THE DAILY BS: HOW MUCH CAN YOU HANDLE?
SPARE ME THE BS (I’ve got things to do).
- MS NOW reported that FBI Director Kash Patel had arrived in Russia for meetings with Russian security officials, citing two anonymous sources.
- The FBI responded with video showing Patel at a law enforcement event at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
- Reporter Ken Dilanian corrected the story on air roughly two hours later as the FBI mocked the network’s supposedly well-informed sources.
LAY IT ON ME (I’ve got time).
MS NOW had a blockbuster Wednesday: FBI Director Kash Patel had secretly arrived in Russia for mysterious meetings with Russian security officials.
There was just one tiny problem.
Patel was in Virginia.
And the FBI had the video to prove it.
The network formerly known as MSNBC watched its international scoop collapse after justice and intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian reported that two people familiar with the matter had confirmed Patel’s arrival in Russia.
Appearing on “State of Play” with Peter Alexander, Dilanian said the FBI director had supposedly landed for a two-day visit involving Moscow and St. Petersburg, with meetings reportedly hosted by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB.
“We don’t know what Kash Patel is doing in Russia,” Dilanian told viewers. “And that’s one of the things that’s concerning our FBI sources; they don’t know either.”
He added that the bureau had not responded to his request for comment.
Except the FBI director wasn’t slipping into a secret meeting with Russian intelligence officials.
He was attending a law enforcement appreciation event at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, alongside Republican Rep. John McGuire.
The FBI’s Rapid Response account delivered the correction with a side-by-side video contrasting the network’s dramatic report with footage of Patel’s actual whereabouts.
“Left: MS Now reports two sources familiar say Kash Patel just landed in Russia,” the bureau wrote.
“Right: Here’s where Kash Patel actually is… Liberty U, doing a law enforcement appreciation event.”
Then came the punch line from the agency itself:
“MS Now’s ‘sources’ are ‘familiar’ with NOTHING!”
Patel joined the response with three words: “Facts over clickbait.”
FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs Ben Williamson described the extraordinary contrast between the television report and what was happening in Virginia.
“I have had many strange experiences in life, but in tier 1 had to be seeing a clip of MS Now reporting breaking news that Kash Patel has ‘just landed in Russia’ – right as I’m receiving pics of Kash Patel doing a law enforcement appreciation event today in Lynchburg, Virginia,” Williamson wrote.
That’s a rather inconvenient geographical discrepancy. Lynchburg and Moscow aren’t exactly neighboring suburbs.
Approximately two hours after the original report, Dilanian returned to the air with a correction.
“I want to correct reporting from earlier today,” he told Alicia Menendez.
“I reported that two sources had told us that FBI Director Kash Patel had landed in Russia for a planned trip that had been reported about recently.”
That information, he acknowledged, was wrong.
“We’ve since learned that Patel did not, in fact, land in Russia today and remains in the U.S.”
Dilanian emphasized that the FBI had not answered the network’s questions before its original report aired.
“We regret this error, and we are transparent about when we make errors,” he said.
There was a legitimate background story. Politico had reported months earlier that Patel was considering an October trip to Russia, and Democratic lawmakers had expressed concerns about potential meetings with Russian security officials.
But a previously discussed trip and a confirmed arrival are two very different things.
Reuters independently reported Wednesday that Patel was attending the Virginia event, citing both the FBI and video from a local ABC News affiliate.
The bureau’s response was especially pointed given its continuing disputes with MS NOW over coverage of Patel’s leadership and FBI crime statistics.
And the network’s embarrassing reversal gave critics fresh ammunition to question how two sources supposedly familiar with an intelligence official’s movements could place him on the wrong continent.
The larger question of whether Patel might travel to Russia at some later date remains unresolved. The October 14 claim that he had already arrived was unequivocally retracted.
For a network that has spent plenty of time warning viewers about Russian intrigue, this particular international mystery was solved by checking a university event in Virginia.
Two anonymous sources. One FBI director. Wrong country. Somewhere, somebody might want to invest in a map.
DBS WIRE SOURCES (I’ve got all day).
- The Hill — FBI refutes MS NOW report Patel in Russia, posts video of Virginia event
- Reuters — FBI says director Patel in Virginia, not Russia
- New York Post — Kash Patel is not in Russia, FBI reveals, exposing false MS NOW report
- Mediaite — MS NOW’s Ken Dilanian corrects false report that Patel landed in Russia
- Just the News — FBI provides video of Patel at Liberty University, disputing Russia report
