Fox News: Misinformation Means We Will Promote Trump's Lies No Matter What!

* My apologizes for this being a bit late. I got hit with a nasty cold over the weekend and I’m still recovering.

Last week on Fox the term misinformation became a code word for a crackdown on free speech while Vice President Kamala Harris was vilified for not doing enough and for doing too much to help hurricane victims. Kayleigh McEnany’s friend might have met a Black person, Melania Trump was pushing her merch on ‘The Five,’ while Jessica Tarlov revealed Trump’s ‘God Bless the USA Bibles’ were printed in China.

The Vice President could not win over Fox News hosts if she single-handedly saved a kindergarten class on bring your pet to school day from flood waters in North Carolina. If Harris found a way to personally restore power to hundreds of thousands of remote mountain homes the Murdoch owned network would criticize her for not doing it fast enough.

Fox News cheers Donald J. Trump on as he crushes the hopes of hurricane victims who might falsely believe they’ll only get $750 from FEMA or believe his lie that the agency has gone broke from paying for programs for undocumented immigrants.

The end game for Fox News is a Trump win in November. Several thousand Fox News super fans who might miss out on federal benefits are no reason to stop the network from peddling Trump’s lies.

Anyone watching Fox News exclusively last week might have missed out on several updates in the war in Ukraine, more alarming news about the global climate crisis, and more good news for the U.S. economy.

Shows I covered last week:

• Fox & Friends

• The Five

• The Ingraham Angle

How Dare You Say We Are Pushing Misinformation

Last week multiple Fox News hosts were outraged that anyone in the media would claim they were promoting misinformation or disinformation about the federal response to Hurricane Helene.

Fox News hosts repeated Donald J. Trump’s lies about FEMA funding immediately after he said them.

On Wednesday on “Fox & Friends,” Miranda Devine of the NY Post weaponized the claims of misinformation and fired back.

“This is just their go to when they're in trouble. And it's quite sinister. Given the threats that both Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have made about free speech, they say that there's no guarantee to free speech when it comes to what they deem to be misinformation or disinformation. They will bring down the heavy hammer,” said Devine.

Later that night on “The Ingraham Angle,” Laura Ingraham accused Democrats of elevating false claims about the hurricane.

“If anyone is amplifying disinformation from fringe sources, it's the Democrats themselves. . .So now one random woman that he ran into makes a CNN disinformation narrative,” said Ingraham

Fox News regularly uses a random person as proof of any number of unverifiable claims.

On Thursday on “The Five,” Greg Gutfeld made it about the first amendment.

“But when you're framing criticism of the government as misinformation, it feels like another get around free speech thing,” said Gutfeld.

On Friday on “Fox & Friends,” Ainsley Earhardt made it about criticism of the government.

“It is the party that cried misinformation. What really happened with the Biden Harris hurricane response and why they refused to accept any criticism,” said Earhardt.

Substack writer, Matt Taibbi had nothing more to add than the additional word mal-information which no one else had brought up.

“Well, they keep changing the definition of misinformation and disinformation. And they have another category they call malinformation,” said Taibbi.

On Thursday on “The Five,” Jessica Tarlov reminded viewers why spreading misinformation is harmful.

“People who were talking to reporters in North Carolina saying, I have family members who don't think FEMA is here because of the misinformation coming out of Donald Trump and other Republicans,” said Tarlov.

Yesterday according to reporting by NBC News William Jacob Parsons, an armed man in North Carolina, was arrested after he made comments about “possibly harming FEMA employees.”

Before Parsons was identified as a threat government emergency workers were relocated over concerns about threats of an “armed militia” harming FEMA workers. The sheriff’s office did not find any evidence of an armed militia in the area.

The Folks on Fox Should Watch Their Own Network

On Wednesday on “The Five,” multiple hosts claimed they had no idea that anyone suggested that hurricane victims would only receive a one-time payment of $750 from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency).

“They said that. Trump said that people weren't going to get any more than $750. We looked. Trump never said that,” said Jesse Watters.

“On the $750 issue. It wasn't Trump that said it. I don't know who started it,” said Dana Perino.

“Like Lara Trump, she was the one who said the 750 she was on with Dana Bash. Trying to have, I guess, a nice conversation or get some hits in,” said Jessica Tarlov.

Tarlov was the closest to the truth. On Monday Dana Bash asked Lara Trump about a statement her father-in-law Donald J. Trump had made at a rally the previous weekend where he said hurricane victims would only get a $750 payment.

“They're offering them $750 to people whose homes have been washed away,” Trump said at a rally on Saturday October 5th.

“They said hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign nations. And you know what? They're giving our people 750 bucks,” Trump said at a rally on Sunday October 6th.

On Thursday October 3rd Sean Hannity repeatedly said that hurricane victims would only get a one-time payment of $750.

“We didn't find out until yesterday that they're offering a one-time payment of 750 bucks. . .Americans are offered a one-time, $750 payment,” said Hannity.

Sean Hannity repeated the same false claim on Friday October 4th.

“So far, a one-time $750 payment,” said Hannity.

Kamala Cannot Win the Hurricane Game

On Thursday on “The Five,” Judge Jeanine Pirro complained that Vice President Kamala Harris caused major disruptions when she visited North Carolina.

“But what she has done is she's actually interfered with, the handling of this, rescue before in North Carolina on October 5th, I believe it was eight days after the storm. People had still not gotten water and heat. There is still finding bodies. And the senators, both United States senators, complained about there being less than 500 people, sent there by the, by FEMA. She actually flew into Charlotte, North Carolina. As a result of that, the flight zone was closed. The FAA closed that flight zone for four hours, and they were unable to get any, rescues, no rescues, because it happened during that time, because she needed to be so egocentric to be right in the middle of that emergency field,” said Pirro.

