Fox News apologises for fabricated quote attributed to Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander

Fox News has issued an apology after being caught publishing a false quote attributed to Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The network had claimed that Jafari made statements about Tehran’s nuclear weapons ambitions, remarks he never actually made. The fabrication gained significant traction, even being cited in speeches by the Israeli Prime Minister and the US Ambassador to the United Nations.
The false attribution was first exposed by Israeli news outlet Ynet, which uncovered that the quote had no factual basis. Following Ynet’s investigation, The New York Times conducted its own enquiry into the matter and confirmed that the Israeli news site had raised “the first questions about the quote’s source and how it was created.” The incident highlights the dangers of misinformation in international reporting, particularly on sensitive geopolitical matters involving nuclear proliferation.
The quote’s rapid dissemination into official statements by high-ranking political figures underscores how unverified claims can quickly become embedded in diplomatic discourse. Fox News’s subsequent apology represents a rare acknowledgement of the error, though the damage caused by the initial false reporting and its amplification through official channels had already been done. The incident serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of rigorous fact-checking in coverage of complex international affairs.

Source: Ynet — Original article in Hebrew.