How Dare You Call Our Divine Leader a Fascist!
A condensed overview of 16 hours of Fox News for the week ending 9/22/24
Life during the Trump era is like being trapped in a Netflix sci-fi series where a spoiled brat gets to dictate how everyone around him lives. If he declares himself the ruler of universe no one can challenge him while Fox News cheers him on.
If the bratty youth dines with white nationalists and antisemites at his garish estate we are not allowed to get upset about it. If he declares that impoverished migrants are vermin poisoning our country, we cannot criticize him.
Every statement the tiny terror makes must be broken down and pored over in ways that make him look benevolent and brilliant. He really didn’t tell people to ingest a disinfectant or defend Neo Nazis we just didn’t understand him the first time or twentieth.
If he praises dictators, we’ve simply misunderstood his very stable genius. If we ask for evidence that countries are forcing prisoners and mental patients to illegally emigrate into the United States, we must be part of the conspiracy to undermine this country.
If we call the wannabe tyrant a madman, we are somehow fueling another unhinged loner with a gun in a country that has more firearms than people and more mass shootings than days on the calendar.
Nothing is ever Trump’s fault. He can demonize entire groups of people, make up outrageous stats, invent histories that do not exist, then claim he is the victim if we challenge him on a single detail. If we speak out against him then we are the enemy of the people, fake news, liars, hoaxers and cheats.
Fox News promoted the premise that Trump was the target of a second thwarted assassination attempt because everyone from never Trump Republicans to progressive leftists have compared him to the despots he openly admires. The only remedy Fox News hosts could come up with to prevent another attempt on Trump’s life was for the rest of us to shut up while he called his critics evil monsters hellbent on starting World War 3.
The network also decided to pivot from constantly trashing Vice President Kamala Harris to praising and featuring everything it possibly could about former President Donald J. Trump.
Laura Ingraham sacrificed 32 minutes of “The Ingraham Angle,” for a live feed from Trump’s rally in Uniondale, New York. Greg Gutfeld invited the former president as a guest on “Gutfeld!” where Donald J. Trump sat on a panel with a former professional wrestler.
Fox News also continued to add fuel to false rumors about Haitian immigrants while it distorted promising economic data for the U.S. economy.
Anyone watching Fox News exclusively last week would have missed out on stories of climate disasters in two continents, a Republican rejection of a bill that would have protected IVF access and two deaths caused by restrictive abortion laws in Georgia.
Shows I covered last week on Fox:
Fox & Friends
The Five
The Ingraham Angle
Gutfeld! - Wednesday only to catch Trump’s appearance.
Fox Demands Democrats Tone Down Their Messaging While Trump Ramps his Up
On Wednesday during his rally in Uniondale, New York Donald J. Trump scolded his critics for using heated language.
“Let me also deliver a message straight to Kamala Harris, the radical left Democrat politicians and the fake news media. Look how many are there,” and he pointed directly to a pool of journalists in the arena.
As Trump did this his audience around him erupted with boos. Trump supporters in red “Make America Great” caps scowled and shook their fists at the press or pointed their thumbs down.
“We've got to get our media back in this country. We got to get them back. But the message is it's time to stop the lies. Stop the hoaxes. Stop the smears. Stop the lawfare of the fake lawsuits against me. And stop claiming your opponents will turn America into a dictatorship. Give me a break. Because the fact is that I'm not a threat to democracy. They are.”
By Trump’s logic no one can criticize him, but he can say whatever he wants.
Fox News - They Tried to Kill Trump - Who is They?
Last week a second man attempted to assassinate Donald J. Trump while he golfed at one of his clubs in West Palm Beach, Florida. Ryan Wesley Routh didn’t fire his weapon, and Trump was never in his line of sight, but an eagle-eyed Secret Service agent managed to spot his rifle through a fence at take a shot at him scaring him off.
The would-be assassin was later captured by police after a bystander turned in his information to law enforcement after noticing his suspicious behavior.
On the shows I covered last week this second attempt on the former president’s life took up nearly a third of the network’s airtime. Fox News hosts blamed the attack on the harsh criticism Trump has faced for his inflammatory statements.
Just as Fox News admonished critics of the former president for using dangerous rhetoric some hosts on the network used language that implied that the attempts on Trump’s life were part of a collective movement.
On Tuesday while a guest on “The Ingraham Angle,” Judge Jeanine Pirro used the pronoun “they’ when discussing the shooter.
