Fox News Gaslights its Audience with Wildly Inflated Abortion Stats, Non-existent riots at Anti-Choice Clinics and Democratic Party Revenge Plots Against Putin.
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for week ending 5/8/22
The typical Fox News viewer might think that roving gangs of crazed feminists were firebombing churches across the country, that every woman and girl of child-bearing age had an abortion last year and the war in Ukraine was a revenge plot hatched by Hillary Clinton to get back at Putin over her 2016 election loss.
At the start of the week the word was Antifa as Fox News resurrected one of it’s favorite targets of the radical left. What could have been a short story about counter protesters turning up at a campaign event for a gubernatorial candidate, Stan Pulliam, in Portland, Oregon was played out in two extended segments on both “Fox & Friends” and “The Five.”
I couldn’t find much non-Murdoch owned press that even covered the incident. A group of about 10 anti-fascist protesters threw fireworks, smoke grenades and paint-filled balloons at members of the rally. Two people reported minor injuries but did not seek medical attention and there were no arrests made at the event.
Run for the Hills it’s Antifa!!!
Things took an abrupt shift Tuesday after Politico published Justice Alito's initial draft abortion opinion which would overturn Roe v. Wade. The 98-page document makes it quite clear that the court plans to overturn the 1973 decision Roe v. Wade which made abortion legal in all 50 states.
Clip of the Week - Beware the crazy violent pro-abortion activists.
Tucker’s predictions ring especially hallow since most of the violence involving abortion access has come from the anti-choice movement. Since 1977 abortion clinics and providers have been subjected to countless arson attack, bombings, death threats, kidnappings, invasions, and even murders.
The last major arson attack at an abortion provider happened this past New Year’s Eve in Knoxville Tennessee. No one was injured during the blaze but building was burned to the ground resulting in over $2 million in damages..
The info-graphic via Ms. Magazine breaks down the the various attacks on clinics and providers since 1977.
Despite 11 murders, 26 attempted murders, 956 threats of harm or death, 624 stalking incidents, 4 kidnappings, 42 bombings, 194 arson attacks, 104 attempted arson attacks and 667 bomb threats to abortion clinics and providers Fox News would let their viewers believe that all of the violence is coming from the opposite direction.
In a shameless display of gaslighting Fox News personalities warned of violent attacks by pro-choice activists while never mentioning past attacks on abortion providers.
So far there has been one arson attack at an anti-choice clinic in Wisconsin no one was injured but there was some property damage.
The protests outside the homes of Supreme Court Justices and churches have largely been peaceful.
Judge Pirro makes Insane claim involving the number of abortions in the U.S.
Things look quite dire for abortion advocates as 26 states are set to ban abortion outright.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell even warned of a nationwide abortion ban across the country.
Fox News also repeatedly pushed the notion that now the subject of abortion will be left up to the people to decide via the ballot box. That somehow the court’s previous decision left voters without a choice on the topic.
The law as it currently stands doesn’t force anyone to get an abortion. Fox News also leaves out that laws banning abortion are similar to any law that would take fundamental rights away from a minority.
The Jim Crow laws that sanctioned discrimination based on race and limited the voting rights for Black Americans are probably the best example of a law voted on by a majority that infringes on the right of a minority a concept known as the - tyranny of the majority.
Why should the neighbors of a pregnant woman decide what she does with her own body?
This is in despite of a recent Gallup poll that showed 80% of Americans think abortion should be legal in some or all cases. The actual breakdown is 48% think it should be legal under certain circumstances and 32% think it should be legal under any circumstance. Only 19% of people surveyed thought abortion should be banned outright.
Graph via gallup.com
Sources
Read Justice Alito's initial draft abortion opinion which would overturn Roe v. Wade - Politico
How Supreme Court Went from Roe v Wade to Drafting an Opinion to overturn it. - CNBC
What happens if Roe v Wade is overturned by Supreme Court ruling - BBC
Supreme Court Weighs Future Role and Final Word on Abortion - NY Times
Where will abortion still be legal after Roe v. Wade is overruled? - Vox
The next frontier for the antiabortion movement: A nationwide ban - Washington Post
History of Abortion in the United States
Due to time I cannot include a piece this long in the podcast but I wanted to include it in the newsletter. This is a segment from the PBS NewsHour this week that briefly lays out the history of abortion in this country.
