Today in making things up

Well -- not exactly. Actually, not at all. But with a little head-fakery on an otherwise innocent AP report, the Fair 'n' Balanced Network manages to push a made-up story. And once you've made the Drudge homepage, your work is done.

Here's what the AP reported Friday:

The U.N. nuclear agency said Friday that its attempts to probe allegations that Tehran worked on nuclear weapons were deadlocked — a finding that all but rules out hopes of full nuclear deal between six world powers and Iran by the Nov. 24 target date.

And the version that was Fox's No. 3 tale this morning, under the "Agency claims Iran still working toward nukes" hed shown above:

Hours after the UN’s nuclear agency said that its attempts to investigate allegations that Iran worked on nuclear weapons, an Iranian opposition group claimed to have information showing the country is still working toward nuclear weapons.

See the pivot foot move? Clumsy grammar aside, Fox is grafting one set of claims onto another, allowing a for the bogus hed (after the story fell downpage, the switch was even clearer: "UN agency claims Iran still working toward nukes"). Fox is simply having a little more fun with the opposition press conference, which AP discusses in its 11th graf:

An Iranian opposition group claimed Friday to have new information linked to such testing. The National Council of Resistance told reporters in Washington that a second chamber was also built, with its present location unknown and that both structures were constructed by a company affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards.

Oddly, Fox keeps this hedge from the AP version:

The council has a mixed record of credibility on Iran’s nuclear activities. It was instrumental in revealing more than a decade ago that Tehran had a secret program but some of its other allegations remain unproven.

... but once you've displaced the claim to the UN, you don't really need to protect anybody!

As Charles Foster Kane (but almost certainly not William Randolph Hearst) might have put it back in the last century: You provide the made-up headlines, I'll provide the war.