“It's almost as though this man has just, they just try to kill him for a second time. It's almost as though she won't be happy until there's a bounty on Donald Trump's head,” said Pirro.
Both the shooter in Butler, Pennsylvania and the gunman in Florida acted alone. There’s no evidence that either men were a part of a larger movement or received any outside support.
There’s also nothing to support Pirro’s insinuation that Vice President Kamala Harris is seeking harm against the former president. Even Trump acknowledged during his rally in Uniondale, New York that both Harris and Biden immediately reached out to him offering their support after both attacks.
The same day on “The Five,” Greg Gutfeld made a comment that inferred that the violent acts directed against Trump were somehow part of the progressive movement.
“I must glue myself to the freeway. I must splatter paint on art. I must threaten to kill the president. It's as though they've taken the idea of no ethical restraint and applied it to larger ideas. I see Hitler everywhere. Therefore, I can kill Hitler,” said Gutfeld.
On Wednesday on “The Ingraham Angle,” former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich also used language that implied that a group of people wanted to harm Trump.
“They came within a half inch of killing him and had the agent not found the sniper he might as well have killed him,” said Gingrich.
I’m not sure who ‘they’ is supposed to refer to in Gingrich’s first sentence as the first attack was committed by a lone gunman.
Doocy Goes Rogue - The Shooter Wasn’t a Leftist
On Monday on “Fox & Friends,” Steve Doocy broke ranks with his co-hosts when he brought up the confusing nature of Routh’s politics.
“Well, we do know a little bit about the suspect's politics. He voted. He was a Trump supporter in 2016, according to X, but turned against Trump by 2020. Records are that he voted in the North Carolina primary. He contributed up to about 150 bucks that is known of, to Actblue, which is a Democratic, like a super PAC. And during this, this current election cycle, he actually backed a ticket involving Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley. When Vivek dropped out an X, he said, you cannot quit. You must stay on the ballot to the end, join Nikki and keep working. Never give up. So, his politics are curious. And maybe in the next day or so, we'll learn more about him,” said Doocy.
Remember When Trump Scammed His Supporters?
On Wednesday, while Trump was a guest on “Gutfeld!” Trump made a telling comment about repeat donations.
“We get a lot of money from people. They average $61. And those people all vote. Those people they get. You know, we have some people that'll pay us like $25 a month every single month. They won't miss it. You know, they're very committed,” said Trump.
Trump gets involved in so many scandals that’s it’s easy to memory hole any number of them. The former president weaves a constant swirling storm of hyperbolic statements, outrageous lies, and slanderous insults.
According to an investigation by The New York Times the end of his presidency during the 2020 election the Trump 2020 campaign working with a for-profit company WinRed used tactics that duped donors into making repeated donations without their knowledge.
In order to opt-out a contributor would have to navigate a a fine-print disclaimer and manually uncheck a box. A small donation could quickly balloon and drain bank accounts or max out credit card accounts.
In the last two months of the 2020 election cycle the Trump campaign issued 530,000 refunds worth $64.3 million. In comparison Joe Biden’s campaign refunded 37,000 donations totaling $5.6 million during the same time frame.
When all of the refunds were totaled Trump’s campaign was forced to refund $122.7 million dollars, or 11% of the total amount raised.
Trump then pivoted to raising money under the guise of protecting election integrity on his baseless election fraud claims that continue to this day.
Ingraham - The Great Haitian Invasion
On Thursday, on “The Ingraham Angle,” Laura Ingraham brought up a small city that Trump mentioned at a rally in Tucson, Ariz. that has had a large influx of Haitian immigrants.
“Take Charleroi, Pennsylvania. Nestled in the far southwestern part of the state. That's a town of only about 4200 or so residents 95% white. It's overwhelmingly Republican. Now its budget is buckling, though, under the weight of a huge number of Haitian migrants. According to CBS news, the majority of students in the local school district who need assistance learning English are from Haiti. The district has spent $400,000 in ESL teachers and an interpreter,” said Ingraham.
The Philadelphia Inquirer spoke to Charleroi Area School District Superintendent Ed Zelich. He said the couple hundred immigrant students moving into the school district are “not necessarily” costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars as Trump claimed.
The district, Zelich said, gets reimbursed by the state. As enrollment increases, so does the reimbursement and funding from the state Department of Education.
