on Tuesday.
According to Fox News, the network “will not only air the [Mueller] testimony, anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, but its primetime lineup will provide a thorough analysis of the event, as well. Fox’s coverage, which begins at 8 a.m. ET on July 24, has been heavily promoted.”
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Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
