Fox News: A Clown Show of Hysteria and the Evidence Free Impeachment Inquiry
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 10/1/23
Last week Fox News tried its best to combine every element in its arsenal to keep viewers as angry and paranoid as possible. The network twisted itself into knots to blame Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the border crisis while presenting Elon Musk as the billionaire maverick who would magically stop illegal immigration with his aviator sunglasses and cosplay outlaw fashion.
Fox News also tried desperately to make the second Republican presidential debate seem exciting and dynamic. Wednesday night’s broadcast was followed by an endless string of segments across all shows meant to make the debate seem more important and relevant than it was.
Viewers weren’t fooled as the audience from the first debate dropped 25% to a meager 9.5 million. In contrast the first and second Republican debates for the 2016 election drew 23.9 million and 22.9 million viewers.
The network also downplayed the possibility of a government shutdown while hyping up the comically ridiculous impeachment inquiry. If Fox viewers spent the six hours needed to watch the first day of the hearing, they could see for themselves that the Republicans didn’t present any new evidence that links President Joe Biden to any of their outlandish claims.
Fox also spent a lot of time obsessing over a slight misstep President Biden made while disembarking Air Force One. He didn’t trip or fall but that wasn’t going to stop anyone at Fox from showing the clip repeatedly on a loop on multiple shows.
What Fox didn’t feature were the many legal problems Trump faced last week, the rising civil conflict in Azerbaijan or the funding the Biden administration has allocated to railway safety or research towards drug resistant bacteria. As usual a lot happened that Fox News simply did not cover.
Shows I covered:
Fox & Friends
The Five
Hannity
The second GOP debate
The Impeachment Inquiry - Fox vs. PBS
The first day of the Impeachment inquiry stretched on for over six hours. Although there were many entertaining and informative moments a typical news junkie might pick up a few clips posted on social media or within a news program.
Most Americans don’t have six hours to watch members of Congress present arguments, challenge evidence or sit through procedural votes. This makes it much easier for Fox to spin the event to its audience.
The network presented the inquiry as the first step to President Biden’s demise. On Thursday Sean Hannity invited the architects of the inquiry Representatives James Comer (R-KY), Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jason Smith (R-MO) to talk about the first day of hearings.
James Comer began with a blatant misrepresentation of a text message that was entered as evidence.
“Well, we've got to get to Jim Biden. And that's why today I signed the subpoenas to subpoena Jim Biden's personal bank accounts. He's flown under the radar because, quite frankly, he didn't leave a laptop laying around. But we know from people we've talked to from evidence in emails and text messages that he, too, was just as involved in as Hunter.
Well, Byron Donalds, show that text message today from Jim Biden to Hunter Biden. When Hunter was going to rehab again, he said, don't worry, I'll work with your dad. We'll finish those deals. I mean, there's overwhelming evidence that Joe Biden was involved in all of these shady business schemes. That's a problem. Yeah, that's a threat to our national security. And today we rehash and win over all the different items of evidence, and we announce the subpoenas. We're going to continue to move forward and follow the money,” said Comer.
The passage from the text message that Donalds brought up in the hearing was taken out of context. Donalds quoted a phrase from Jim Biden, “This can work, you need a safe harbor. I can work with you father alone,” implying the president’s brother was talking about a business deal.
In the full context of the text message it’s clear that Hunter Biden was begging for financial help for tuition for his daughters and alimony payments for his ex-wife.
According to what I could find in both Hunter Biden and his ex-wife’s memoirs at the time of their divorce the couple’s communal property was over-mortgaged and Hunter had spent most of his savings on his drug addiction, sex workers, lavish hotels, and various rehab facilities.
Hunter openly talked about being robbed and exploited by various nefarious characters he surrounded himself with while in the throes of addiction and claimed he was spending $1 million a year just to keep up with double mortgages and elite school tuitions.
The PBS NewsHour handled the inquiry quite differently. Lisa Desjardins narrated an extended segment about the inquiry.
“Republicans are looking at millions of dollars made by Hunter Biden, the president's son, and James Biden, his brother, especially in 2019 and 2020, for consulting with foreign businesses, including in Ukraine and China. They have charts of shell companies and spoke of texts and phone calls between Biden family members. But in all of that, Democrats repeatedly pointed out there is no direct evidence of payments to or influence peddling by Joe Biden,” said Desjardins.
