On Monday, Fox News host Jesse Watters opened his show by not-so-subtly laying the groundwork for a conspiracy theory. She told the story of the 10-year-old girl, reported in the Indy Star, who was eventually forced to travel to Indiana to terminate the pregnancy resulting from the rape. “Obviously this is a heartbreaking story,” he said, before opining on the lack of coverage. “Why isn’t anyone asking about bringing the child rapist to justice?” He spent the next few minutes asking why the rape was supposedly not reported to law enforcement and why the local media didn’t run with the story. “You would think that the story of a sex offender on the loose attacking 10-year-olds would cause enough concern in small-town Ohio, but no one seems to be doing anything about it,” he said. “No one knows anything about it. The local media doesn’t even alert the public. There is a monster unleashed and as far as we can find, no local newspaper or television station picked up the story.” In his conclusion he hedged his bets, saying that if someone raped a 10-year-old they should be brought to justice, but ultimately questioned whether the story was at all accurate. Waters went on to claim that the “mainstream media” and Joe Biden had concocted a “hoax.” His colleague, Tucker Carlson, didn’t mince words on his show. He said bluntly that “the story turned out not to be true.” Fox anchors Emily Compagno and Dan Bongino followed suit, calling the story a liberal media farce. Even Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost toed the line of the right-wing media, calling the story a “fabrication.” But it turned out to be true. The Columbus Dispatch confirmed the next day that a 27-year-old man named Gershon Fuentes was arrested Tuesday after he confessed to raping the 10-year-old on at least two occasions. Detective Jeffrey Huhn told the newspaper that law enforcement was made aware of the girl’s “pregnancy through a referral from Franklin County Children Services made by her mother on June 22.” Instead of issuing a correction or a mea culpa to imply that the story was false, Watters tried to take credit for the prosecution. “Primetime covered this story a lot on Monday, put pressure on it, and now we’re glad that justice is being served,” he said on his show Thursday. Town Hall writer Matt Vespa also tried to find a non-judgmental angle on the story, releasing a piece accusing progressives and the press of celebrating the rape of the 10-year-old girl for validating the story, expressing more outrage at left-wing criticism. right-wing media over the fact that a child was forced to leave his state to terminate a pregnancy caused by rape. Republican Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said he is “reviewing” the license of the doctor who performed the abortion. “We are gathering the facts as we speak and will fight this to the end, including looking at her licence,” Mr Rokita said. “If he didn’t report it to Indiana, it’s a crime to — fail to report, intentionally fail to report.” Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who performed the abortion, has since become a target of right-wing media and outraged conservatives. She shared her view with the Independent. “These are, unfortunately, the real consequences of banning abortion,” he said. “All states have pregnant women who need abortion care, in the most extreme and the most common circumstances, and everyone deserves to have access to comprehensive reproductive health care in a state in which they live.”
