Fox News - But His Documents . . .
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 1/15/23
A typical Fox News viewer might think that the Democrat Party secretly planted classified documents in an attempt to destroy President Biden’s chances of running for re-election. That same viewer might also think that government officials will break down doors and rip out gas stoves from freedom loving American homes.
Anyone who exclusively watched Fox News wouldn’t know that a six-year-old boy took a gun to school and intentionally shot his teacher. A diehard Fox fan might have missed that Allen Weisselberg, the former CFO of The Trump Organization was sentenced to five months in prison for his role in a decade long tax fraud scheme at the company. A Fox viewer wouldn’t know that a grand jury in Georgia completed its investigation into possible criminal behavior by former President Donald J. Trump and his associates in any attempts to change the outcome in the 2020 presidential election.
Fox News anchors also repeatedly got basic facts wrong, blurted out inaccurate poll results while continually demonizing undocumented immigrants, and un-homed people.
The network’s biggest focus last week was the classified documents found at Biden’s garage, an academic think tank and his home in Delaware. Suddenly Fox News seemed concerned with the handling of classified documents even though the network had a vastly different tone in August when Trump’s public club was searched by the FBI after he had refused to comply with a subpoena.
Shows I covered last week
Fox & Friends - the first hour
The Five
Tucker Carlson Tonight
But his documents . . .
All three shows I analyzed last week aggressively pushed segments about Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.
They hyperbole was thick. Fox hosts kept trying to equate the classified document scandal at Trump’s resort with Biden. There are similarities of course but Fox neglected to point out to its audience the many differences.
Here’s how the two cases are similar.
Both cases involve the mishandling of classified documents that were removed after Trump and Biden left office. Under the Presidential Records Act, White House records are supposed to be returned to the National Archives and Records Administration at the end of an administration.
The Department of Justice has begun investigations into both the former and current president. Jack Smith was appointed as special counsel to look into former President Trump’s mishandling of documents in addition to his role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th and Robert Hur, a Trump appointed attorney, was assigned as special counsel to investigate President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.
Here’s how the two cases are different.
In the case of Trump.
The National Archives discovered in the spring of 2021 that some historically prominent files were missing, they then asked Trump to return what they suspected he’d taken.
Trump returned 15 boxes of documents with classified markings. The Justice Department then issued a subpoena and Trump returned more. Agents at the Justice Department suspected Trump was still withholding documents based on a source at Mar-a-Lago and other evidence.
Trump’s team stalled by not responding to the National Archives’ requests for months while also falsely claiming they had fully cooperated with a subpoena.
A court filing also suggested that security camera footage showed that “government records were likely concealed and removed” from the storage room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after the subpoena was sent.
Trump had several hundred documents with classified markings. In some cases documents were stored in a locked closet but the FBI also found documents in Trump’s office - including his desk.
Trump has publicly criticized the National Archives and has framed the investigation as illegitimate. A federal judge is considering holding his team in contempt for defying the subpoena.
Trump and his team might have destroyed official documents. Former aides have said he tore up files while in office. A letter from the National Archives indicated that some of the files it got back had been mutilated.
In the case of Biden.
Biden’s attorneys immediately informed the National Archives then searched Biden’s properties and, “the other locations where files from his vice-presidential office might have been shipped in the course of the 2017 transition.”
Only a small amount of documents with classified markings were found. Biden did not defy a subpoena or destroy documents. Biden and his staff did not attempt to hide documents or move them to another location.
President vs. Vice President
Fox News has really pushed the idea that President Biden is in more trouble because he removed and kept classified documents when he was Vice President. The executive order governing the classified information system gives vice presidents the same power to declassify secrets as presidents wield, so it is not as black and white as Fox makes in out to be.
So far Biden has not claimed he declassified the discovered documents.
The following video was created by pulling from segments for all three shows I analyzed last week. Fox News cranked up the drama in regards to the classified document scandal.
Fox News hosts repeatedly used terms such as:
Double standard
Battering rams
FBI raids
They purposefully withheld this information before the mid-terms.
Double standard
Then there were the conspiracy theories. Jesse Watters thought China was somehow involved.
“I wonder if the janitors at the Biden Center were Chinese operatives,” asked Watters.
Greg Gutfeld also had some odd theories.
“Do we know that there aren't nuclear secrets in there? Perhaps to exchange nuclear secrets to China for the 10%,” asked Gutfeld.
