“Nobody covered” the remarks of Patricia Smith, the mother of a Benghazi victim, “live, but almost everybody covered Khizr Khan’s, Mr. Khan’s remarks live.”
Wrong: Fox News anchor says networks covered Khizr Khan but skipped Patricia Smith
On Fox and Friends the week after the Democratic National Convention, Brian Kilmeade criticized a “double standard” in the media.
He accused major media networks of covering Khizr Khan’s remarks — accusing Republican nominee Donald Trump of not reading the Constitution — live, but not covering Patricia Smith, the mother of Benghazi victim Sean Smith, live.
“Nobody covered those (Patricia Smith’s) remarks live but almost everybody covered Khan’s, Mr. Khan’s remarks live,” Kilmeade said.
That’s wrong. We looked through television programming from both events using a recording service that chronicles and time-stamps live television programming. Here’s what we found.
What aired
Smith’s speech, on the first night of the Republican National Convention July 18, 2016, began around 8:24 p.m. ET.
The speech was aired live by both CNN and MSNBC. It was not live on Fox News, coincidentally. Fox News went to commercial right before Smith took the stage and returned to a phone interview between Donald Trump and Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly.
Lou Dobbs Tonight on the Fox Business channel had footage of the speech, but no audio.
The broadcast networks, NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX, did not cover any convention programming before 10 p.m. ET.
Khan’s speech aired at 9:13 p.m. ET on July 28, 2016, from Philadelphia. Again, it was aired live by CNN and MSNBC but not Fox News.
Fox News was in a commercial when Khan began speaking. The cable network showed pictures of Khan speaking on the side but did not have audio. When Fox News returned from the break, it went to a press conference on ISIS by FBI director James Comey.
C-SPAN also covered both speeches live.
A Fox News spokeswoman did not respond to our request for comment.
Our ruling
Kilmeade said “nobody” aired Patricia Smith’s remarks live, but “almost everybody” covered Khan’s remarks live.
CNN, MSNBC and C-SPAN covered both speeches live. Coincidentally, Fox News — of which Kilmeade is an employee — covered neither live.
Point being: the speeches were covered the same. Kilmeade’s statement rates Pants on Fire.
https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/fb15c5db-ef84-4542-8265-735674c9eaf5
Our Sources
IQ Media Database, accessed August 1, 2016
PolitiFact, "The backstory of the Muslim soldier's dad who said Trump 'sacrificed nothing,'" July 29, 2016
PolitiFact, "Checking Patricia Smith's claims about Clinton and Benghazi," July 18, 2016