According to reporting by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Charleroi Borough Manager Joe Manning told KDKA Radio that the claims Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have made were completely false.
“It’s a very negative connotation for a reality that just doesn’t exist,” he said. “They’re not a drain on resources, they don’t cause problems. It’s nothing at all like what has been portrayed by the former president.”
Lawrence Jones - People Aren’t Racist Against Haitians
On Friday on “Fox & Friends,” Lawrence Jones weighed in on the controversy surrounding Springfield, Ohio a town.
Donald J. Trump famously claimed during the presidential debate that Haitian immigrants were eating the pets of Springfield residents despite having any evidence to back up his claim other than “he saw it on television.”
“There has been an attempt to racialize this story, and it's missing the larger point. And it doesn't go well. I know everyone wants to play the soundbite from the debate, but it misses the larger point of what's happening in Springfield. And honestly, it's not just Springfield. It's cities all across the country, many minority neighborhoods that are experienced this as well, where people are coming in illegally into the country, taking over their communities and their community services when they're already struggling,” said Jones.
Jones seemed to miss the point that the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio are in the United States on Temporary Protected Status. As part of this program qualifying individuals are allowed to stay in the U.S. because conditions in their home countries are considered unsafe.
He’s also making an assumption that racism does not play a role in harassment the Haitian community is facing in Springfield. Jones is entitled to his opinion of course but he hasn’t visited Springfield or interviewed any Haitian immigrants who live there.
It’s also a bit presumptuous for Jones to declare that Haitian immigrants of African decent would not face any racism in a town that is 70% white in a country that has a long history grappling with racial tensions and discrimination.
Since Sen. J.D. Vance and Trump have made their unfounded accusations about Haitians in Springfield more than 30 bomb threats have been made against government buildings, schools, and city officials' homes since last week, forcing evacuations and closures.
The myth that Haitian immigrants might eat their neighbor’s pets isn’t coming from thin air. Earlier this year Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly known as Twitter) and others promoted false stories about cannibalistic Haitian gangs.
According to reporting by NBC News at the time these unfounded rumors were flying on social media The State Department, Doctors Without Borders, and Human Rights Watch said they saw no evidence of cannibalism in the country.
False claims about the brutality of Haitians go back as far as the Haitian revolutions in 1804 when slaves successfully revolted against French colonizers.
The Fed Cut Interest Rates And Everything is Terrible
On Friday’s first hour of “Fox & Friends,” Ainsley Earhardt led a segment about the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates.
“We had unemployment starting the year at 3.7%, now creeping up to 4.2% in August. And the chairman of the Federal Reserve says one factor is the crisis at our southern border,” said Earhardt.
The producers cut to a media clip of Jerome Powell, Chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States, speaking to the press.
“If you're having millions of people come into the labor force, then and you're creating 100,000 jobs, you're going to see unemployment go up. We understand there's been quite an influx, across the borders. And that has actually been one of the things that's, that's allowed the unemployment rate to rise,” said Powell.
“Joining us now is co-host of “The Big Money Show,” on Fox Business, Jackie DeAngelis. . .So why do you think he said that? I mean, he's basically admitting because our southern border is open. They're taking jobs from Americans,” said Earhardt.
“This was so interesting that he added it in there. Let me start by saying I think he cut rates by a half a point, because the economy is in worse shape than most people understand. I think he has access to data points that we don't necessarily see, and he's threading a needle and saying, I needed to cut not 25 but 50, and I needed to do it now,” said DeAngelis.
DeAngelis made several assumptions without presenting any evidence.
“I think he has access to data points that we don't necessarily see,” and “ I think he cut rates by a half a point, because the economy is in worse shape than most people understand.”
What data points? How is the economy in worse shape? DeAngelis didn’t provide any specific or give further context.
There’s an entire industry dedicated to monitoring and analyzing every single aspect of the U.S. economy from unemployment, housing, inflation, consumer prices, trade, government consumption, the stock market, value of U.S. currency, construction spending and retail sales to name a few.
The idea that there is secret information that exists that only Powell can see and not share is conspiratorial and fantastical. The Federal Reserve is not part of the intelligence community.
Billionaire investors all over the world watch every single aspect of the U.S. economy and make bets on stocks, treasuries, currencies and commodities accordingly.
As overwhelming as financial markets seem they are remarkably transparent especially to experts who know how to analyze financial data.
Here’s more of what Powell said during the press conference.
