As Nic Robertson pointed out on CNN last night, almost none of this is true. Calling the idea of using journalists as a human shield “nuts,” Robertson points out that a Fox News employee — who was later revealed to be a security guard — did in fact go on the tour with a small camera. Not present on this tour or many others, evidently, was Fox News’ reporter:

Steve Harrigan, the correspondent here, is somebody I’ve known for many years — I see him more times at breakfast than I see him out on trips with government officials here.

 Nic Robertson’s full tirade is worth a watch:

Jennifer Griffin replied to Robertson’s criticism late last night and apologized for the error over Fox News’ presence on the tour. Evidently, Harrigan wanted to stay back at the hotel in order to stay on the air and “provide full coverage of what was going on in Libya.” Griffin also defended her report about the Gadhafi regime’s “human shield” scoop, which she got from an unnamed British source.

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

Read the full memo:

To the Staff:

We’re overjoyed to report that our four journalists missing in Libya since Tuesday morning are free and have arrived safely in Tunisia. The Libyan government informed us through various channels Thursday afternoon that Anthony, Tyler, Lynsey and Steve were in Tripoli, in the custody of the Libyan authorities, and would be freed soon. The four were allowed to speak to their families by phone Thursday night. Because of the volatile situation in Libya, we’ve kept our enthusiasm and comments in check until they were out of the country, but now feels like a moment for celebration. And before long we’ll all know the details of their experience.

We’re particularly indebted to the Government of Turkey, which intervened on our behalf to oversee the release of our journalists and bring them to Tunisia. We were also assisted throughout the week by diplomats from the United States and United Kingdom.

Arthur spoke on Thursday about The Times as a family, and it certainly felt like one during the many hours of worry and activity focused on our missing journalists. In fact it felt like something of an extended family, as journalists from rival news organizations, governments (our own and others), press freedom groups and other intermediaries rushed to offer their help in locating our people and securing their release. There are too many people to thank, but I will tip my hat to David McCraw, who has become entirely too expert at the business of extricating Times journalists from peril. I also need to thank Chris Chivers, who dropped everything to come in Thursday night and spent the last three days (and nights) dug in with David working on the release.

And, in a week when we have dared to declare that the work we do is worth paying for, this is a reminder that real, boots-on-the-ground journalism is hard and sometimes dangerous work. To the many colleagues who are deployed in hard places — the battleground streets of North Africa and the Middle East, the battered landscape of Japan — we implore you to be careful.

Best,

Bill

A lot of people say Ann Coulter is toxic. But we had no idea that she would take that literally. You would laugh at her if she wasn’t making light of a terrible tragedy.

Watch Schultz’s segment in full. Note Ann Coulter’s glowing green head.

Speaking of mind control, mosquitoes do it through sex
Male mosquito sperm evidently releases proteins that change the behavior of females. (After mating, females will mate less and eat less blood.) Scientists hope they can manipulate these proteins so that affected females wouldn’t bite and spread diseases like Dengue fever. (io9)

Space junk is a problem; NASA wants to shoot it with a laser
With 20,000 pieces of debris in Earth’s low orbit — old satellites, old parts of satellites, parts of parts — space flight is becoming increasingly dangerous. (A stray bolt traveling at 5 miles per second can do some vicious damage to a space shuttle.) NASA scientists are seriously considering focusing mid-powered laser beams through a telescope to knock the trash into outer space. (Wired Science)

(Image via Wired)

Time travel maybe could be potentially possible
The Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, is the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, and theoretical physicists from Vanderbilt University believe it could create a type of particle that can travel through time. (Discovery News)

When it rains on Titan, poisonous lakes of methane form
Saturn’s Earth-like moon has sand dunes, river beds and white clouds. In the springtime, Titan gets “April showers” just like we do here on Earth — except theirs are methane, colder and definitely deadly. (NASA)

(Image via NASA)

Wondering what to name your pet whale? She already has one
Based on a very small study, a marine biologist believes that subtle variations in how sperm whales announce themselves indicate the sea mammals’ unique calls are equivalent to names. (Wired Science)