Kilmeade baselessly claimed Dems "air-drop[ped]" team of "lawyers and investigators into Alaska" to investigate Palin

Summary: On Fox & Friends, Brian Kilmeade baselessly claimed that Democrats "air-drop[ped] 60 lawyers and investigators into Alaska" to investigate Gov. Sarah Palin. Kilmeade did not cite a source for the claim, but The Wall Street Journal's John Fund recently claimed that "Democrats have airdropped a mini-army of 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researchers" into Alaska "to dig into [Palin's] record and background." Kilmeade did not mention that the DNC reportedly called Fund's assertion a "flat-out absolute fabrication" and said that neither the DNC nor the Obama campaign sent anyone to Alaska to do research.

During the September 15 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade stated that, on NBC's Meet the Press, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) said, "I'd like to see [Gov.] Sarah Palin's tax returns, please. And I also would like to see a -- her having a non- -- put together a nonpartisan panel and agree to have a nonpartisan investigation on the trooper issue with the -- her ex-brother-in-law. So here we go, it's looking in the background." Kilmeade then asserted, "When you air-drop 60 lawyers and investigators into Alaska, you know, they've got to quick -- do some quick work because winter's coming." Kilmeade did not cite a source for the claim, but in his September 9 column, Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund's wrote that "Democrats have airdropped a mini-army of 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researchers into Anchorage, the state capital Juneau and Mrs. Palin's hometown of Wasilla to dig into her record and background." But, as Media Matters for America noted, the Democratic National Committee has reportedly called Fund's assertion a "flat-out absolute fabrication" and Fund's claim has also reportedly been "flatly denied by Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor, and unconfirmed elsewhere."

Fund's claim that Democrats have "airdropped a mini-army of 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researchers" into Alaska to investigate Palin was repeated in an attack ad from Sen. John McCain's campaign, which Fox News chief political correspondent Carl Cameron uncritically referred to on the September 10 edition of Fox News' Happening Now.

From the September 15 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

DOOCY: What's extraordinary, though, is the fact that you are reading so much about Sarah Palin, and she certainly is brand-new, but how many people are actually digging -- and now that Joe Biden has finally been named as the number two guy for Barack Obama over a month ago, I haven't seen any things into his background. You know, there was that story that broke on Bloomberg -- I believe on Friday -- took a look at his income taxes over the last couple of years. He only gave two-tenths of 1 percent --

KILMEADE: Right.

DOOCY: -- two-tenths of 1 percent to charity. It was in one thing. It wasn't in The Washington Post, that did a great big article about his taxes, but 60 percent of the article was about Sarah Palin.

CARLSON: You know, the flip side of that, though, guys, is that when you have a lot of press being written about you, it says one thing: People want to read it.

KILMEADE: Right.

CARLSON: People want to read about this particular person in Sarah Palin, which you could equate to her being popular. So, if you're in the Joe Biden camp, you maybe are not happy with the fact that he's not getting a lot of press.

KILMEADE: Well, Senator Schumer was the lead guest on Meet --

DOOCY: He wouldn't want a lot of this publicity.

KILMEADE: Right. Senator Schumer --

CARLSON: Well, but they say that even any publicity sometimes is good publicity.

KILMEADE: Senator Schumer was on Meet the Press, and he said, quickly, the talking points, which he always does -- he usually writes them, to his credit -- he says, I'd like to see Sarah Palin's tax returns, please. And I also would like to see a -- her have a non- -- put together a nonpartisan panel and agree to have a nonpartisan investigation on the trooper issue with the -- her ex-brother-in-law.

So here we go, it's looking in the background.

DOOCY: Sure.

KILMEADE: When you air-drop 60 lawyers and investigators into Alaska --

DOOCY: Sure.

KILMEADE: -- you know, they've got to quick -- do some quick work because winter's coming.

DOOCY: Once upon a time, people went to bed with a teddy bear. How many people now go to bed with the BlackBerry?

—J.H.