Fox News Totally Botches Slam On Unhealthy 'Blue' Cities, Which Were Actually Healthiest
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Fox News completely upended statistics it claimed proved that Democrats run the unhealthiest cities in the nation.
The Fox face-plant Saturday evening was spotted by Twitter sleuth @Acyn, and got a shout-out from CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale.
Dan Bongino, host of “Unfiltered” — who has been permanently banned by Youtube.com for spinning COVID lies — savaged Democrats in the “Tale of Two Cities” episode for running what a dramatic map behind him targeted as the “Top Ten” unhealthiest cities in America.
But, oops — all the cities clearly labeled in the map Bongino displayed, including San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Honolulu, Washington, Austin and Denver — are the healthiest in the country, according to a WalletHub analysis, the very source cited by the program.
Bongino’s map also mistakenly names “Irving” in Texas in the Top 10 list. The WalletHub analysis actually refers to “Irvine,” a city in California, as among the healthiest.
Dan Bongino's Fox show took a website's list of the most healthy US cities and turned it into a graphic titled "TOP TEN MOST UNHEALTHY U.S. CITIES," which it used to back Bongino's claim that Democrats don't care about urban deaths. Nice catch by @Acyn. https://t.co/E7fVhkbOYf
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 6, 2022
The actual unhealthiest cities named in the WalletHub analysis cited in Bongino’s program include cities in Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia and Tennessee — all red states.
Viewers on Twitter reported that Bongino’s program was modified when it was repeated later Saturday night — without the blatantly inaccurate map listing the “most unhealthy” cities.
Still, Bongino scapegoated Democrats for running unhealthy cities. The second time around, Bongino’s Dem-attack narrative was presented over videos of apparently homeless people in unidentified locations.
Here’s the bottom 10 from that list. I guess they didn’t show these because of which party runs them. pic.twitter.com/mkq66cikfk
— Kamiano75 (@kamiano75) February 6, 2022
They changed it already. You post made them change the repeat at midnight on Fox. pic.twitter.com/AdQWeAEl2G
— The Rok (@CrakRok) February 6, 2022
Fox News critics on Twitter loved the goof-up, even though many thought it was a new low for the network.
Lol…Irving…This list is ridiculous.
— Jay 🇺🇸⚓️🇨🇦 (@jgmiddlet) February 6, 2022
This is why we should always click on sources. They think were too lazy to do it but, often the source does not confirm the original information. In this case it’s the LITERAL opposite.
— PoliticsGirl (@IAmPoliticsGirl) February 6, 2022
So they blatantly took the top 10 healthiest and said they were the top 10 UNhealthiest? Even for Fox News this seems ridiculous.
— Abraham Dylan (@abrahamdylan4) February 6, 2022
I thought you were kidding until I had to look it up myself. Why does Fox keep deceiving its viewers? Don’t they know that this information is easily available on the net? pic.twitter.com/4G0CNcdJdQ
— Will Sr- Democracy Won 💙❤ (@freshprince84) February 6, 2022
Fox News told The Daily Beast that it “regrets the error” and that a correction will be issued next week on Bongino’s program.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.