Fox News: A Hurricane Hit Florida! Tucker Carlson Goes Full Kremlin! Fascism is Awesome!
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 10/2/22
The average Fox News viewer last week might think that fascism was the perfect fit for the United States, that climate change was a huge conspiracy cooked up by crazed communists and that Pres. Biden covertly destroyed a Russian pipeline.
A fan of the network might not realize that Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was interviewed by the January 6th Committee or that jury selection had begun in the seditious conspiracy trial of Stewart Rhodes, the leader of a hate group known at the Oath Keepers, or that the Cuban people voted to legalize same-sex marriage and adoption.
This past week was the week of the bogus expert. Since Hurricane Ian dominated so much of the news cycle nearly every guest on Fox magically became a climate scientist overnight. Fox News was working overtime to convince their viewers that they had nothing to fear in terms of a warming planet or more extreme weather events.
Shows I covered last week - Primetime week!
Tucker Carlson Tonight
Hannity
The Ingraham Angle
Tucker Carlson began the week with the usual refrain on conservative media,
“How dare you politicize this tragedy!”
In this condensed edit of a 15-minute monologue Carlson brings up our Southern border, government overreach, migrants, and China while scolding Democrats for bringing up climate change after a hurricane.
Bogus Experts of the Week
This past week there were so many people who fit into this category I decided to dedicate most of the newsletter to just breaking these people down.
Expert - Joe Bastardi
Education - Bachelor’s of Science in meteorology
Occupation - Meteorologist at WeatherBELL
Topic discussed - Climate change
Bastardi is a regular contributor to Fox News. He is a trained meteorologist so he’s the odd exception for this category. Most bogus experts have no training or expertise in the subject they discussed on Fox News.
I do consider him a bogus expert of sorts. His views are outside the scientific consensus and he often uses easily debunked theories to support his claims. He’s made so many outlandish claims there are websites dedicated to debunking him. SkepticalScience.com is just one of them.
Here’s a brief list of a few things he’s gotten completely wrong.
He has asserted that the world was warmer in the 1930s than today - Year after year temperatures continue to rise all over the planet. The year 1934 was an usually hot one but it’s been dwarfed by recent years.
The human contribution of carbon dioxide is too small to have any effect
Global warming is caused by sunspots - this myth was easily debunked by NASA
In 2011 Bastardi predicted that global temperatures would drop to levels seen in the late 1970s. The exact opposite has happened.
Bastardi’s claims are so outrageous that Media Matters even compiled a list of 10 scientists who criticized his views and appearances on Fox News.
Expert - Lara Trump
Education - Bachelor’s degree in communications also studied at the French Culinary Institute
Occupation - Daughter-in-law to former President Donald J. Trump. Informal spokesperson for the Trump family. Frequent guest on Fox News.
Topic discussed - Climate change
Fox News loves to use Lara Trump as an expert on everything. Her more notable appearances is when they had her weigh in on Pres. Biden’s stumble from a bicycle. Her expertise was that she competed in triathlons. In an another appearance she spoke about teacher’s unions her “experience” was that she was a parent of two preschool aged children.
In this instance her expertise is that she grew up in an area that sometimes experienced hurricanes.
Her firsthand experience about hurricanes from her childhood is hardly relevant to the discussion of climate change,
I grew up in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. I saw plenty of hurricanes growing up when I was just a baby in 1984. Hurricane Diana came through, hit my home. That was a Category four storm. I have been through many hurricanes. I remember my mom as a very little girl. She told me, watching an oak tree in her front yard in North Carolina when Hurricane Hazel came through. Category four hurricane. We have seen this time and time again, said Trump.
Lara Trump was two years old in 1984 so she wouldn’t remember anything from that storm and it’s hardly relevant anyway. Arguing that there have been strong storms in the past does not negate man made climate change.
Expert - Stephen Miller
Education - Bachelor’s degree in political science
Occupation - Former senior advisor to then President Donald J. Trump, creator of the child separation policy at the U.S. Southern border, currently founder of America First Legal.
Topic discussed - Climate change
Miller brought up the following topics before finally giving his non-expert opinion about climate change and how it may or may not violent weather events.
