Fox News: Crime is Destroying America, Vote for the GOP, Tucker Carlson is STILL a Nazi.
A condensed overivew of 20 hours of Fox News for the week ending 11/6/22
A typical Fox News viewer might worry that if they step outside of their home they’ll be murdered by a pack of homeless drug addicted migrants. If they watched Tucker Carlson they could believe that the Brazilian election was stolen and that YouTube was part of the coverup. A fan of Fox News might also worry that their children’s schools were being corrupted by adults in giant mascot style costumes.
Anyone who exclusively watched the Murdoch owned network would have no idea that flu hospitalizations are the highest in a decade, that inflation is higher in most of Europe than the U.S. or that a court appointed an independent monitor to oversee the Trump Organization during the New York State fraud probe.
As usual a Fox News viewer would be lost in the whirlpool of fear and paranoia that Fox News whips up to maximum speed every single day.
This past week the words crime and criminal were mentioned more than Biden. It was a full on festival of fear.
Shows covered last week
Fox & Friends - First Hour
The Five plus a Bonus Sunday episode from Sunday 10/6/22
Tucker Carlson Tonight
Additional four hours - Special Report, Primetime with Jesse Watters, Hannity and The Ingraham Angle from Monday 10/31/22
Clip of the Week
Sean Hannity made the bold claim that no GOP candidate had plans to cut or end Social Security.
“Obama is lying. There's not a single Republican candidate planning to cut Medicare or Social Security, not one,” said Hannity.
Hannity might have wanted to look into the background of some of the Republican candidates before he made that declaration.
Some old video from 2010 resurfaced of Senator Mike Lee, (R-UT) boasting he planned to destroy Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.
“It will be my objective to phase out Social Security, to pull it up by the roots and get rid of it. People who advise me politically always tell me that's dangerous. And I tell them in that case, it's not worth my running. That's why I'm doing this. To get rid of Medicare and Medicaid are of the same sort and need to be pulled up,” said Lee.
How Dare You Call Us Nazis
House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) made a statement comparing the current state of U.S. politics with the Weimar Republic (Pre-World War II) in Germany.
The following clip was featured on every Fox News program I covered last week.
“This is what happens in a country that follows what happened in Germany in the early thirties. This country is on track to repeat what happened in Germany when it was the greatest democracy going got elected a chancellor who then co-opted the media that this past president called the press the enemy of the people. That is a bunch of crap. And we know it. And that's what's going on in this country,” said Clyburn.
The Breakdown of Candidates discussed on Fox News last week *indicates incumbent
(Polling from www.FiveThirtyEight.com)
UT - Senate race - Republican up 13.6 points
Evan McMullin - Independent - 4 mentions - 57%
Mike Lee* - Republican - 3 mentions - 43%
FL - Governor race - Republican up 13.3 points
Charlie Crist - Democrat - 3 mentions - 11%
Ron DeSantis* - Republican - 24 mentions - 89%
NY - Governor race - Democrat up 9.6 points
Kathy Hochul* - Democrat - 44 mentions - 47%
Lee Zeldin - Republican - 50 mentions - 53%
WA - Senate race - Democrat up 8.6 points
Patty Murray* - Democrat - 1 mention - 25%
Tiffany Smiley - Republican - 3 mentions - 75%
GA - Governor race - Republican up 8.1 points
Stacey Abrams - Democrat - 23 mentions - 82%
Brian Kemp* - Republican - 5 mentions - 12%
MI - Governor race - Democrat up 5.8 points
Gretchen Whitmer* - Democrat - 12 mentions - 48%
Tudor Dixon - Democrat - 13 mentions - 52%
WI - Senate race - Republican up 4.8 points
Mandela Barnes - Democrat - 3 mentions - 19%
Ron Johnson* - Republican - 13 mentions - 81%
OH - Senate race - Republican up 4.2 points
Tim Ryan - Democrat - 26 mentions - 70%
J.D. Vance - Republican - 11 mentions - 30%
AZ - Senate race - Democrat up 2.2 points
Mark Kelly* - Democrat - 11 mentions - 38%
Blake Masters - Republican - 18 mentions - 62%
AZ - Governor race - Republican up 2.2 points
Katie Hobbs - Democrat - 6 mentions - 12%
Kari Lake - Republican - 44 mentions - 88%
GA - Senate race - Republican up 1.2 points
Sen. Raphael Warnock* - 11 mentions - 65%
Herschel Walker - 6 mentions - 35%
PA - Senate race - Republican up 0.8 points
John Fetterman - Democrat - 69 mentions - 59%
Dr. Mehmet Oz - Republican - 47 mentions - 41%
NV - Senate race - Republican up 0.2 points
Catherine Cortez Masto* - 4 mentions - 31%
Adam Paul Laxalt - 9 mentions - 69%
As in past weeks the focus on candidates didn’t follow any electoral logic. The network continued to dedicate a lot of airtime towards Pennsylvania Democratic senate candidate John Fetterman.
Fetterman was mentioned 69 times last week, more than any other candidate. The race is tight in Pennsylvania but it’s much closer in Nevada.
