State Department spokesman roasts anti-Clinton Fox News reporter over an open fire

Derp. Fox News played a particularly large role in the moronic, conspiracy-minded "questioning" over whether or not Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was really sick, after news of her fainting spell and concussion, or if it was all a plot so that Clinton would not have to testify about the super-scary Benghazi super-conspiracy that Fox News and other conservative outlets had dreamed up earlier. Two days after her concussion, Fox correspondent Justin Fishel had some probing questions about the legitimacy of Clinton's illness.

We're going to have to let the resulting email to Fishel and Fishel's boss from State Department spokesman Philippe Reines speak for itself:

Justin '

We owe you an apology. And I'm adding Bryan so he's aware of how badly we erred. I'm almost embarrassed to even admit this ' but somehow your question at today's Daily Press Briefing was somehow completely mauled and transcribed in the release below this way:

'Toria, can you expand on why Secretary Clinton can't testify on Thursday about this? It seems that she has not been available to testify on the Benghazi situation on some very key dates, including the Sunday after 9/11 and now this Thursday.'

I just called them and read them the riot act for putting such misleading, accusatory, and absolutely asinine words in your mouth. Because after what we and her doctors explained over the weekend regarding her health, you couldn't possibly have been insinuating the ulterior motives that question implies. No way. No credible journalist would do that without any basis whatsoever. But even more so, I really went to bat for you with folks here and told them that while I know the media can often be incredibly self-involved, there is no way you, an informed reporter, would equate one's testifying before the United States Congress ' made up of duly elected Senators and Representatives empowered by Article I of our Constitution ' with going on tv. I don't know Chris Wallace all that well, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't place his television show on par with one of the three branches of our government. And therefore, saying that this has happened on multiple 'key dates' is simply a blatant lie and grossly misleading to the public.

Anyway, our sincere apologies. If you send us what you really said, I'll make sure it's properly reflected.
Best,

Philippe

It soon turned out, of course, that Clinton had to be hospitalized as a result of that concussion, upon which Fox News sincerely and abjectly apologized for their manufactured, conspiratorial crap moved on to something else. But it's good to see that there's at least one person out there willing to help the Fox press corps get their fair shake when they're accused of being transparently partisan, willfully misleading propagandist hacks. You, Philippe Reines, are a difference maker.