The record - (whatever that means)
Open borders
Rampant crime
Rampant inflation
Empty store shelves where you can’t get baby formula.
The politics of demonization
He then made an interesting pivot into fascism,
“They're accusing Republicans of being fascists and bigots and enemies of the state of horror and slanders, unforgivable libels. And it is just gross and unseemly to suggest Republicans are responsible for hurricanes,” said Miller.
He finished with a call to God!
“For the love of God. We've had extreme weather events since the beginning of time, through the whole of human history, the whole of Earth's history. As you mentioned, some of our most severe storms were a hundred years ago. To suggest that there's some magic Democrat plan Republicans are blocking to get rid of storms and hurricanes and ice and floods,” said Miller.
He basically said nothing. It’s the same argument used by Lara Trump. We had strong storms in the past therefore there is no evidence that human being are contributing to more extreme weather now or in the future.
Expert - Mike Huckabee
Education - Bachelor’s degree in religion
Occupation - Former governor of Arkansas, former presidential candidate, current political commentator and host of The Huckabee Show - a radio show with the Trinity Broadcast Network
Topic discussed - Climate change
Huckabee has had a long and friendly relationship with Fox News for years. He has worked directly as a Fox News host and commentator and frequently appears as a guest on various Fox News programs.
Expert - Michael Shellenberger
Education - Bachelor’s degree from Peace and Global Studies program, MA in Anthropology
Occupation - former public relations professional, currently author who focuses on climate change, nuclear power and politics. He has also written books that blame progressivism on homelessness, drug addiction and mental illness.
Topic discussed - Climate change
From what I was able to find on Shellenberger he is a former environmentalist turned climate change skeptic. He could have legitimately changed his views due to intense study of data and the science or he might have realized he’d sell a lot more books if he went in the other direction.
Conservative media tends to champion and celebrate any former progressive who is willing to switch sides.
In this statement he does absolutely nothing to advance his argument that climate change isn’t happening.
“Just, you know, it's become a religion, Laura. It's an apocalyptic religion. It's a kind of reversion to the sphere of the sky gods. It's a kind of. It's a kind of I mean, I hate to say it, but it's a kind of pagan religion, this kind of irrational fear,” said Shellenberger
He offered no data, no real argument, no evidence of anything. He simply mocked scientists and activists who don't agree with him.
I found an critique of one of his articles that was published in multiple outlets the day his latest book was released. Six scientists all weighed in on the various claims and assumptions made in Shellenberger’s piece.
From Climate Feedback “Article by Michael Shellenberger mixes accurate and inaccurate claims in support of a misleading and overly simplistic argumentation about climate change.”
“Shellenberger, who is promoting a new book, outlines a series of claims about climate change. As the reviewers describe below, several of these claims are accurate or partially accurate. However, others are inaccurate and mislead readers by lacking context and cherry-picking data while overlooking other relevant scientific studies,” as stated in the summary for the article. ·
Expert - Candace Owens
Education - Attended University of Rhode Island where she studied journalism but did not graduate.
Occupation - Conservative political pundit, creator of the Blexit Foundation - a movement that encourages Black Americans to leave the Democratic Party.
Topic discussed - Climate change ·
Candace Owens is also a former progressive who abruptly had a change of heart politically and made a dramatic turn towards the far-right early in her career. She’s also made a number of alarming and disturbing statements regarding race. She’s also championed multiple conspiracy theories.
In her brief statement on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Owens made a number of false and inaccurate statements. I will break down each one.
“There is no lobby, in my opinion, that should be laughed at harder than the climate lobby because they just keep being proven wrong,” said Owens
That’s her opinion but what she offers as proof to discredit the climate change lobby is incredibly weak.
“Now, when I was a kid, I was told it was global warming. Hide under your desk, kids. The polar bears are going to drown because there's global warming. But they stopped using that language around 2011 because accidentally the Earth started to cool and disprove their narrative,” said Owens.
The earth is not cooling. The earth is actually warming faster now than it ever has in its history. The term global warming was changed to climate change to better represent the broader changes happening to the planet besides warming such as - rising sea levels, shaking glaciers, accelerating melt in arctic areas, and a shift in flower/plant blooming times.
