Fox News Retracts 'Terrorist Attack' Report About Niagara Falls Car Explosion

Ben Blanchet
Thu, November 23, 2023

Fox News walked back a report on “an attempted terrorist attack” in the Niagara Falls vehicle explosion, a deadly crash where officials said there was “no indication” of terrorism near the U.S.-Canada border on Wednesday.

Alexis McAdams — a correspondent for the conservative network — referred to “high-level police sources” who she said linked terrorism to the crash at the Rainbow Bridge crossing and told her that they believe the two peopletraveling in the car packed it “full of explosives,” Mediaite reported.

The report led to talk on terrorismfrom on-air personalities such as anchor John Roberts, who said it’s unclear “how long the people who perpetrated this attack have been in” the U.S. during an interview with 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy.

McAdams, later in the day, again named “high-level police sources” saying that “bomb techs immediately alerted all authorities that it was an attempted terror attack because they never saw debris field like that.”

“Now walking that back,” added McAdams, who also referred to officials being “not exactly sure” what was in the car as there was “really nothing left” of it.

The FBI’s Buffalo field office, in an X (formerly Twitter) post on Wednesday night, said that it found no connection to terrorism and a search of the crash scene “revealed no explosive materials.”

John Miller, CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, reported that the man in the car intended to go to a Kiss concert in Canada before it was canceled. He instead went to a casino with his wife and, after leaving, traveled at a “high rate of speed” before the crash which looks “like a terrible accident,” Miller reported. The two died in the crash and at least one Border Patrol officer was injured.

Following the retraction, Global News’ Jackson Proskow spotted the “attempted terrorist attack” report still live on Fox News’ website before it was eventually taken down.

McAdams’ “attempted terrorist attack” report still remains on X as of early Thursday morning.

Fox News’ Jason Chaffetz, in a later report where he declared that “people didn’t know if it was a terrorist attack,” questioned whether the incident was linked to the Biden administration’s border policies.

Oliver Darcy, CNN’s senior media reporter, criticized Fox News’ initial “terrorist attack” reporting in an interview with Abby Phillip on Wednesday.

“This was irresponsible reporting, this was reckless reporting and by all accounts, it was inaccurate reporting,” said Darcy, adding that it was reported “for hours” and the network sent out a push alert on the terrorism report.