As Toxic Smoke Filled the Northeastern United States Fox News Responded with Fake Climate Experts
A condensed overview of 23 hours of Fox News for the week ending 6/11/23
Fox News had an uneven and conflicted reaction to the blanket of thick Canadian wildfire smoke that covered most of the Northeastern United States. Hosts on “The Five” openly mocked the warnings about poor air quality whereas “Fox & Friends” treated the crisis as a public health issue.
The primetime stars mostly made light of the issue with Harris Faulkner being the only holdout to warn viewers about the dangers of hazardous air.
The disparate responses made me wonder if some shows had producers with asthmatic family members while others didn’t. The network’s reckless and flippant coverage was reminiscent of how it treated the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another repeated trend was the use of bogus experts. Fox News regularly invites experts with dubious credentials to speak about any number of issues. Fox trots out a legion of hacks for any story about climate change.
Fox News anchors were completely caught off guard by the wildfires in Canada. PBS had included short segments about the fires for the past two weeks.
The biggest story of the week was the criminal indictment of former President Donald J. Trump. That story was so big I dedicated an entire podcast to it.
Fox News also reported on stories involving various claims of alleged criminal behavior by President Biden and his son Hunter as well as the usual panic about the southern border and crime.
The network also dedicated several segments to new Republicans who officially declared their candidacy for president last week.
This newsletter is dedicated to how Fox News reported on the wildfire smoke. The coverage was a bit schizophernic so I decided to break it down over a 24 hour period starting with “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday
“Fox & Friends” - Wednesday June, 7th
Time spent on the story: 1.5 minutes
Experts: None
Tone: The story was treated with some seriousness but the producers blended most of the segment about the wildfires into the standard daily weather segment.
At the top of a short segment about the fires Steve Doocy treated the situation with some gravity.
“Take a look. I was looking at the picture. That is New York City right now. The skyline live where thick smoke from dozens, actually hundreds of wildfires that are burning across Canada is clogging the skies across the eastern United States. The air quality index here in the Big Apple is currently ranked the worst on planet Earth,” said Doocy.
“The Five” - Wednesday June, 7th
Time spent on the story: 13 minutes
Experts: None (Although all of the hosts suddenly claimed to know a lot about forest management)
Tone: The cast openly mocked the situation and laughed throughout the entire segment.
“When you dig into this story, you'll learn that it's really about the forestation process. The fact that they haven't been able to do these kind of prescribed burns that they need in order to. It's the same problem that has happened in California. Then you would have people taking care of the forest because they would be concerned about the animals that live there. You have to go in. You have to clear out all the underbrush, all the dead growth. You have to make sure the trees grow. You have to do the logging that's required in order to keep the forest healthy,” said Martha MacCallum
Some of what MacCallum said was perfectly reasonable but her choice to compare Canada to California didn’t make a ton of sense.
California has 33 million acres of forests with a population of 39 million people. About 60% of California forests are publicly owned by the USDA Forest Service and the National Park Service.
About 1/3 of Canada is covered in forestlands for a total of 895 million acres. About 94% of Canadian forestland is publicly owned and managed by provincial, territorial and federal governments.
The total population of Canada is 38 million which is concentrated around urban areas. Roughly 90% of Canadians live within 150 miles of the U.S. border.
Canadian forests are far more dense and remote than forestland in California. The high maintenance forest management described by MacCallum is not practical or possible in a country where forestland is hundreds of miles from the population.
Canada has also lost some of its ability to fight forest fires due to shrinking budgets.
Jesse Watters thought he was making incredibly important points when he brought up data from the 18th century.
“Burning forests from Canada has blocked out North America dozens and dozens of times over the last 300 years. They're banking on people not knowing that. I talked to my meteorological sources. This is a normal Canadian June that because of lightning strikes and campers that put out their camels in a in a dry bed of of poorly managed forest,” said Watters
Of course the population of North America three hundred years ago was much smaller than it is now. The forests in both Canada and the United States would have been much denser and there’d be no reliable way to extinguish the fires.
There were no helicopters to drop targeted water and no heavy machinery to move earth or to quickly cut down trees. Firefighters of the 18th century wouldn’t even have reliable roads or any method of seeing a fire beyond wherever they could travel by horseback.
It’s also difficult to know the accuracy of any records from past centuries given the many limitations record keepers faced.
