Mass Correction: Mainstream Media Retracts False Infowars ‘Pirate Radio’ Story

On Wednesday numerous media outlets released reports claiming a radio station operating illegally out of an apartment complex in Austin was Alex Jones’ “flagship” station.
Incorrect reports and misleading headlines led readers to believe the Federal Communications Commission was moving to shut down the Alex Jones radio broadcast, in addition to fining him up to $15,000.
In reality, Infowars does not operate any radio or TV stations.
On Thursday, The Austin-American Statesman altered their dubious headline, “Austin pirate radio station, flagship for Alex Jones, faces $15k fine,” and added a Clarification: A previous version of this story referred to Austin-based Liberty Radio as a flagship station for Alex Jones and his “InfoWars” programming. As the story reports, the owners of the station are Walter Olenick and M. Rae Nadler-Olenick. Jones’ connection to Liberty Radio is that it is the local radio station that airs his show.
The Hill also changed their headline from “FCC shuts down Alex Jones’ flagship radio station,” “CORRECTION: FCC targets pirate radio station that broadcasts Alex Jones,” and adding an editor’s note:
— Editors’ note: This story was updated at 3:20 p.m. Thursday to reflect that Liberty Radio is a pirate station that rebroadcasts Alex Jones’s programming.
The Hill tweeted out the false headline at least 10 times (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here), issuing only one tweet for the “CORRECTION” headline.
Washington Examiner changed their headline from, “Alex Jones Show’ facing lawsuit, FCC fine” to “Texas station that plays ‘Alex Jones Show’ facing lawsuit, FCC fine.”
HuffPost offered the following “clarification”:
Clarification: Language in this story has been amended to clarify that while the station was known in Austin for rebroadcasting Jones’ shows, it was not officially affiliated with him.
Vice’s Motherboard issued a “correction” and changed their headline:
Correction: The original headline for this story was “The FCC Shut Down Alex Jones’ ‘Flagship’ Pirate Radio Station.” The headline has been updated to clarify that Alex Jones does not own or operate the station. Motherboard regrets the error.
“UPDATED to clarify that Alex Jones is not involved in the station,” clarified Deadline.
Even Snopes, the bastion of truth for leftists and a verified fact-checker for Facebook and other tech giants, got it completely wrong.
“Claims that we are running an illegal radio station in Austin, Texas, are a complete and total hoax by mainstream, corporate media to imply to the world that our broadcast is somehow illegal.”

“We do not have a radio station. This is a giant hoax. There are thousands of “micro” radio stations across the country that we have nothing to do with, including the recently shut down station.”

We continue to ask other publications that falsely reported this fake news story, including but not limited to The New York Post and the Associated Press, to issue clarifications, retractions, or corrections in order to accurately reflect the situation, as The Austin-American Statesman, The Hill and others have already done.