FACT CHECK: Did Fox News Air This Weather Report About Hurricane Ian?
A video shared on Instagram allegedly shows a Fox News weather report saying Florida residents “won’t survive” Hurricane Ian based on the forecasted track.
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Verdict: Misleading
The claim is misleading. A Fox News spokesperson confirmed the segment aired in October 2016 ahead of Hurricane Matthew.
Fact Check:
Hurricane Ian made landfall Wednesday near Cayo Costa State Park in Florida, the Orlando Sentinel reported. The hurricane, which caused massive destruction along the Western coastline of the state, was a Category 4 storm with 155 mile-per-hour winds at the time of landfall, the outlet reported.
The Instagram post, liked over 500 times, claims Fox News aired a weather report in preparation for Hurricane Ian. The video features former Fox News host Shepard Smith delivering the weather report while gesturing toward a graphic of various cities in Florida.
“See this, Melbourne, Daytona Beach, all the way up to Jacksonville, this moves 20 miles to the west and you and everyone you know are dead,” Smith says. “You can’t survive it. It’s not possible,” he later adds.
“Was this weatherman talking about #HurricaneIan?!?! Cause if so, uh…it’s a wrap for me, folks,” the post’s caption reads.
The claim is misleading. A keyword search reveals the clip is from an October 2016 weather report Smith delivered on the network ahead of Hurricane Matthew. The Instagram clip appears to edit out the graphic at the top indicating the tract was from Hurricane Matthew, not Ian. (RELATED: Did Animals Escape From A New Jersey Zoo When Remnants Of Hurricane Ida Passed Through?)
“The clip is from an old segment unrelated to Hurricane Ian and has not been rebroadcasted,” Jessica Ketner, a Fox News spokesperson, told Check Your Fact in an email.
This is not the first time a misleading claim has circulated on social media. Check Your Fact previously debunked a Facebook video claiming a “big explosion” recently occurred in Moscow.