The Fox strategy seemed based more in emotion than in logic. A senate seat is a senate seat regardless of the state. Nevada’s senate race should have dominated the network’s coverage since it has remained one of the tightest races in the country but they put more focus on candidates that elicit more of an emotional reaction from their audience.
For example, Adam Paul Laxalt, the Republican senatorial candidate in Nevada, has little charisma on camera which might be part of the reason the network has largely ignored him.
Fox chose to throw far more focus towards the governor’s race in Georgia even though it looks like a sure bet for the Republican incumbent Brian Kemp. Fox spent a lot of time trashing Stacey Abrams, Kemp’s Democratic opponent.
The only reason the network would focus on candidates like Fetterman and Abrams is its betting the emotional reaction towards a strong outspoken Black woman and a tattooed hoodie wearing stroke survivor will gain more leverage for the Republican Party in every state race.
Fox has also pulled a lot of focus away from Georgia’s senate race which is also neck and neck. Georgia used to be the top focus for the network but they’ve since pulled back as the Republican candidate Herschel Walker has been mired in scandal for months and had an embarrassing debate performance.
This could also explain network’s obsessive coverage of the governor’s race in New York State. Most polls have the Democratic incumbent Governor Kathy Hochul winning re-election easily yet Fox continues to promote the idea that Lee Zeldin could have a surprise win.
Governor Ron DeSanits should win his re-election in Florida by a wide margin yet the network brought him up 24 times whereas Herschel Walker was only brought up six times.
With limited airtime the network should promote the candidates who need the biggest push instead Fox is pushing the biggest stars in the Republican Party while trashing their favorite Democrat villains. I’m almost surprised they haven’t pretended that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s race is competitive.
The Presidential Election in Brazil
The only program to give the Brazilian election any focus was “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” This did not surprise me as Carlson has championed Jair Bolsonaro the now former president.
Carlson acted as if the Brazilian election was stolen and that any information about it was being suppressed. He showed images of huge pro-Bolsonaro demonstrations and railed against YouTube for removing stories that promoted election fraud.
What Carlson left out was the fact that Bolsonaro had predicted voter fraud and election interference for several months despite no evidence. Carlson also failed to tell his viewers that Bolsonaro had been trailing in the polls for months before the election.
Election officials in Brazil, independent election-security experts and fact-checking agencies who monitored the election have all debunked Bolsonaro’s claims.
Carlson also repeatedly referred to his opponent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as a convicted criminal. Lula’s conviction on corruption charges was annulled by the Supreme Court of Brazil.
Lula’s conviction helped Bolsonaro rise to power. Carlson also neglected to tell his audience that Lula is a former president of Brazil and that the country has had an extremely divided political landscape for some time.
If Lula lost the last election and Bolsonaro had been re-elected Lula’s supporters would have also taken to the streets in mass protests.
Not only did Tucker completely flip reality in Brazil but he took things to his usual conspiratorial universe. This wasn’t just about Brazil, it was about China trying to dominate the world.
“Brazil, it's a long way away. Well, two reasons. The first is that the result of this election will determine the extent of China's influence in the Western Hemisphere. If Bolsonaro is determined, the loser and de Silva does become the president of Brazil, that means that left wing governments loyal to China outside of our sphere of influence will control all of South America. Brazil was the last holdout, also the biggest and most significant country in South America. Bolsonaro, alone in South America, stood in the way of total Chinese hegemony there. It's our hemisphere. It matters,” said Carlson.
Fox Guest Goes Rogue
Every now and then a guest on Fox News doesn’t stick to the Fox News script. In this instance a moderate voter named Josh Stephens took his brief moment on camera to promote a far more nuanced view of the state of the country.
“We just went through a once in 100 year pandemic. So inflation is going to be high. We printed over $5 trillion under Donald Trump and Biden from the CARES Act in the Save America Act from Biden. So the notion that we're going to come out of a once in 100 year pandemic and inflation and economy is going to be great and we're not going to have crime. I just don't think that's realistic. So again, what he's saying, I think we can all come together, tone down the rhetoric. And if we work together as Democrats and Republicans, we stand a much better chance of accomplishing immigration reform, crime, the economy, but to continuously, you know, throw insults at each other and say they're evil or they're destroying the country as adults, that just doesn't make a lot of sense,” said Stephens.
Tucker can’t help himself, he has to make an antisemitic comment for no reason
This is a typical diatribe by Tucker Carlson where he claims the same racist nonsense about “The Great Replacement,” the idea that Democrats are purposefully allowing Latinos into the United States in the hopes of changing the electorate.
At the end of this rant Carlson slips in yet another antisemtic remark,
“For many years, Democrats have hoped that Latino voters could be the key to turning traditionally red states to purple. Now it's unclear whether that will be the case and quote oh, someone better alert Jonathan Greenblatt at the ADL so he can denounce the democratic party. And if you pay him enough, he will because that's how that works,” said Carlson.
The ADL is the Anti-Defamation League, an organization dedicated to fighting back against antisemitism and the persecution of Jewish people. Jonathan Greenblatt is the CEO of the non-for-profit organization.
When Carlson implies that Greenblatt can be bought by anyone to denounce something as racist or antisemitic he’s promoting centuries old tropes that have been used to demonize Jewish people.
