Fox's Fumbled Response To Khan Speech: Why Wasn't Benghazi Covered Like This?

Fox Was Only Cable News Network Not To Air Khan, Benghazi Speeches During Conventions


Fox News anchors Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade erroneously claimed that “no networks covered” the Republican National Convention speech from Patricia Smith, whose son was killed in the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya. In fact, Fox News was the only cable news network not to carry Pat Smith’s speech live, yet the hosts alleged that “there is a double standard” because the “mainstream media is paying all the attention” to Khizr Khan’s Democratic convention speech.

On July 18, the first night of the Republican National Convention, Patricia Smith -- the mother of a victim of the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya -- attacked Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, blaming Clinton for her son’s death.

MSNBC and CNN both carried Smith’s speech live. Fox News did not, opting instead for a live phone interview with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Yet on August 1, Doocy and Kilmeade lamented that “no networks” covered Smith’s remarks live. The hosts bemoaned that “the mainstream media is paying all the attention to the Khan family” -- parents of a fallen U.S. Army captain who spoke on July 28 at the Democratic National Convention and criticized Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric. Fox News was the only news cable network not to carry Khan’s speech, instead airing a Benghazi attack ad over the speech during commercial. Yet Kilmeade asserted “Nobody covered [Smith’s] remarks live but almost everybody covered Mr. Khan's remarks live”:

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): [The Khan family] lost their son, but there is a double standard. The mainstream media is paying all the attention to the Khan family and yet not so much to the Smith family. Sean Smith lost his life in Benghazi and it was one week earlier at the Republican convention where Pat Smith directly and personally blamed Hillary Clinton for her son getting killed. And why isn't this getting coverage?

[...]

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Meanwhile, I was on the floor for that. I did not know that no networks covered her. Nobody covered those remarks live but almost everybody covered Khan's, Mr. Khan's remarks live.

DOOCY: There is a double standard it seems.

Doocy and Kilmeade should take up their complaints of a “double standard” with their own network, which has long pushed the debunked myth and oft-repeated smear that Clinton deliberately lied about the cause of the Benghazi attacks.