You may recall a report on Fox News by James Rosen (supplied to him by an Iran-Contra figure convicted of lying to Congress), alleging that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl converted to Islam and became a “jihadi” while in Taliban captivity.

You may also recall that Fox News simply stopped pushing the story almost immediately, which really isn’t like them. Normally Fox will milk every last drop of outrage from a story like that, carrying on for weeks.

Well, there may be a reason why it surfaced so briefly and then vanished beneath the right wing waves — because the US Army announced yesterday that Sgt. Bergdahl has been exonerated of misconduct while in captivity.

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Army said Wednesday that there is no evidence that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl engaged in any misconduct during his five years in captivity.

[…]

Some soldiers who served with Sgt. Bergdahl speculated that he had helped his captors while being held, but Army officials said Wednesday that there is no indication that he did so. “We have no reason to believe that he engaged in any misconduct” during the five years he was held captive, said one Army official.

Bergdahl is still facing investigation for leaving his post in the first place, but it’s clear that the “became a jihadi” story was an unmitigated smear. Fox and James Rosen certainly knew their source was disreputable and untrustworthy, but the point of these smears is just to get them out there in public and let the right wing mob continue repeating them ad infinitum.