“Before my generation, by the way, Tucker, there was generation that was told global cooling was going to spell the end of the world. Except what happened was they were wrong and the earth started to warm. They're right there was the ozone layer. Remember the ozone layer? The hole in the ozone layer? Oops, that actually wasn't a tragedy. And so they moved on,” said Owens
The reason why the hole in the ozone layer is no longer a pressing issue is due to the The adoption of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer on September 16, 1987. Basically multiple countries phased out the use of ozone-depleting substances, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and the hole in the ozone layer shrank to the point that it was no longer dangerous.
What happened with the ozone layer is actually an environmentalism success story.
“There was the acidic oceans. There's going to be acidic rain because the oceans were acid. Oops, that didn't happen. So they moved on,” said Owens
In the past 200 years there has been a 30% increase in the acidity of the world’s oceans which was caused by the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Acid rain has become less of a problem due to a reduction in sulfur dioxide that was a part of the 1990 Clean Air Act.
“They've been wrong over and over and over again. Their climate models are a complete fraud, and yet they're still allowed to look you in the face when a natural disaster strikes and tell you, Well, you know, I know we've been wrong forever and we've never once gotten it right. But give us your money anyways. These people are sick,” said Owens.
Owens is just parroting half-baked nonsense she probably picked up from far-right wing sources. She was the easiest person featured last week to debunk. It took me all of three minutes to find solid primary sources that had exactly the information and data I needed to refute everything she said.
Tucker Carlson continues to shill for Putin
This video is a condensed edit of an entire week’s worth of comments regarding the sabotage of the Nord Stream Pipeline in the Baltic Sea. Notice how many times Tucker Carlson and his surrogate Will Cain make excuses for Vladimir Putin.
The most alarming statement in the video was made on Friday by Will Cain who was sitting in for Carlson.
“Russia and Ukraine had a tentative agreement to end this war. Ukraine could have kept its territory. All they had to do was promise not to become a NATO member because NATO's wants to remove Putin from power. But the Biden administration and the U.K. vetoed that deal,” said Cain.
This statement is categorically false. There is exactly one source for this story and it comes from a video featuring the propagandist Aaron Mate who has been promoting false narratives about Ukraine and Russia since before the war escalated in 2022.
The start of the conflict can be traced back to 2014 with Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. Both Fox News and far left media promote the idea that the war in Ukraine is only about Ukraine’s desire to join NATO and the removal of Putin as the leader of Russia.
Mate is among a group of largely fringe far-leftists who spread misinformation about Russia. Their work is largely discredited by legitimate news organizations but it’s an excellent example of how the political horseshoe - the place where the extremes on both sides of the political spectrum come dangerously close to the same rhetoric.
Fascism is Awesome!
After the far-right candidate Georgia Meloni, and her party the Brothers of Italy did so well in the last election Fox News decided to fully embrace fascism.
In this series of clips Tucker Carlson begins his praise for Meloni and her slogan, “God, Family and Country” which is actually “God, Fatherland and Country.”
Laura Ingraham was equally excited about Meloni’s win and the rise of the far-right in Europe.
I predicted on Twitter that within a matter of day the Republican Party would adopt the slogan. It happened more quickly than I though when by Thursday Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) appeared on “The Ingraham Angle” endorse the slogan.
“If Republicans focus on God, country and family and America first policies in America, we're not going to just win the the majority. We're going to win big, solid majorities we can keep for a long time to come if we focus on that recipe that Meloni teaches us from so far away,’ said Banks.
Stories that Fox News Thought were Newsworthy that were NOT Newsworthy
Melissa Viviane Jefferson the singer, rapper, flutist, and songwriter known professionally as Lizzo played a 200-year-old crystal flute onstage. It was lent to her by the Library of Congress and once belonged to the fourth President of the United States, James Madison. Fox News and most of the right wing media treated this story as if there was some sort of scandal involved. Lizzo is a classically trained flutist. “The Ingraham Angle” included a brief segment about it on Thursday and referenced it again on Friday.
The accidental shooting on the set of the movie “Rust” that involved Alec Baldwin. D.A. Mary Carmack-Altwies filed an emergency request for $635,500, funds she says are necessary to prosecute up to four people in connection with the accident. At this point it’s too premature to assume that Baldwin will be charged with a crime.