Watters repeated a version of theme pushed by many Fox News hosts - that somehow this was a plot by Democrats to force Biden into retirement so a more popular Democrat could run for president in 2024.
“I mean, I'm not a conspiracy theorist. You know, maybe Obama is trying to set Joe up, takes the fall, Newsome goes in,” said Watters.
Judge Jeanine Pulls a Fake Stat from Thin Air
On “The Five” last week Judge Jeanine Pirro blurted out a statistic from a poll that I immediately thought was dubious.
“The presidential election. They shut down the Hunter Biden laptop. They didn't want anyone to know about it. And something like 52% of Americans voted, said it would have changed their votes in a very close election. Now we've got them doing the same thing before a midterm,” said Pirro.
I did a Google search for ‘52% Hunter Biden Americans change vote”
I found an article from Newsweek from December 2020 - “Majority of Americans think Hunter Biden story was ignored by media.”
The actual quote from the article
“A Rasmussen Reports telephone and online survey found that 52 percent of likely U.S. voters think news organizations ignored the story in order to help Joe Biden's campaign.”
That is a very different answer than saying that they would have changed their votes to Donald Trump. Pirro might have been referencing another poll. She may have honestly gotten confused but I could not find a poll that lined up with her claim.
This instance reminded me of another example months ago where multiple Fox News hosts referred to another poll where they claimed one out of every six Biden voters would have switched their votes had they known more about the Hunter Biden laptop story.
It took me a few hours to track down the exact poll as every right-wing article I could find that referenced it did not provide a hyperlink or a specific source.
Eventually I tracked it down the Media Research Center, which gets most of its funding according to Influence Watch from extreme right wing conservative foundations, including the Mercer Family Foundation. That's the same group that backed Milo Yiannopoulos, who is probably best known for defending pedophilia. The Mercer family Foundation also funded Breitbart News an ultra far right media company.
They are Coming for your Gas Stove!
Last week, Commissioner Richard L. Trumka Jr, Democratic member of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), told Bloomberg News gas stoves could potentially be banned due to their health hazards.
No one had written or passed a law banning gas stoves. There was no government directive to remove gas stoves. The comment was a suggestion nothing more.
Fox News responded by completely freaking out.
Tucker Carlson set the tone.
“So with that in mind, the Biden administration is considering a ban on gas stoves in the name of climate. But really, it's for your own good. If America puts up with this, probably put up with anything,” said Carlson.
On “The Five” Judge Pirro spiraled into a full panic.
“When I come into my kitchen. And what are you going to do now? Are you going to like but knock the doors down to see if I really have a gas stove. I'm a cook. Nobody's going to tell me I can't cook with gas. First of all, any good cook cooks with gas? It's an immediate up, down, low, high, you know,” said Pirro.
On “Fox & Friends” Steve Doocy doubled down.
“Could the Biden administration be coming for your gas stove? The answer is yes,” declared Doocy.
Jesse Watters claimed it was a conspiracy.
“This is about getting rid of natural gas. Follow the money,” said Watters.
Tucker Carlson made false comparisons to illegal drug use.
“Safety we've had these still for over a hundred years. It's totally fine to get fed and all the attics, but a gas stove is a threat to your life . . . To use a natural gas stove in your home because of emissions. But they're not concerned about smoking meth like at some point,” said Carlson.
During a discussion about both gas stoves and drug addiction Fox News guest Michael Shellenberger took things to an absurdly dark place.
“You have to consider that as part of a broader movement that thinks that Western civilization is a terrible thing that were founded on slavery and genocide. And so maybe when they start to do things that undermine civilization, there's a connection there,” said Shellenberger.
Tucker Misleads his Audience about Political Unrest in Brazil
Tucker Carlson has been an avid supporter of the former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro. Carlson has repeatedly claimed the last presidential election was stolen despite having no evidence of fraud.
Independent election monitors also refuted Bolsonaro’s claims of fraud. The quote the Carter Center:
At the invitation of the Superior Electoral Tribunal (known by its Portuguese acronym, the TSE), the Center’s expert team was on hand for both the first round of the presidential election and the runoff that concluded Sunday, Oct. 30. The electoral officials announced results less than three hours after the polls closed. After all votes were tallied, former President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva won by a margin of 1.8% — or over 2 million votes more than President Jair Massias Bolsonaro.
Carlson invited on Matthew Tyrmand, an investigative journalist to discuss the recent attempt by Bolsonaro supporters to overturn the election results.
