Fox News Issues Retraction After Getting Duped by Fake Quote Attributed to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Commander

Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer issued an on-air correction on Thursday after the network was apparently hoodwinked by a phony quote attributed to Iran’s top Revolutionary Guard official.

Speaking on America’s Newsroom, Hemmer admitted that a quote by IRGC honcho Ahmad Vahidi, which he read on the air on August 6, was “unverified and inaccurate.”

“So last week, we incorrectly attributed a quote about a nuclear program to the IRGC Commander-in-Chief Ahmad Vahidi,” Hemmer said. “Since that time, we’ve learned that quote was unverified and inaccurate, and we regret that error.”

The quote read: “As long as the United States and Israel possess nuclear weapons, we will continue working on them for our national security. If they disarm, we will disarm.”

On Saturday, Israeli news outlet YNet’s Ronen Bergman reported that the quote was fake, and spread via an India-based social media account, where numerous people fell for it, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who used the quote during a speech in Jerusalem last week.

“Today we heard IRGC Commander Vahidi explicitly state Iran’s intention to continue developing nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said on August 5, Mint reported, citing Israel’s Channel 14.

Hemmer also used the quote on August 6 during a segment on the Iran war, asking former CENTCOM commander Gen. Joseph Votel if Vahidi said “the quiet part out loud” about the Islamic regime’s nuclear ambitions.

“I think he certainly did,” Votel replied, adding that “you have this hardcore Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps leadership that views this as existential, and does not care about the economy, does not care about the people of Iran, really only cares about being in power. They will continue to complicate this process the whole way through.”

As he ended the segment with Votel, Hemmer repeated a part of the bogus quote, warning about its implications.

“‘We will continue working on them for our national security’ — that’s as close to an admission as I have heard, and we’ve been watching this story for years.”

In addition, an August 5 story on FoxNews.com about the Vahidi quote has since been changed, with an editor’s note that reads, “This report has been updated to clarify remarks by IRGC commander Ahmad Vahidi, which were previously taken out of context and amplified as comments made this week.”

Fox News did not respond to a request for comment by Mediaite.

Watch above via Fox News.

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