The segment included a media clip from the hearing of Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD)
“If the Republicans had a smoking gun or even a dripping water pistol, they would be presenting it today. But they've got nothing on Joe Biden,” said Raskin.
“Republican witnesses were broad experts in law and investigation, and they raised broad questions,” said Desjardins. Forensic accountant Bruce Dubinsky,” said Desjardins.
“Why were members of the Biden family and close business associates receiving millions of dollars of payments from foreign entities and individuals? What services, if any, were being provided? . . . Much more information is still needed in order to be able to answer these questions,” said Dubinsky.
Desjardians continued, “None said they've seen enough to add up to a crime. Law professor and conservative commentator Jonathan Turley.”
“This is a question of an impeachment inquiry. It is not a vote on articles of impeachment. In fact, I do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment,” said Turley.
I don’t have room in this newsletter to include a full fact check of the impeachment inquiry but CNN broke down the misleading statements and false claims made by Republican lawmakers.
Jessica Tarlov was NOT going to put up with Jesse Watters’ Nonsense about the Impeachment Inquiry
On Thursday on “The Five,” Jessica Tarlov had to correct her co-hosts claims about the impeachment inquiry.
Jesse Watters started.
“All right. So, Jessica says there's no new evidence limited you, though. I said, well, it doesn't let you off the hook because here's the new evidence. They presented an email from Jim Biden to Hunter Biden,” said Watters.
“The doctored one?” asked Tarlov.
“No,” said Watters as he quoted the text message, ‘I can work with your father alone.’ So there goes the I was never in business with my son because not only were you in business with your son, you're in business your brother,” said Watters.
“I’m so glad you brought that up. It’s from Byron Donalds And then AOC had the full quote of what happened, and he wasn't talking about working,” said Tarlov.
“I have the full quote,” said Watters.
“No, you don’t,” said Tarlov.
“I have the full quote,” said Watters.
“I’ve written down so much more than you it’s astonishing,” said Tarlov.
This is how Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez addressed Donalds’ statement during the hearing.
“One of our colleagues, a gentleman from Florida, presented up on the screen something that looked appeared to be a screenshot of a text message containing or insinuating an explosive allegation. That screenshot of what appeared to be a text message was a fabricated image. It was a fabricated image. I don't know where it came from. I don't know if it was the staff of the committee, but it was not the actual direct screenshot from that phone. And in fact, I would like to submit to the committee the actual full context from as from the Ziegler affidavit. Number one, exhibit 402 of the full text of that exchange. Do I have permission from the chair? ” said Ocasio-Cortez as she held up a copy of the full text message.
She continued.
“So importantly, what was brought out from that fabricated image excluded critical context that changed the underlying meaning and allegation that was presented up on that screen by this committee and by members of this committee. Now, they are well within their right to do that because they are covered by the speech and debate clause. This was not submitted by material or fact witness under oath. That was not submitted by material or fact witness under oath,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
The text message in question is the same one I referenced earlier when Rep. Comer brought it up on Hannity. Of course, Comer was at the hearing where Rep. Ocasio-Cortez corrected the record he just went ahead and repeated a falsehood.
Fox Blamed AOC for the Border Crisis
As I’ve documented for months now Fox News loves to hate on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aka AOC. She’s brought up for seemingly no reason on the network on a weekly basis.
Last week posted a tweet on X (Twitter) that was critical of Elon Musk and a Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX). Fox decided she was singlehandedly responsible for the border crisis.
On Friday on “Fox & Friends,” Lawrence Jones brought her up first.
“This is AOC. She has some words on X, she says. What's funny about this photo? No one said anything was funny, but okay, the House is holding the ballot in D.C. tonight. People are scrambling to avoid a shutdown. But this Republican congressman who represents the district decided to skip town to joyride with a billionaire when his own party has just a single digit margin and needs his vote. So all of a sudden, she's concerned about if she's going to vote for the border security that is going to be in that appropriations,” said Jones
“And what city says she refuses to represent New York? What is being affected outside the border city? What is effectively none,” said Brian Kilmeade.