Harold Ford Jr. subtly mentioned climate change.
“I would say the forest management issue is a serious issue. But what we can't deny also, I think, is you that the data that you present there, Jesse 1706 I think to 1910, I think it'd be interesting is to look from 2005 to 2023, the increasing frequency in which we're seeing some of these occurrences,” said Ford
Watters offered more statistics but wasn’t specific about his source.
“Now, these forest fires are down from about 4% to about 2.5% worldwide,” said Watters.
Ford didn’t ask him where Watters came up with those numbers but again hinted that a warming climate might play a role in the severity of forest fires.
“So the occurrences of droughts, which contribute to the reason I think we need some of this forest management. . .My only point is I think means there's no doubt forest management is a problem. . .Forest management has to be a part of it,” said Ford.
Judge Jeanine Pirro made a pivot to California Governor Gavin Newsom, even though the fires were burning in Canada not California.
“In order to protect forest and to take care of that. . .Those areas that are in danger of burning. . .And we first started talking about this when the wildfires in California and Gavin Newsom was blaming everything but, you know, any kind of forest management,” said Pirro.
Special Report with Bret Baier (hosted by Trace Gallagher) - Wednesday June, 7th
Time spent on the story: 5 minutes 30 seconds.
Experts: None
Tone: Serious
Trace Gallagher opened the program with a segment about the fires.
“The dangerously bad air quality in much of the Northeast because of smoke from wildfires in Canada.
You are looking live at images from across the region tonight. About 98 million people in parts of 18 states from New Hampshire to South Carolina have been under air quality alerts for both wildfire smoke and ozone. Many cities in school canceled afternoon activities. Doctors now warning people to limit their time outdoors, especially if you have respiratory issues. The Federal Aviation Administration reports flights are being affected by the situation.
In fact, more than 130 flights have been canceled. Canada is now on course for its worst ever wildfire season on record with about 8.2 million acres burned so far this year. While most fires in the western provinces are under control, the fires have now opened new fronts spreading to eastern provinces of Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario. Right now, there are 437 active fires with about 250 out of control.
About 26,000 Canadians have evacuated their homes because of the fires. An experts say the hazardous conditions in New York City are the worst on record breaking a 52 year old mark,” said Gallagher
“Jesse Watters Primetime” - Wednesday June, 7th
Time spent on the story: 11 minutes 15 seconds
Experts: Marc Morano - bogus expert
Tone: Mocking.
Morano began his segment smoking a cigar in a studio. Although he did mention a drop in forest fires Morano’s main focus was the politics of the moment.
“You're going to have to sacrifice because of it. Yeah. Trudeau has said he admires China's basic dictatorship. Well, it makes a lot of sense because China is the most horrible air quality of any country in the world. He's trying to imitate China. He's following it with his tyrannical crush of free speech and dissidents like the Freedom Convoy. And now he's trying to imitate China's air quality. He can't get enough of China, and now he's exporting all that to the United States,” said Morano.
Morano is a classic bogus expert. He has a degree in political science but no training in climate science. He started his career working for Rush Limbaugh and and made the transition to climate change denialism during the George W. Bush administration.
He founded the website ClimateDepot.com in 2009.
Michael E. Mann, a climatologist and geophysicist, said this about Morano.
“He spreads malicious lies about scientists, paints us as enemies of the people, then uses language that makes it sound like we should be subject to death threats, harmed or killed."
“Fox News Tonight” (hosted by Harris Faulkner) - Wednesday June, 7th
Time spent on the story: 8 minutes
Experts: Dr. Janette Nesheiwat - MD, Medical Director at CityMD, Fox News medical contributor
Tone: Serious
Harris Faulkner treated the story like a public health emergency. She invited on Dr. Janette Nesheiwat a doctor specializing in primary care and emergency medicine.
Nesheiwat explained the dangers of the smoke and gave “Fox News Tonight” viewers tips on what they could do to protect themselves.
“Well, first of all, I want to say this is a totally different circumstance than COVID. So we're not going to be focusing on mass like we were with COVID. But what we're seeing here is this thick smoke wildfire sweeping through our city. And we look to see the air quality index reached more than 400 on a scale of 500.
If you go more than 100, that's considered hazardous and unhealthy for all of us, and especially for those who have underlying medical conditions, who have heart disease, lung disease, maybe asthma or COPD, you're at a higher risk of potential complications and things. The pollutants outdoors can make it worse. So what you're breathing in when you go outdoors is this pollutant, this particulate matter is what we call it.
