Fox News Hates Capitalism, Laura Ingraham Loves Conspiracy Theories and The Five Will Start WWIII Any Day Now.
A analysis of 15 hours of Fox News week ending 3/13/22
Last week Fox News continued to promote the idea that domestic energy independence in would lead to a swift end to the war in Ukraine and a drop in gasoline prices. They also inadvertantly criticized some basic tenets of a free market economy while criticizing Biden for wanting to end subsidies for oil and gas companies.
The Fox News anchors toned down their calls to reopen the Keystone XL Pipeline a bit while Laura Ingraham promoted a conspiracy theory popular in far right circles.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were blamed for the war in Ukraine, the high cost of gasoline, inflation across the board, the opioid crisis that started in 1999, and the rise of China as a world power. They continued to paint the Biden as a radical leftist hellbent on reshaping the country by purposefully punishing Americans.
Fox Hates Capitalism, Fox Loves Subsidizes
Across all three Fox News shows last week capitalism took quite a beating. Anchors bashed the futures and commodities market and kept insisting the government should somehow intervene to help control prices. They lambasted President Joe Biden for calling for the end of subsidizes for the oil and gas industry.
This was especially odd since things like the commodities and futures markets are a cornerstone of a free market economy.
Inflation is also baked into the cake of the American economy as it helps drive the economy. A low level of inflation of 2% encourages people to invest their money rather than hold onto it.
When interest rates are low as they have been for decades, there is no incentive to leave much in a savings account that might only have a 1% return. Although a stock portfolio or other investment products are riskier they can yield much stronger gains.
Encouraging people to invest in companies is better for the economy than locking up wealth in certificates of deposit or savings accounts. The key is to keep inflation low enough that it doesn’t become a drag on the economy as higher prices shrink earning power and cause people to spend less.
Normally high inflation also leads to higher rates of unemployment but the post-pandemic economy doesn’t follow most established patterns.
The U.S. is experiencing historically high inflation rates that could stymy growth and the economic recovery, but the trend is worldwide due to problems related to pandemic. The economy simply started back too fast and hot for companies to keep up with demand which has caused supply chain problems in every industry.
The theme that kept getting repeated across all Fox shows is that somehow inflation was 100% caused by President Biden and that he could magically fix it by heavily promoting domestic oil and gas production.
It’s never been that easy.
The good news is that unlike the sky-high inflation rates of the 1970s we aren’t also facing double digit interest rates. When interest rates are also high there’s very little incentive to borrow money and invest in new companies. High interest rates only benefit those who are socking away cash. Wealth slowly gaining interest in a bank doesn’t help drive the economy forward.
Fox News also trotted out a few farmers who lamented about increased costs for everything from wages, fertilizer, and fuel. They conveniently left out that many agricultural products are heavily subsidized by the U.S. government and agriculture isn’t subject to the same types of free market fluctuations that most industries face.
They also neglected to mention that farm subsidizes exploded during the Trump administration in an effort to offset some of the retaliatory tariffs issued to combat Trump’s trade policies with China.
Fox News anchors also complained about how President Joe Biden wanted to end subsidizes for fossil fuels.
This line of attack didn’t make a ton of sense coming from a network that normally champions free market ideals. Subsidies are basically a government handout to help specific companies whether the ups and downs of a volatile market. It could be argued that subsidizes are a form of socialism not capitalism.
Like nearly every other wealthy developed industrial nation the U.S. has a mixed economy that is based in a free market with government programs that include Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and subsidizes for various industries including farming and the oil and gas industry.
None of these subsidizes are new but Fox News tends to become outraged with taxpayer money is used for healthcare, childcare, or any number of programs that help the poor.
Laura Ingraham Promotes a far Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory
I haven’t had much exposure to “The Ingraham Angle” before last week. I noticed in her extended monologues she calls ‘The Angle” that she used terms that promoted a conspiracy theory known as ‘The Great Rest’. Apparently according to a number of different sources I found online Ingraham has heavily promoted this theory since Joe Biden was elected president.
The Great Reset is the name of the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, held in June 2020. It brought together high-profile business and business and political leaders, convened by Prince Charles and the WEF, with the theme of rebuilding society and the economy following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conspiracy theorists promote the idea that the World Economic Forum is somehow controlling world governments to make citizens of all countries more subservient, less prosperous and subject to control and surveillance by an all powerful world government.
Ingraham and others who promote this theory leave out that the World Economic Forum is completely toothless and has no actual power. The WEF meets every year and does little more than make pretentious speeches, confusing videos and issue a Global Competitive Index that compares countries based on criteria that many argue increases the worst tendencies towards exploitation in a free market system.
Her most extreme messaging echoed fascist themes of ‘cultural cohesion’ and jingoistic pride. Ingraham went on to claim a rise in nationalism had lead to increased economic growth. She also used the phrase “took power” to describe the start of Joe Biden’s presidency which could be interpreted as an endorsement of ‘The Big Lie” Donald J. Trump’s continued insistence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
In Ingraham’s rants, Biden is nothing more than a puppet for global elites to push their nefarious agenda of a toleration one world government.
This is a short montage that condenses three of her extended monologues from last week.
Conspiracy theories aren’t harmless. They have lead to more vaccine hesitancy, distrust in the medical community, and violent radicalization. Most conspiracy theories also tend to be steeped in antisemitism racism and xenophobia.
Sources - The Great Reset
The Great Reset Conspiracy Smoothie - The Intercept
“The Great Reset” Conspiracy Flourishes Amid Continued Pandemic - ADL
How the ‘great reset’ of capitalism became an anti-lockdown conspiracy - The Guardian
Fact Check-World Economic Forum letters show 51st Annual Meeting - Reuters
“What is the Great Reset” - Fair Observer
- video by Graham Stephan
Dubious Expert of the Week - The Cast of The Five
This show continues to be an absolute waste of airtime. Five overpaid stuffed shirts pontificate loudly about topics they know nothing about. If these blowhards were actually given any power they would start WWWIII tomorrow with their reckless observations about the war.
The Comedian Greg Gutfeld snaps at a War Correspondent
In what has to be one of the lowest moments I’ve seen on Fox News so far, comedian Greg Gutfeld makes bold unsubstantiated proclamations about the war in Ukraine only to be corrected by a Fox war correspondent reporting live from Kyiv.
Instead of pulling back and conceding that maybe a reporter in Ukraine might know more about the situation than he does from the studio in New York City, Gutfeld takes his rebuke as a personal slight.
Stories covered on Fox that weren’t given much focus on PBS NewsHour
Trucker convoy in DC - On Fox News they didn’t dedicate much time to the event but it was discussed briefly across all three shows I analyzed. It also received about 2% of airtime. The PBS NewsHour mentioned the protest once for less than 30 seconds.
The Jussie Smollett sentencing for falsely reporting a hate crime. PBS NewsHour mentioned this case for exactly 45 seconds last week which accounted for 0.02% of their total broadcast. On Fox News they had two short segments dedicated to the case which amounted to 2% of their total broadcast time.
By the Numbers
This week Fox News managed to only mention Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez only once but managed to talk about Hillary Clinton as much as they did the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Energy was discussed more than NATO and Trump more than Vice President Kamala Harris.
For the week ending 3/20/22 I’m going to repeat my usual Fox & Friends and The Five but add Sean Hannity to the mix.