“The unemployment rate has moved up but remains low at 4.2%. Nominal wage growth has eased over the past year and the jobs to workers gap has narrowed. Overall, a broad set of indicators suggests that conditions in the labor market are now less tight than just before the pandemic in 2019. The labor market is not a source of elevated inflationary pressures,” said Powell.
Powell indicated that the unemployment rate was low and that the labor market was not causing inflation.
Later on, during he gave more specifics about why the Federal Reserve decided it was the right time to lower interest rates.
“The median projection for the unemployment rate in the QP is 4.4% at the end of this year, 4/10 higher than projected in June. Inflation has eased notably over the past two years but remains above our longer run goal of 2%. We know if you go back, we know that the policy stance that we adopted in July of 2023, came at a time when unemployment was 3.5% and inflation was 4.2%. Today, unemployment is up to 4.2%. Inflation is down to a few tenths above two. So, we know that it is time to recalibrate our policy to something that is more appropriate,” said Powell.
Stories Fox News Ignored
Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS News Hour. The following are a list of the top stories PBS covered that Fox News did not.
Climate Disasters
The Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Austria, Hungary and parts of Northern Italy have experienced catastrophic flooding due to heavy rains that so far have claimed the lives of at least 24 people while causing billions of dollars in property damage. Thousands have been evacuated from the worst hit regions.
Thousands attended the funeral of three firefighters who were killed battling wildfires in Portugal. At least five have died as authorities are still assessing the total size of the burned area. Most experts think the fires have been exacerbated by human made climate change and a decline in traditional farming techniques that helped clear underbrush.
Officials in Zimbabwe and Namibia have ordered a culling of hundreds of wild elephants in order to feed needy communities that have faced hunger due to droughts in the area. The elephants are to be taken from an area where they have become unsustainable. Hwange National Park is currently home to 45,000 elephants but due to rising temperatures and drought conditions can only sustain 15,000.
At least 1000 have died and millions have been displaced or disrupted due to flooding in Nigeria an area that was drought stricken that has been overcome with excessive rain. West and Central Africa has been hit hard by excessive rains with most governments having scant resources to cope with the disaster.
A pipeline fire in the Houston suburbs burned for four days before it was finally put out after forcing residents to evacuate and melting surrounding cars. Authorities in the area have launched a criminal investigation into the cause of the blaze. Houston lacks zoning guidelines that normally would prohibit a potentially dangerous pipeline in a residential area.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit against pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) over the high cost of insulin. PBMs act as middlemen in the pharmaceutical industry between patients and drug companies. The agency said the companies created a "perverse drug rebate system" that artificially inflates the cost of insulin.
Boeing will freeze hiring and furlough existing employees due to an ongoing labor strike at the troubled company.
Donald J. Trump preemptively blamed Jewish Americans for his possible loss in the presidential election. During the annual summit of the conservative Israeli American Council Trump said, “If I don’t win this election … the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that if that happens, because at 40% that means 60% of the people are voting for the enemy.” The event was meant to address antisemitism.
A group of U.S. lawmakers came together in a show of bipartisan support to call for the release of Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai. Lai, who owned the newspaper Apple Daily, is one of the hundreds of democracy activists, journalists and political leaders imprisoned as part of mainland China's ongoing crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.
A Hong Kong court sentenced the first two people under its new national security law. One man received 14 months in prison for wearing a T-shirt with a protest slogan. A second man received 10 months for writing pro-independence messages on the back of bus seats.
Senate Republicans rejected a bill that would have protected access to IVF treatments.
According to an investigation by ProPublica two women have died in Georgia due to the state’s extreme bans on abortion. One of those women, Amber Nicole Thurman, died from an infection after a hospital waited too long to perform a dilation and curettage, or D&C after she suffered rare complications from taking abortion medication. The procedure is effectively banned in Georgia with few exceptions.
The Department of Justice filed a $100 million lawsuit against the cargo company that owned the ship that caused the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, Maryland.
Four Black women who worked on the space program received the Congressional Gold Medal. The women faced discrimination even as their prowess in math and science helped build the foundations of the space program. Their stories were featured in the nonfiction book “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race,” by Margot Lee Shetterly.
Microsoft warned of synchronized Russian interference in the upcoming presidential election targeting the Harris-Walz campaign. A new report from the company’s Threat Analysis Center identified two groups aligned with the Kremlin that are actively creating content to discredit and smear the Harris/Walz campaign.