WND -- WND! -- pans Fox's coverage of AZ wildlife refuge

In recent days, we've repeatedly highlighted recent wildly off-base Fox News reports on the closure of a small strip of land in an Arizona wildlife refuge. In a June 15 report, Fox News host Shannon Bream stated, “A massive stretch of Arizona now off limits to Americans. Critics say the administration is, in effect, giving a major strip of the Southwest back to Mexico.” Fox Nation subsequently highlighted the report with the laughable headline, “Obama Gives Back Major Strip of AZ to Mexico.”

None of this, of course, was actually true. We did the follow-up that Fox News apparently didn't bother with, and discovered that the area in question is about five miles square, it's been closed since 2006, and it hasn't been given back to Mexico.

But we're not the only ones pointing this out. Now WorldNetDaily -- best know for its rampant birtherism and general journalistic malpractice - is taking Fox to task for its report.

I want to be careful not to praise WND too much here -- after all, their headline says that the territory is “still in American hands -- for now”:

Fox takedown

Nonetheless, they also point out that Fox suggests the area in question is much larger than it actually is, and notes that we haven't, you know, turned the territory over to Mexico. They also did the diligence Fox apparently neglected, contacting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service like real journalists would.

How embarrassing. After having their reporting thoroughly shredded and their lack of journalistic integrity exposed, can Fox News afford not to respond?