So it's sort of like debris in the smoke. And if you inhale it, it goes deep into your lungs and into your bloodstream. Today, for example, I had patients coming in with asthma exacerbations, cough and wheezing, some sore sore throats, itchy eyes. Most of us will be fine and do okay. But when it gets to this level, you do want to protect yourself.
Simple steps that you can take. You know, if you see that there's smoke, if you see the fog, if you can smell it, then you want to, you know, try to stay indoors. But if you do have to go outside and N-95 can help protect you against that large particulate matter. You want to just be careful to not expose yourself to that type of chemical,” said Nesheiwat
“Hannity” - Wednesday June, 7th
Time spent on the story: 6 minutes 15 seconds
Experts: Charly Arnolt and Tudor Dixon - both non-experts
Tone: Mocking
Sean Hannity didn’t even bother to invite a fake climate expert on his show. He included a brief ‘man-on-the-street’ segment where a producer asked random New Yorkers what they thought of the smoke and then Arnolt and Dixon sat down in studio to basically agree with everything Hannity said.
Hannity also focused on the politics around climate change rather than any medical risks from the smoke. He started with a rant about the Green New Deal, a bill introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“I prefer not to eat nuts and berries for the rest of my life. I actually would like a steak or beef or something that they don't want us to have. So, I mean, the Green New Deal has nothing to do with that. But yet they want to spend 100 trillion taxpayer dollars, which we can't afford anyway. It's all redistribution,” said Hannity.
I’m not sure what a bill that has been voted on more than once and failed had anything to do with the toxic air Hannity would breathe in the moment he stepped into whatever town car was taking him home that night.
Hannity then pivoted to his own personal experience as proof that the air was perfectly safe.
“I keep reading and hearing reports and people being interviewed. I had a hard time breathing and I'm like, I'm walking in the same place you're walking in and I don't feel a thing. And I'm trying to understand not I work out regularly, so I think I'm relatively in tune with my body. I think if it was difficult, if I was having difficulty breathing, I would notice. But these are young people saying this,” said Hannity
The non-experts.
Charly Arnolt got her start in professional wrestling as a ring announcer for the WWE. She has a degree in broadcast journalism from American University. She has no science or medical training.
Tudor Dixon is best known for her failed attempt to run for the governor of Michigan in 2022. Dixon has a degree in psychology. She currently works as a podcaster and is a frequent guest on Fox News.
“The Ingraham Angle” - Wednesday June, 7th
Time spent on the story: 5 minutes 45 seconds
Experts: Steve Milloy, Energy and Environment Legal Institute (bogus expert)
Tone: Mocking
Laura Ingraham openly made fun of what she thought was excessively dramatic coverage.
“Breaking news. The air quality is bad in places like Washington, Philly, Wilmington. Watch out, Joe. And it's really bad in New York is bad. Look at it. But is this really a novel occurrence for our country or is it only getting coverage of the type it's getting? Because it's happening along the East Coast where all the elites live?
Well, beyond that, the apocalyptic coverage in The New York Times today was just absolutely knee slapping. Hilarious needs its own underscore of music. But this will have to do. As smoke darkens the sky, the future becomes clear. A month ago, I wrote about one of the scariest revelations of the new wildfire science. There's nowhere to escape the smoke,” said Ingraham.
Igraham invited Steve Milloy on to talk about the smoke. Milloy was flippant about any dangers the hazy orange sky might pose.
“Steve. No one's denying it is unpleasant. My eyes are pretty itchy and watery yesterday and a little bit today. And it might go on for a couple more days. But is this wholly out of the ordinary?” asked Ingraham.
“No. This happens anytime. There's a wildfire in the West and it's unusual in the east. Look, the air is ugly. It's unpleasant to breathe. And for a lot of people, they get anxiety over it. But the reality is there's no health risk. Okay. There's EPA research. They've done lots of clinical research on asthmatics on elderly, asthma, attacks on children, on elderly with heart disease, not call for wheeze from any of them. We have this kind of air in India and China all the time. No public health emergency,” said Milloy.
Ingraham took the opportunity to make a dig at China.
“Speaking of, do you do you notice in all the coverage of a Bill Weir the tailpipes all a sudden they never ever mention the fact at the top that China is the number one polluter in the world? Never,” said Ingraham.