Porn, Drag Queens and Furries in schools!
Will Cain interviewed a man simply known as Kyle in a Texas diner as part of the network's promotion of various Republican candidates.
Kyle had some interesting insight about what he was most worried about.
“You know, all these issues are important, but if we don't get a grip on what's going on in our education system, we're going to lose the next generation. And that's what I mean. We've got pornography, drag queen story, our furries in the schools, it's just out of control. We need to get a grip on this really quick,” said Kyle.
The last line is a reference to a conspiracy theory popular on the right wing that promotes the idea that schools have installed litter boxes for students who identify as “furries” or animals in costume. At least 20 Republican officials have made some version of the same claim.
The disinformation team at NBC News debunked this theory at length last month.
Joe Rogan, a popular podcast host, also admitted there was no truth to these rumors despite promoting the conspiracy himself on his Spotify podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
Stories Fox Thought were Newsworthy that were Not Newsworthy
Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon shared a story about a voter she claimed switched parties from Democrat to Republican after he discovered a book he found offensive in his son’s school. Stephan Colbert made a joke during his show that the man did not exist. Colbert later corrected his joke when the man came forward.
Fox treated this like it was a major story as it was discussed on more than one program.
Stories Fox News Ignored
Every week I compare 15 hours of Fox News to five hours of PBS NewsHour. This list includes stories that were covered on PBS that Fox News completely ignored.
The Supreme Court of the United States led by Chief Justice Roberts put a temporary hold on the release of Trump’s tax returns to Congress
A judge appointed an independent monitor to oversee the Trump Organization during the NY state fraud probe
Trump ally, Tom Barrack, was acquitted of federal foreign agent charges
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) must testify in election interference probe in Georgia
A rapper known as Takeoff, Kirshnik Khari Ball, 28, was killed during a shooting in Houston.
CVS and Walgreens agree to a $10 billion settlement to local and state governments alleging the retailers mishandled prescriptions of opioid painkillers.
CBS and its former CEO Leslie Moonves reached a settlement with the New York Attorney General to pay $30 million over sexual misconduct allegations and insider trading - $22 million will go to shareholders and $6 million to help to strengthening mechanisms for reporting and investigating complaints of sexual harassment and assault. Moonves was ordered to pay out $2.5 personally to shareholders.
Flu hospitalizations are the highest in a decade
Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the extremist group the Oathkeepers, took the stand in his own defense in the federal trial on seditious conspiracy charges over his role in the Jan. 6th riot on the Capitol.
F.B.I. located a suspect who threatened multiple Synagogues in New Jersey.
Supreme Court hears a case challenging who can adopt Indigenous children
Inflation in the Euro Zone hit 10.7% in October
The war in Ukraine - Russia will resume grain shipments out of the country, the U.S. alleges North Korea is supplying Russia with artillery shells.
A pedestrian bridge that was recently re-opened after an extensive renovation collapsed in India killing 134.
The former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, was shot in an attempted assassination attempt.
The election in Israel - The country has had five elections in the past four years. Former Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu was re-elected with a far-right coalition despite being under investigation for corruption
Anti-government protests in Iran have stretched on for seven weeks despite a harsh and violent crackdown by authorities. The protests followed the death of a young woman in police custody after she was arrested for not wearing her headscarf properly.
A crowd surge in Seoul, South Korea at a Halloween event resulted in the death of at least 149 with an additional 150 injured. Most of the victims were young adults and teenagers.
The Chinese government shut visitors in Shanghai Disneyland for hours due to a single case of COVID-19
North Korea fired the highest number of short-range missiles at South Korea in a day.
A Tropical Storm caused major flooding and damage in the Philippines.
Australia launches a probe into 40 years of LGBTQ motivated killings
At least 100 were killed in a series of car bomb attacks in the capital of Somalia. The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group claimed responsibility.
Ethiopia and Northern Tigray region announce truce after two years of a civil conflict inside the country which has cost the life of thousands and displaced around 2 million people.
By the Numbers
When all of these categories are combined minus the segments about the Paul Pelosi attack they makeup about half the total airtime for the network. Fox has turned into a campaign machine for the Republican Party.
Nearly all of the coverage of the Paul Pelosi attack was generated from “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Carlson has continued to push conspiracy theories about the attack.
PBS remains completely non-partisan. The network featured segments on Asian, Latino and younger voters. PBS also explored “The Big Lie” the idea that Trump really won the 2020 Presidential election despite no proof of voter fraud or election tampering.
The network also addressed the misinformation and conspiracy theories promoted on the far right about the violent attack on Paul Pelosi.
Crime again dominated this list with the words crime and criminal outnumbering President Biden. Paul Pelosi was mentioned almost as often as the term midterm. All references to the word gay were in regard to the conspiracy theories revolving around the attack on Paul Pelosi.
Coming up…
The midterm election is tomorrow. I’m going to capture how Fox News covers the midterms. I plan to also capture PBS. I’ll keep track of how the two networks cover the highlights.
The rest of the week will be dedicated to “Fox & Friends,” “The Five” and “Hannity.”