“And she refuses to go back to the border, although here's this photo of AOC. This is her during the Trump administration. Crying outside, hugging everyone. Meanwhile, we have kids that are going through razor wire. She hasn’t hugged them,” said Jones as she showed photos of AOC at the border in 2018.
Later in the same program his co-host Ainsley Earhardt also took aim at AOC.
“It's just good to see Elon Musk and Representative Gonzalez doing the job that President Biden should do, that Kamala Harris should do. We aren't seeing those images. We aren't seeing them at the border. We did see AOC visit and start crying when she saw the kids in cages, even though that was a Barack Obama thing,” said Earhardt.
The same day on “The Five,” Judge Jeanine Pirro also took aim at the Congresswoman.
“In 2019, when she did this fake, she was crying because she thought the children were in cages,” said Pirro.
On “Hannity,” the senior Fox host also criticized AOC.
“And then you have Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez trashing Elon Musk and his visit, accusing a Republican congressman that join Elon Musk of taking a joyride with the billionaire. Maybe she's mad because she's being criticized for owning a Tesla. It's not American made. It wasn't made by the UAW,” said Hannity.
Fox News has repeated the myth that Barack Obama and Donald J. Trump had the similar policies at the Southern border for years.
The Trump administration issued a “zero tolerance policy” that purposefully separated children from their parents with no process to record what happened to them once they were taken into custody. The family separation policy was created by the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan and backed by Stephen Miller a former senior advisor and speech writer for Trump.
Over 5000 children were removed from their parent’s custody during this time. The policy was meant to deter families from taking the risk of emigrating to the United States illegally.
In 2014, during the Obama administration, there was a surge of unaccompanied minors at the southern border who were temporarily held in a new “Central Processing Center” or CPC. The facility was a large warehouse with areas separated by chain link partitions. Although the center was air-conditioned and clean the images of children housed in these areas were grim.
Images from the CPC during the Obama administration were used by Trump officials to mislead the public that Trump was simply following the same policy as his predecessor.
During the Obama administration when migrants were detained entire families were placed together. Many advocates for undocumented immigrants were critical of Obama’s policies but they were nowhere near as draconian or cruel as the family separation policy under Trump.
Fox Continues to Treat Elon Musk as Some Type of Mythical Figure.
The network treats the tech billionaire like a godlike figure which is odd for a couple of reasons. Musk has given Tucker Carlson a platform on X (Twitter) while he is still battling with Fox News - his former employer.
Musk also hosted the presidential campaign announcement of Gov. Ron DeSantis on X in direct competition with Fox.
On Friday on “Fox & Friends,” Brian Kilmeade nearly knelt and openly worshipped Musk.
“Or you could go to the border and be there with a billionaire who is going to try to take his knowledge that he learned from trying to land on Mars and send satellites into the sky and dig tunnels under the ground and build electric cars on our on our roads. And he's going to take some of his knowledge as he livestreams his appearance at the border. Arguably the number one issue plaguing this country that even Democrats got to admit, except for one, Ayanna Pressley, that it is a problem in this country that needs to be addressed. So, he put on a T-shirt and he headed down and let X live stream it. He went there with Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez, and he's trying to get a hold of this. Do not be surprised if Musk has a way to solve this problem,” said Kilmeade.
Later on “The Five,” Greg Gutfeld was even more heavy handed.
“But you won't. So, he goes and now you cover it. Musk is essentially fulfilling a role that for the last three years has been vacant - president. He's on the forefront of speech. He's on the forefront of immigration. He's on the forefront of parental rights while our so-called commander in chief is, you know, renovating his house, using money from China. So, he's stepping up because apparently our commander in chief doesn't get it,” said Gutfeld.
Sean Hannity was far more measured on his show, but he still praised Musk for doing nothing more than donning an ill-fitting cowboy hat and standing around what looked like a temporary migrant detention area.
“First of all, I give Ellen a lot of credit. I find him I think he's a very interesting character. I think he's a great innovator. He's a brilliant mind. It's just interesting to me,” said Hannity.
The Debate - A Fox Guest Goes Rogue
Thursday during the first hour of “Fox & Friends,” a small group of voters were assembled outside the Fox News studios to give their opinion of the second Republican Debate that had aired the night before on Fox.
Ainsley Earhardt sat in front of the small panel as she directed her question.