Milloy cut her off.
“Yeah. This is like clean air in China. I mean, it's really bad. You know, they in the winter, they never turn on their scrubbers for the air pollution because they don't care. Weir has no idea what he's talking about. This doesn't kill anybody. This doesn't make anybody cough. This is not a health event. This has got nothing to do with climate. First off, these are this is wildfire smoke. This is natural. This is not because of climate change. It's not because of a fossil fuel, you know, internal combustion engines. He just has no idea what he's talking about,” said Milloy.
Milloy was referring to Bill Weir a journalist on CNN who spoke about the dangers of the smokey air.
Steve Milloy is unusual for a bogus expert because he has scientific and medical training. He has a B.A. in Natural Sciences, a Master of Health Sciences in Biostatistics both from Johns Hopkins and a law degree from Georgetown.
What makes Milloy’s expert opinion suspect is it appears he’s spent his entire career working as a lobbyist not a scientist or researcher.
Milloy worked for a consultant for Phillip Morris. He has falsely claimed that second-hand smoke is not linked to lung cancer.
He’s also claimed that human activity has no impact on climate change despite having no actual training in climate science. Some of the nonprofit organizations he’s worked with have received funding from ExxonMobil.
Milloy has even defended the use of asbestos and the pesticide DDT.
“Fox & Friends” - Thursday June, 8th
Time spent on the story: 20 minutes 30 seconds
Experts: Dr. Josh Helman, MD & Kym Douglas, wellness expert
Tone: Serious
I don’t know if Fox News was inundated with complaints from asthmatics or worried grandparents who got upset by most of the primetime coverage but the network took a dramatic pivot on “Fox & Friends.” the next morning.
The smoke was treated like a medical emergency worthy of half the airtime for the first hour. Producers included a giant screen that broke down the different levels of air quality.
Steve Doocy started the day with a shot of the New York City skyline.
“And it really started to kind of redirect where the heaviest stuff was through portions of Pennsylvania. Yesterday in New York City, we had the worst air on the planet. It was 56 times over the World Health Organization's pollution limit. And we doubled a typical front runners like the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan and India. It was hard to breathe, absolutely hard to breathe. And the cover of The New York Post today wraps it up, “Blame Canada,” said Doocy.
Janice Dean, the weather personality on “Fox & Friends also shared her knowledge of her home country of Canada. Dean is not a meteorologist but has a seal of approval from the American Meteorological Society.
Speaking to Brian Kilmade, Dean pointed out some data as they appeared on a series of screens.
“The fires are up to nine million acres, by the way. And to your point of what you were talking about. Canada does not have the resources to combat wildfires like this. In some areas, it's like you can't you can't access the forestry. So that's why we're sending 600 of our firefighters to Canada right now, because this is unprecedented,” said Dean.
Ainsley Earhardt asked Dr. Josh Helman how parents should talk to young children about the smoke.
“You know, so so obviously, this is very hard for for kids to understand. And I remember when I was a little kid and and was involved in some fires in Los Angeles where, you know, the traffic lights changed color. I think the first thing to do is, is to mirror that you are concerned, but you're doing something about it. Specifically. You're saying, look, we can't go out and play. Right. Because the air or the air is not safe. And and and you can say that sometimes are things that are not safe that we even can't even see, like the very small particles in the air. But the causes of pollution are are can be dangerous,” said Helman.
At the very end of the first hour Doocy sat down with Kym Douglas, a wellness podcaster from Los Angeles. She gave a surprising tip that would help women.
“Don’t wear your eye makeup ladies or if you have to just do it very minimally and if you are wearing it because you need to, perhaps you're in a meeting or on a show like I am with the wonderful Steve. Then the minute I get off the air, I'm going to make sure to use a nontoxic, chemical free eye remover, because even the ones with the little bit of fragrance, they can irritate your eyes even more,” said Douglas.
Any grit in the smoke would get stuck to makeup and a person could irate their eyes if they weren’t careful when they removed it.
The Experts
Dr. Josh Helman - Harvard-trained board-certified physician licensed in fourteen states. He has two degrees in biochemistry (undergraduate from Harvard and master’s from University of Cambridge [UK]). Dr. Helman has served as an attending physician throughout his career and ultimately as the Medical Director for Hippocrates Health Institute in Palm Beach, Florida.