Judge Pirro corrects Tucker Carlson
Judge Jeanine Pirro made her comment regarding the charges filed against Isaiah Lee, the man who attacked comedian Dave Chappelle during a performance at the Hollywood Bowl last week.
Tucker Carlson made his remarks three hours later on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Pirro, the former prosecutor and judge thinks the charges were fair given the circumstance os the attack. Carlson makes a crazy leap into a conspiracy involving a woke D.A. and Chappelle’s jokes about trans people. Carlson might want to listen to his colleague on this one.
Clutch Your Pearls!
Brian Kilmeade feins mild outrage over former White House press secretary’s move to MSNBC. He seems to have a short memory as the Trump administration seemed to have a revolving door with Fox News. Former White House staffers have gone on to work for the network as several Fox employees left to work for the president.
Blame Hillary for Ukraine Because Why Not?
Tucker Carlson has tried to spin the Ukraine war in favor of Russia since the war started. Excerpts of Tucker Carlson Tonight have even broadcast un-edited on Russian state media.
This is probably his craziest theory yet. It negates the fact that pretty much all of Europe, including countries that are normally neutral in global conflicts such as Switzerland have all condemned Russia for its aggression against Ukraine.
Several countries have offered sanctuary to Ukrainian refugees, arms for the Ukrainian military and humanitarian support for the country as a whole.
The European Union proposed a ban on Russian energy imports.
Why would Europe care so much about the U.S. presidential election in 2016? Carlson also leaves out that Russia has turned down numerous calls for peace.
Dubious Experts
Because this is a very clip heavy week I’m not going to include video of these appearances.
On Friday Tucker Carlson had a journalist Charlie Gasparino, of the NY Post, on to discuss the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates. His claim is simply Pres. Biden wanted to be “more progressive” than President Obama and that Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve didn’t raise interest rates because he wanted to keep his job.
Gasparino has a master’s degree in journalism and although he’s written about Wall Street for most of his career his assessment here seems weak considering inflation is a global problem. His claims sound more like a half-baked opinion based on his own bias against Biden and Powell.
Carlson should have had an economist on who could back up a claim with data.
Carlson also had Dr. Aaron Kheriaty to discuss the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
Kheiraty is a doctor but his speciality is psychiatry. He was also fired for not adhering to a vaccine mandate at The University of California Irvine (UCI). Kheriaty sued the university but his suit was ultimately thrown out by the court.
Stories not covered on Fox News
Both networks covered the leak of the Supreme Court draft decision heavily as it took up about 1/3 of all of their airtime.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a remark to an Italian reporter where he said just because Zelenskyy was Jewish didn’t mean he couldn’t lead a neo-Nazi regime. He went on to suggest that people should look to the “fact” that Hitler himself “had Jewish blood” and that “for some time we have heard from the Jewish people that the biggest antisemites were Jewish.” Israel expressed anger over this remark and Putin later apologized.
A new survey found an increase in suicidal thoughts for LGBTQ youth - A new study by the LGBTQ suicide prevention nonprofit The Trevor Project found that over the past three years, the rates of suicidal thoughts have increased among LGBTQ youth in America. It’s not surprising that Fox News didn’t mention this as the trans community is a frequent target of scorn across the entire network. Hosts frequently mock and ridicule trans individuals and take glee in misgendering them.
By the Numbers
There might come a week when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not mentioned by someone on Fox but I’ve yet to see it. The new executive director of the DHS Disinformation Governance Board, Nina Jankowicz, was referred to as Mary Poppins several times last week as Fox News personalities took every opportunity to mock a parody song to the tune of “Super Fragilistic Expialidocious” she made for TikTok.
The Fox anchors target Jankowicz personally more than they criticize the program itself.
Next week I will cover the first hour of “Fox & Friends”, “The Five” but will pivot to cover “Hannity.”