“Samantha Hugs, in the front row of Morristown, New Jersey you’re a strong conservative. Who'd you like last night? Borders a big issue for you,” said Earhardt.
The woman made an expression of disgust then said, “I have to say, I didn't really care for anyone last night. I think it was a clown show.”
Gutfeld Seemed to Have a Huge Problem with the Spanish Speaking Moderator at the Debate
The same day on “The Five,” Greg Gutfeld expressed strong opinions about the RNC’s choice of including a Univision correspondent, Ilia Calderón, as a Spanish speaking moderator.
“Fox joining Univision perhaps was the worst partnership I've ever seen since Bud Light hired Dylan Mulvaney. I mean, you have a host unload a litany of liberal clichés whose premises we challenge successfully every day. And yet they were treated as approved truths. She had no follow up to each one, which is weird. So it was like a deliberate list prepared by the DNC to tweak the candidate, to tweak the audience.
It didn't feel like a journalism debate to me. It felt like The view without pastries. And by the way, this isn't on Fox, right? So don't accuse me of shooting in the tent. Hosts had their autonomy over their questions. This is on the RNC, who felt they had to have Fox partner with Univision as if it would be value added when in fact it was value subtracted.
Perhaps give Univision their own debate. Right. Instead of loading questions with like these not so subtle accusations. I was waiting for her to ask one of the candidates what was the last time you beat your kids? It was just so silly,” said Gutfeld.
Seattle Goes Rogue
Last week as I was putting my newsletter/podcast together Katherine Abughazaleh of Media Matters posted a clip from “The Five” from Monday that quickly went viral.
Man-on-the-street segments are usually fairly easy to produce - a correspondent will talk as many people as possible and then use the most outrageous comments in the final segment.
On Tuesday Judge Jeanine Pirro opened a segment that was supposed to show how Seattle was slowly going to ruin.
“Crime, homelessness, violence and filth are now the norm in the liberal cities, and the voters don't seem to mind. Take the chaos in Seattle. The blue city has surpassed last year's homicide total. With three months left in the year and violent crime is up 25%. Jesse sent Johnny to the progressive hellscape where residents mocked the idea that the city is spiraling out of control,” said Pirro.
Johnny, simply known by his first name, works on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” mainly as the man-on-the-street correspondent where he regularly uses a microphone and camera to coax shocking statements from total strangers.
This particular segment did not go well for him. The random Seattle residents he interviewed simply weren’t having any of his nonsense.
“I've never seen any crime in Seattle. I've never seen any of it. I've seen fun and laughter and laughter and fun,” said he first man Johnny interviewed.
His second subject, a middle-aged woman in a bright green jacket, had similar feelings about her city.
“I don't believe that number,” she said with a smile.
Johnny responded, “People there, you know, get robbed out here, carjacked.”
“I’ve never heard of anyone getting robbed . . .It's not a thing that happens on the street. People don't just come up and try to rob people on the street. Do you walk around every day like someone's going to rob me every second?” she asked.
“Seattle decriminalized drug use and then they criminalized it again,” said Johnny.
“Oh, my God. Who are you getting these facts from? You're from New York. Apparently you're listening to the wrong people,” said the woman still smiling.
“I saw a lot of people shooting up on my way down here,” said Johnny as he pointed down the street.
“Okay. And they were bothering you?” asked the woman.
“I was in a car, but, you know,” said Johnny.
The woman began to opening mock him raising her voice in a sing-song way “Oh no, you were in a car, they were hurting you so bad, oh no.”
A second woman with large earrings shaped like bunnies said, “crime is a social issue that could be solved by giving people their basic needs.
What was amazing about this segment is that Fox News even bothered to air it. Johnny must have interviewed more people than the three featured in the clip. That was the best he and his producers could come up with.
Stories Fox News Ignored
Every week I compare the hours I watch on Fox with five hours of the PBS NewsHour. The following is a list of stories that PBS covered that Fox did not.
Developments in the war in Ukraine
Ukraine claimed it killed a Russian admiral,Victor Sokolov, along with 34 other officers in a missile strike. Russia countered with a video that they said proved Sokolov was alive and unharmed.
Russia launched a series of drone attacks on Ukraine. Ukrainian air defenses claimed they shot down 34 of the 44 incoming "Shahed" drones.