Kym Douglas - wellness podcaster - I couldn’t find much about her background other than she is a breast cancer survivor and she was once married to a soap opera actor. Douglas gave very basic advice along the lines of stay in doors and sip tea. She wasn’t much of an expert but her tips were innocuous and wouldn’t cause anyone any harm.
Stories Fox News Ignored
Every week I compare the coverage I’ve watched on Fox News with five hours of the PBS NewsHour. These are the stories that PBS reported on that Fox News did not.
Heat trapping carbon dioxide levels are currently the highest they’ve been in the earth’s atmosphere in 4 million years. Experts believe the increase is due to the burning of fossil fuels.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin traveled to New Delhi, India last week to meet with Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss how to share the burden of deterring aggression by any major power, including China.
The Biden administration is awarding more than $570 million in grants to help eliminate railroad crossings in 32 states as the industry relies on longer trains to cut costs.
Right wing organizations have attacked ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center. The program helps identify outdated and duplicate voter registrations. Conspiracy theorists have falsely tied the program to voter fraud schemes.
Florida citrus farmers are facing a rough season as a form of blight called citrus greening has decimated their crops. It’s expected to be the worst orange crop in 70 years.
Journalists at the countries largest newspaper chain, Gannett, walked off the job last week to demand and end to cost-cutting measures and new leadership. The company’s decisions have been especially devastating to local newspapers across the country.
PBS produced a segment about a small LGBTQ community group in Taylor, Texas that was facing backlash due to anti-LGBTQ laws and growing anti-LGBTQ sentiment of some residents.
A convicted spy for the Soviet Union and Russia, Robert Hanssen, 79, was found dead in his federal prison cell in Colorado. Hanssen died of natural causes.
PBS had an extended interview with Karen Bass the mayor of Los Angeles where she discussed the cities plans to tackle the homeless crisis. Fox News often features segments about homeless people in various cities but offers no solutions.
Francoise Gilot, an accomplished painter, died at the age of 101. She was also the mistress of Pablo Picasso and the mother of two of his children. Her career stretched over eight decades. She left behind 1,600 paintings and 3,600 works on paper. Her work often goes for over $1 million.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is suing Coinbase, the second largest crypto exchange by volume, for operating illegally as an unregistered national securities exchange and broker as well as other charges.
Lawyers for Ukraine branded Russia a terrorist state at the International Court of Justice. Ukraine wants the world court to order Russia to pay reparations for attacks and war crimes.
A new study by the National Academy of Sciences analyzed footage in traffic stops. It showed a higher percentage of escalations when Black drivers were stopped by police. The results showed the first 45 words spoken by the officer could determine how each encounter ended.
The acclaimed American author Willa Cather was honored with a statue in Statuary in Hall on Capitol Hill for the state of Nebraska. The sculptor, Littleton Alston, a professor at Creighton University, is the first Black artist to have work represented in the national collection.
President Biden hosted the U.K. Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, at the White House. They discussed both countries "unwavering" support for the people of Ukraine, international cooperation in terms of regulating artificial intelligence and relations with China.
A new report by Unicef, United Nations Children’s Fund, showed that roughly 20 children are killed each day due to warfare or conflict. Those cases represent only what has been identified and reported as the organization believes the violence is more widespread.
Parts of China are facing severe flooding due to excessive rain. The flooding has caused 120,000 people to flee their homes.
Ethnic clashes broke out in South Sudan as refugees have fled the violence from waring factions in Sudan. At least 13 people were killed and 21 injured at a U.N. site for the protection of displaced civilians.
PBS had an extended segment on the complexities and struggles involved with returning stolen land back to indigenous people and Black Americans.
Dr. Joseph Dituri set a new world’s record by living 100 days 22 feet underwater at a Florida Keys lodge for scuba divers.
By the Numbers
Coming up…
This week I’ll be covering “Fox & Friends,” “The Five,” “Jesse Watters Primetime,” and “Fox News Tonight.” I’ll also be covering whatever is going on with the former President Donald J. Trump’s arraignment.
The Trump indictment did put me way behind schedule in terms of finishing the last installment of “Who is Hunter Biden?” for my paid subscribers but I’m hoping to finish that up this week.
Great issue. Air politics has been an ongoing drama in the COVID world: https://tracingcovid.substack.com/p/dont-talk-about-cleaning-the-air