“Now it turns out, as the plot usually does thicken in these situations, that there were many an agent provocateur yesterday at these buildings and doing incredible gross damage, breaking windows and such. And it looks like this is turning into a Reichstag fire and being used to clamp down on these democratic protests. The protests are no more. The camps have been disbanded by executive and judicial mandate and fiat.
And now they've set up a concentration camp where 1200 Brazilian citizens are locked in the gymnasium and grounds of the Federal Police Training Center in Brasilia. And it has just been reported that two of them have died. There is no water, no food, no bathrooms. Brazilian countrymen of this government are being treated in worse circumstances than the Geneva Convention allows for foreign combatants,” said Tyrmand.
He then blamed the Brazilian government for not doing enough to prevent the attack.
“It is absolutely gross and even more gross, as we just found out, according to a high ranking influential senator, Marcos del Valle released documents that prove the justice minister, Flavio Dino, knew about it the day before, that there would be violence potentially, and even the setup for violence. And Lula knew as well they did not cordon off the buildings,” said Tyrmand.
Carlson agreed.
“I'm recognizing the template here and just to zero it out. So the country is becoming a dictatorship and the State Department and all the celebrities, Mark Ruffalo and the rest who supported this criminal, Lula, are saying nothing and they're continuing to support it as he eliminates civil liberties, said Carlson.
Tucker Carlson never elaborated on what he meant by Lula abusing his power or stripping Brazilian citizens of their civil liberties.
“That is absolutely correct. There is nothing but frame it as Ban and Trump. Bolsonaro plotted a coup from Florida, which there is no facts that back that up even remotely,” said Tyrmand.
Tucker Carlson talks to his Audience as if they are Toddlers
Once I noticed this pattern I could not un-see it. Tucker Carlson talks to his viewers as if he is reading a bedtime story for small children. He repeats simple phrases. He would ask a question and then ask it again in another way.
I edited one of his monologues from last week to really demonstrate how he does this.
“The stories that matter? Probably not. And if you don't, that's true. Ask your neighbors. Who's winning the war in Ukraine? And of course, to tell you that Ukraine is winning. Duh, said Carlson.
In that case his technique is somewhat subtle but in the next series he’s more heavy-handed.
“Ukraine is winning. Says Michael McFaul of Stanford University. Ukraine is winning, says Hillary Clinton. Ukraine is winning, proclaimed the entire American media establishment because the media would never say that ever,” said Carlson.
he repeats this style again of asking himself a question and then answering it.
“Wait, what? Indeed, it is the opposite. Shouldn't we have known this these facts before Mitch McConnell signed off in yet another multibillion dollar aid package to Zelenskyy and his wife? Yep, we should have known, but there was no way to know because the media wouldn't tell us. Did you know that? You probably didn't because our media never mention it,” said Carlson.
He could just say “There’s no border left.” but instead he goes through the same back and forth pattern of over-explaining things.
“So that's Mexico. And why wouldn't it? There's no border left. Shouldn't Americans know that? Yes, they should. Did you know that? Do you have any idea? You probably didn't. Shouldn't you know that,” asked Carlson.
Bogus Expert of the Week
Alex Berenson - BA’s - in economics and history from Yale University.
Berenson is a novelist and an award-winning journalist who once worked for the New York Times. In 2019 his career took an odd turn as Berenson wrote a book about the effects of marijuana use in which he claimed the drug caused psychosis and violence. His book was widely criticized by scientists and experts.
In 2020 despite the lack of training or education in science or medicine, Berenson has fashioned himself an expert on the COVID-19 virus.
Berenson was heavily featured on Carlson’s show throughout the worst months of the pandemic. He was suspended from Twitter for promoting misinformation about the virus and vaccines. He responded by suing the social media platform.
After Elon Musk bought Twitter Berenson was eventually reinstated and then in a twist anyone could have seen coming Berenson ended up being part of The Twitter Files, Musk’s public relations spectacle.
I found his quote about the Twitter Files to be quite amusing.
“As for the Twitter files, what we know now basically about COVID is what I reported and what a couple of people reported last month. The files, it's a mistake to think of them as some huge data dump that we can all go through. It's an iterative process where we're questioning Twitter about what's in there and they're coming back to us with answers,” said Berenson.
That’s a fancy way of saying cherry picking - selecting evidence based on a pre-conceived conclusion.
Stories that Fox News Ignored
Every week I compare 15 hours of Fox News to five hours of the PBS NewsHour. The following are stories that PBS included that Fox did not.
