On 9/11 anniversary, Fox 'debunks conspiracy theories once and for all' David Edwards and Jason Rhyne

Published: Tuesday September 11, 2007





Print This Email This On the morning of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Fox News Channel's Fox and Friends sought to 'debunk' conspiracy theories about the tragedy with the help of guest James Meigs, editor-in-chief of Popular Mechanics magazine. "Still many crazy conspiracy theories," said host Steve Doocy, adding that Meigs was there to "debunk all of those 9/11 myths once and for all." Doocy later yelled out "Rosie!" as co-host Alisyn Camerota led into a question about theories endorsed by celebrities such as former View castmember O'Donnell, actor Charlie Sheen, and director David Lynch. "Rosie [O'Donnell] is one that pops in mind," said Camerota, summarizing one conspiracy position about the World Trade Center's collapse as "fire can't melt steel so the towers must not have fallen just because planes flew into them." "What we've done in three years at Popular Mechanics of looking into these theories is try to find the facts that the conspiracy theorists themselves cite as evidence of their claims," said Meigs. "In this case they say that because steel melts at about 2,700 degrees and jet fuel only burns at about 1,500 degrees...but when you talk to engineers, what you see is that steel doesn't have to melt to fail." "So there you go, Rosie, " Doocy said. "Hope you're watching." Meigs also weighed in on other disputed events of that day, saying that WTC 7, a building that some say was the target of a purposeful demolition on Sept. 11, collapsed only after sustaining serious damage from the falling towers. As for United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, Meigs says there is no evidence the plane was shot down, as others have theorized. "Everybody has the right to be skeptical," Meigs said, [But] there's a lot of people with political agendas who've driven some of these things and provided a lot of these theories in the first place." Meigs has been previously criticized as someone "whose scientific expertise stretches as far as being the editor of Video Review and Entertainment Weekly," by controversial documentary filmmaker and radio host Alex Jones. The following video is from Fox's Fox & Friends, broadcast on September 11.



