A Fox News anchor recycled a debunked claim about Beto O’Rourke

Fox News is already spreading misinformation about newly announced Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke.

During a segment on America’s Newsroom about O’Rourke’s announcement that he is running for president, co-anchor Sandra Smith listed what she labeled “some of O’Rourke’s policy positions.” Among them, she said O’Rourke “called law enforcement the ‘new Jim Crow.’”

This claim originated from a midterm election debate between Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and O’Rourke in September, during which Cruz said: “Just this week, Congressman O’Rourke described law enforcement -- described police officers -- as modern-day Jim Crow.” Following that debate, multiple news organizations explained that Cruz was misleadingly simplifying comments O’Rourke made about racial discrimination that is found throughout the entire criminal justice system as well as in legislative redistricting.

America’s Newsroom was not the first Fox show to recycle Cruz’s debunked claim against O’Rourke as an objective fact. Last night on The Story, before O’Rourke officially announced his candidacy, Fox contributor Karl Rove stated that O’Rourke had said “law enforcement is the new Jim Crowism.” Rove repeated this claim on Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria Bartiromo today. And Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt said this morning that O’Rourke “called law enforcement ‘the new Jim Crow,’” not just once, not twice, but three times.

Fox News has been pushing the claim that its “hard news” division is separate from its opinion shows and commentators. But this example of a Fox anchor dutifully repeating a false talking point about O’Rourke -- one that had already been repeatedly pushed by a Fox & Friends co-host and President George W. Bush’s former deputy chief of staff -- is just further evidence that no such editorial divide exists at Fox.