PBS produced an extended segment from Ukraine about the counteroffensive. Experts believe the Ukrainian military only has about a month before the weather will become too rainy for them to advance in Russian occupied territory.
Climate disasters
Greece was hit with the second powerful storm in less than a month that caused massive flooding and extensive property damage.
A report by the Swiss Academy of Sciences found that glaciers in Switzerland have lost 10% of their volume in the past 2 years. Climate experts said the dramatic loss was due to man-made climate change.
Trump’s Legal problems
Trump’s lawyers challenged the gag order on his 2020 election subversion case. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan set courtroom arguments about the order for Oct. 16.
A New York judge issued a summary judgment that found Donald J. Trump and his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump committed fraud by inflating the value of their properties. The judge canceled certificates that allow several of his companies to operate in New York State.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said she won’t recuse herself from Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case, rejecting the former president’s claims that her past statements show that she cannot be fair.
The Biden administration is supplying free COVID tests again through the USPS.
The family of a Black teenager is filing a federal civil rights lawsuit against Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton saying they are not enforcing the Crown Act a law that was passed in Texas that is supposed to protect people from being penalized based on hair texture or hairstyles
The Biden administration has allocated $1.4 billion to help improve railway safety and improve capacity. The funds will be used for 70 projects in 35 states and Washington, D.C.
A NASA probe brought back the first samples from asteroids back to earth. The samples should help scientists learn more about the origins of our solar system.
Biden held a two-day summit at the White House with leaders from the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum. Joe Biden declared his dedication to ensuring the Indo-Pacific is “free, open, prosperous and secure.”
At least 100,000 ethnic Armenians have fled the separatist area of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azjerbjan as the World court ordered the military to remove its troops from the area. Azerbaijan is not expected to comply and has dissolved the separatist government. The region is internationally recognized as part of Azjerbjan but its national sovereignty has been disputed for decades.
The federal government and 17 states are suing Amazon in a landmark monopoly case over allegations that the e-commerce giant harmed competition.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that would ban school boards from rejecting textbooks based on instruction about contributions of people from different racial backgrounds, sexual orientations and gender identities.
South Korea held its first military parade in a decade as a show of strength to mark its 75th Armed Forces Day . North Korea has defended its missile launches as being necessary for its national defense.
The Supreme Court rejected Alabama’s attempt to avoid creating a second Black majority congressional district.
At least 100 people were killed in a fire caused by an indoor fireworks display at a wedding hall in Iraq.
The Biden administration has committed $100 million to research drug-resistant bacteria also known as super bugs.
South Korean automaker Hyundai and Kai issued a recall for 3.3 million used vehicles because they can catch fire while parked or while driving due to issues with the antilock brake system.
A pro-Kremlin politician, Robert Fico, won the last election in Slovakia. Slovakia is a member of NATO and the shift in power could threaten EU unity towards Ukraine.
Student journalists working in cooperation with the nonprofit Hyde Square Task force found that basic groceries in low income neighborhoods at Stop and Shop in the Boston area were priced higher than the same items at the same grocery chain in higher income areas. Stop & Shop responded by saying said that rent, labor costs, store size and selection contributed to the price differences and that the samples included 1% of the 10,000 items available in the two stores.
Governor Gavin Newsom just signed a bill that will raise the wages of fast food workers to $20 an hour in California.
The investigation into a doping scandal involving a Russian figure skater at the last winter Olympics has stretched past 600 days. Athletes from Russia, the U.S. and Japan cannot receive their medals for the team competition until the issue is resolved. If the Russian skater is found guilty the U.S. would get gold, Japan would get silver and the Canadian team would win bronze.
Last Friday marked six months since, Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist working for the Wall Street Journal was arrested and jailed in Russia on bogus espionage charges.
A jury ruled in favor of LeRoy Torres, a former army reservist exposed to toxic burn pits. Torres was featured in an earlier segment on PBS that explored the long-lasting health problems caused by exposure to burn pits.
The Supreme Court will decide if laws in Texas and Florida limiting how social media platforms regulate content are constitutional. In both states the laws are meant to limit what social media companies can remove from their platforms.
"...with his aviator sunglasses and cosplay outlaw fashion"
I guffawed. Nice one!
Whew! I scanned bc it hurts even scanning. Bravo!