The site that effectively ended the Fox News career of Eric Bolling has revealed an astonishing level of carelessness in reporting on the aftermath. In what should be a serious blow to the quality of its fact-checking, its reputation for accuracy, and its overall credibility, the far left news site Huff Post was responsible for a serious error in its September 12 published story about the death of Chase Bolling, the son of fired Fox News host Eric Bolling. Time stamped 3:21 AM E.T. Sept. 12, 2017, the article, “Eric Bolling’s Former Fox News Colleagues Pay Tribute To His Late Son – The 19-year-old college student was found dead on Friday” by Rebecca Shapiro, takes note of a tribute to the Bolling family from the co-hosts of The Five, the Fox News Channel show that Eric Bolling co-hosted until late April. According to the HuffPost article:

“The Five” closed its Monday [Sept. 11] broadcast with a tribute to the late son of the Fox News show’s former co-host, Eric Bolling.

Eric Chase Bolling, 19, was found dead in Colorado on Friday. The cause of death is still unknown and an autopsy will be performed next week.

Co-host Andrea Tantaros said the younger Bolling had just started his sophomore year in college, which he was attending in Colorado.  

“[The Bollings] are in our prayers and the prayers of the entire Fox News family,” Tantaros said. “Eric Chase brought so much love and joy to his parents’ life. If you watched our show over the years, you probably heard Eric proudly talk about his sweet son, who was a baseball player like his dad, playing left field.”

HuffPost article on Eric Bolling Sept. 12, 2017 Screen Shot captured 4:04 A.M. E.D.T.

The problem is that Andrea Tantaros has not appeared on Fox News since the spring of 2016 and she was certainly not on The Five on September 11, 2017. Her co-hosting duties on The Five ended in April 2014 when she was taken off the show and reassigned to a new daily program, Fox News Outnumbered. Two years later, she was apparently dismissed as a co-host of that program. On August 22, 2016, unhappy with her alleged ill treatment at the hands of Fox hosts and executives, Tantaros filed a lawsuit against Fox News and several of its executives, charging sexual harassment and other abuses. That suit appears to be mired in legal wrangling and it looks like it is still pending.

Kimberly Guilfoyle on The Five, Fox News Channel, Sept. 11, 2017

The comments attributed to Tantaros on September 11, 2017 in the HuffPost article were actually spoken by The Five co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle, who has been with the program since it premiered in July 2011.

A Google News search of keywords “Eric Bolling” early on September 12 returned the HuffPost article in question as the first hit. Significantly, it is the HuffPost that published a 900-word article on August 4 that effectively took Eric Bolling down. That influential article did not cite any sources, while claiming 14 anonymous ones came forward to spill the dirt on Bolling to the article’s author, former Democratic Party fundraiser and operative Yashar Ali. Bolling’s crime, according to the August 4 HuffPost piece, was that he had allegedly sexted one or more (the number was not specified) lewd photos from his cell phone to three female Fox News colleagues several years back. No proof, documentation, or even quotes (attributed or not) were offered to back up the sensational claims in the article. In a subsequent interview with the Sirius/XM talk host, self-described “Muslim comedian” Dean Obeidallah, Ali claimed that the “lewd” pictures Bolling allegedly texted were of his (Bolling’s) own genitalia.

At the very least, the September 12 HuffPost article and the glaring error in its reporting appear to raise even more questions about the accuracy and credibility of the publication overall.

Meanwhile, the New York Daily News reported on Monday September 11 that an autopsy of Chase Bolling has been completed in Boulder, Colorado, but the results will not be announced for six to eight weeks.

The latest word from Chase Bolling’s father Eric came in a tweet (with 10,000 retweets and 55,000 likes) from Eric Bolling’s account on Sunday morning September 10:

We are overwhelmed by the love and support we have received. Adrienne [Chase’s mother] and I thank you all and ask that you please keep us in your prayers.

Peter Barry Chowka is a widely published author and journalist.  He writes most frequently these days for American Thinker.  His website is AltMedNews.net.  Follow Peter on Twitter.