A six-year-old student intentionally shot and injured his teacher at an elementary school in Virginia. The teacher, Abigail Zwerner, 25, escorted the other children out of the classroom before seeking help for her injuries.
Allen Weisselberg, former President Donald Trump’s long-time chief financial officer, was sentenced by a New York judge for five months in jail for his role in a tax fraud scheme. His sentence is part of a plea deal where he testified against the Trump Organization, pleaded guilty to 15 felonies and agreed to pay back $2 million in back taxes, fees and penalties.
The Trump Organization and its subsidiaries were found guilty of 17 charges including tax fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy. The company was hit with a $1.6 million fine the maximum under state law.
A special grand jury in Georgia completed its investigation into whether or not President Donald J. Trump and his allies committed any crimes in their attempt to change the outcome of the 2020 election in that state. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will now decide whether to seek a criminal indictment from a regular grand jury.
The SCOTUS ruled last week that New York State can keep some of its restrictions on guns in sensitive areas for now. This would include schools, government buildings, legislative assemblies, polling places and courthouses. Last Summer New York State’s restrictive gun laws were weakened by a six-justice majority. The new law is currently facing challenges in a federal appellate court.
A strike that involved 7000 nurses at two private New York City hospitals ended on Thursday after the union and management reached a tentative agreement. The nurses were on the picket line for three days last week.
Jurors heard the start of the seditious conspiracy trial against members of the hate group known as the Proud Boys. The Proud Boys were one of the largest organized groups involved in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th 2021.
PBS featured a series of segments on Mark Frerichs, a 60-year-old contractor who was taken hostage in Afghanistan and released after 32 months in decrepit conditions. The segments included his time in captivity, the process to get him released and his time readjusting in Lombard, Illinois.
Cancer deaths in the U.S. have dropped 33% in the past 3 decades thanks in part due to increased vaccinations for HPV. Cervical cancer rates dropped 65% for women in their early 20s, but advanced prostate cancer diagnoses have risen roughly 4.5% annually since 2011.
PBS also had a segment that included Dr. Celine Gounder of the NYU Grossman School of Medicine where the doctor pushed back on many of the misconceptions and conspiracy theories that continue to circulate about COVID-19 and vaccinations for the disease.
The CDC issued an advisory about an upsurge in cases of strep throat in children.
President Biden and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan vowed to strengthen the existing U.S. - Japan alliance as a means to blunt China, North Korea and Russia’s increasing tensions towards their neighbors in the region.
Japan indicted the man suspected of killing former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
South Korea sought criminal charges over Seoul Halloween crowd crush that killed 158. So far six people have been arrested for their role in the disaster.
Keenan Anderson, cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder, died early this month hours after LAPD officers repeatedly shocked him with a taser. Relatives and supporters said Anderson was experiencing a mental health crisis and flagged the officers down for help. In body cam video of his arrest Anderson during his struggle with police manages to say “They’re tr ying to George Floyd me,” as officers try to roll him onto his stomach. Anderson died of cardiac arrest. He was only 31-years-old and a father
Chalres Simic, a former poet laureate of the United States, MacArthur genius, professor, and Pulitzer Prize winner, died last week at the age of 84.
Rock guitarist Jeff Beck died at the age of 78 of bacterial meningitis.
Iran sentenced three more prisoners to death for their involvement in anti-government protests that started in mid-September. So far the government has executed four men for their roles in the protests. According to human rights groups at least 517 protesters have been killed and over 19,200 people have been arrested.
The U.S. Department of Education proposed regulations last week that would reduce the monthly payments for some federal student loan borrowers. The announcement comes as President Biden’s original debt forgiveness plan remains in limbo. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the policy at the end of February.
Several countries and international institutions have pledged more than $9 billion in aid to help Pakistan recover from catastrophic floods, which most climate scientists and experts have blamed on climate change.
Lawmakers in Ohio elected a Speaker of the House after a long and drawn out battle between both parties. In Pennsylvania State reps could only agree upon a Speaker after a Democrat was nominated only after agreeing to change his party affiliation to independent.
Fox News did include one story that PBS NewsHour did not cover. Fox has been including short segments on “Fox & Friends” about the disappearance of Massachusetts mother of three, Ana Walshe, 39, who has been missing for 12 days. Her husband, Brian Walshe, 47, remains behind bars for allegedly misleading law enforcement investigating his wife’s disappearance.
By the Numbers
Coming up…
This week I’ll be covering “Fox & Friends,” “The Five” and “Hannity.”