Stories Fox News Ignored
Every week I compare 15 hours of Fox News to five hours of PBS NewsHour. The following is a list of stories that PBS NewsHour covered that Fox News did not.
This past week the top story for both networks was Hurricane Ian. PBS NewsHour began reporting on the storm for two days before it hit. Fox News largely ignored it until it was obvious that the storm was as bad if not worse than experts predicted.
A gunman in his mid-thirties clad in a swastika t-shirt returned to his old school in Izhevsk, Russia, where he murdered 15 people, including 11 children and wounded 24 before committing suicide.
Edward Snowden, a former U.S. intelligence contractor who sought asylum in Russia after he disclosed mass surveillance techniques to news organizations, was granted Russian citizenship.
Investigators from the United Nations have confirmed that Russian armed forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine. Four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine appeared to vote overwhelmingly in favor of joining the Russian Federation. The referendum is largely seen by Ukraine and its partners as a sham that violates international law.
Thirteen reported killed as Iran Revolutionary Guards target dissident sites in Iraq - The Iranian government is blaming Kurdish dissidents for the protests that have erupted in Iran after the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman in police custody. The young woman was arrested by the morality police in the capital of Terhan for not wearing her headscarf correctly.
A suicide bomber killed 19 at a Kabul education center in Afghanistan.
A 90-year-old Catholic cardinal, along with five others, was arrested in Hong Kong over allegedly failing to register a now defunct legal aid fund for pro-democracy protesters.
Cuban voters voted in a referendum by 66.9% approve the legalization of same-sex marriage and adoption as well as other protections for LGBTQ people. Protests broke out in the streets of Havana over power outages caused by Hurricane Ian. Both the protests and the referendum are rare events in Cuba as openly opposing the government is illegal and most government decisions are not left up to the voters.
Pfizer seeks approval for its COVID-19 booster for children over five years old.
Retired NFL player Brett Farve, along with others, is embroiled in a scandal that involved the misappropriation of millions of dollars in federal welfare funds meant for needy families.
Jury selection began last week in the trial of Stewart Rhodes, the founder of an extremist group known as the Oath Keepers. Rhodes and four others are charged with seditious conspiracy regarding their involvement in riot on Jan. 6, 2021 on the U.S. Capitol.
Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was questioned by the January 6th Committee where she asserted that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald J. Trump. Ms. Thomas had correspondence between former White House chief of staff where she urged him to challenge the legitimacy of the election.
North Korea on fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters, as a response to military drills among its rivals.
Japan held a controversial state funeral for slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The event drew protesters due to the cost of the funeral and his legacy as a leader.
Magnus Carlsen, world chess champion, accused another competitor, Hans Neimann, of cheating. There is no actual evidence of cheating in his recent match with Carlsen but Neimann has admitted to cheating in the past.
The British pound plummeted against the U.S. dollar after newly elected conservative Prime Minister, Liz Truss, announced her plan to cut taxes to help as the U.K. faces a number of problems with its economy.
All fifty states plus D.C. and Puerto Rico greenlit to move EV Charging networks forward, covering 75,000 miles of highway
The Biden-Harris administration announces more than $8 Billion in new commitments as a call to action for the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health
Experimental Alzheimer's drug shows benefits in phase 3 trial
Bill Plante, long-term CBS correspondent, died at the age of 84.
By the Numbers
I created the category “Fascism is awesome” as a joke as I thought only Tucker would include segments where he enthusiastically endorsed fascist ideology. Laura Ingraham also joined suit and it turned into a multiple day story so it made the top five for last week. The candidate endorsement included any segment where Fox News openly encouraged their voters to vote for a specific candidate. As we get closer to the midterm election I predict this category might top the list in future weeks.
Coming up…
Tomorrow I should have a bonus episode about a guest who appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight last week. This week I’ll be covering the first hour of “Fox & Friends”, “The Five” and “Jesse Watters Primetime”
Most excellent. Thank you for watching so we don't have to!
Knowledge Fight is my goto podcast but you are now coming in a close second.