Hurricane Helene hit the Southern United States on September 26th.

Trump visited Valdosta, Georgia on September 30th, four days after Hurricane Helene caused major damage to that area. Harris waited until nine days after the disaster.

Both houses in Congress recently passed a bill that would increase the former president’s security to the same level as a sitting president.

It’s safe to assume that Trump’s arrival to a disaster zone would also cause similar disruptions for rescue and recovery missions. Pirro and her co-hosts raised no concern over Trump’s visit.

FEMA is Just Another Woke DEI Agency!

On Tuesday Laura Ingraham took a two-year old video out of context to smear FEMA.

“All right, well, we know what's happening here on a political level. The Biden-Harris administration do not want a repeat of what, to the people on the ground believed was a disastrous handling of that, especially that first week after Hurricane Helene hit. But unfortunately for Americans in harm's way, the regime didn't prioritize disaster management. Instead, they chose to install another woke radical as FEMA administrator.”

Producers cut to a what looked like a Zoom meeting labeled “CNAS March 25, 2022” between Deanne Criswell, Administrator of FEMA, and Carrie Cordero, Member, Homeland Security Advisory Council. CNAS is The Center for a New American Security, a think tank specializing in national security issues.

“Goal number one of this strategic plan for FEMA is to instill equity as a foundation of emergency management,” said Cordero.

“It's a really important part of my vision when I came into the agency, and I'm happy to see how it's involved through the development of our strategic plan by creating this diverse workforce is incredibly important. To better represent the communities that we're helping,” said Criswell.

The producers cut back to Ingraham.

“DEI priorities. Well, sure enough instilling equity, as she said, is the first goal of the FEMA Strategic Plan for the years 2022 through 2026. It's right on the website.

Ingraham quoted the FEMA website.

“There are systemic differences in society. That access alone cannot fix. FEMA must direct its resources to eliminate disparities in these outcomes,” said Ingraham.

She continued.

“So, our question is how many resources were diverted from FEMA's actual mission to this DEI insanity?”

Ingraham did not provide any evidence that any DEI (Diversity Equity and Inclusion) policies had any negative effect on the agency.

Melania Trump is a Grifter Like Her Husband

On Tuesday Melania Trump sat down with the cast of “The Five,” to promote her new memoir “Melania.”

The interview was a glowing festival of praise. Mrs. Trump managed to promote two websites which she implied were part of her charity work for foster children.

“I have a two platforms. MelaniaTrump.com and U.S.Memorabilia.com that support, scholarships for fostering, children and fostering community,” said Trump.

Her first website USMemorablia.com opens with an animation of brass Christmas ornaments. The site included a pulldown menu of 13 pages.

• MELANIA Memoir - The book “Melania” which sold for $40 - $250

• Merry Christmas, AMERICA! - four ornaments ranging in price from $75 to $90.

• Vote Freedom Jewelry - three different versions of the same pendant with chain from $175 - $600

• The Fortitude Collection - four different pendants and chains for $175

• A Red, White and Blue Christmas - five ornaments priced $35 - $45

• The American Christmas Collection - six ornaments priced $35 (retired collection)

• Man on the Moon - a NFT (digital collectible) featuring unique audio commemorating the Apollo successful lunar landing for $75

• The 1776 Collection - seven NFT selling for $50

• The Valor Collection - five NFT’s celebrating U.S. armed forces for $100

• The National Parks Collection - eight NFT’s dedicated to National Parks for $50

• The POTUS TRUMP Collection - 10 NFT’s dedicated to Melania and her husband for $50

• FAQs - included information about NFT’s or digital collectibles. There is no information about any charity.

• Contact - the email for customer support

MelaniaTrump.com

The menu for MelaniaTrump.com included the following:

• PUBLISHING - The book “Melania” priced $40 - $250

• JEWELRY - Two pendants priced $245 - $600

• COLLECTIBLES - Two NFTs and the $250 version of her memoir along with two expired NFTs

• CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT - One Christmas ornament priced $90

• BE BEST - A brief background of her Be Best initiative while she was First Lady. This included a brief 3.5 minute video that I couldn’t get to play on the website. I found it on YouTube.

• FOSTERING THE FUTURE - A brief explanation of educational opportunities and scholarships for children in the foster care community. Also included:

  • Email link for corporate sponsorship information

  • Email link for individuals looking to donate

  • Email link for educational institutions interested in participating

  • Email link for students interesting in scholarship opportunities

  • NO information about any non-profit status

  • NO information about board members

  • NO easy way for anyone to make a donation

• COMMUNIQUÉS - Links to official correspondence from the Office of the First Lady Melania Trump

• USA COLLECTIBLES - A link to U.S. Collectibles (Melania Trump’s other website)

• FAQ - Information about digital collectibles (NFTs)

It appeared on both sites that all proceeds from the sale of any merchandise went to Melania Trump herself as there was no mention of a charity receiving a portion of the profits.

Auto Workers For Trump!

On Tuesday Laura Ingraham invited Brian Pannebecker, founder of Auto Workers for Trump, to talk about his organization on “The Ingraham Angle.”

“Why are the elites going for Kamala? But the regular folks are going for Trump?” asked Ingraham

“You know, Laura, I could care less. I represent the auto workers for Trump. That's my organization,” said Pannebecker.

I couldn’t find much on Pannebecker except what looked like a personal Facebook page that included some of his work history. From what I could tell he had worked for both Ford Motor Company and Chrysler which is now known as Stellantis North America.

The company was renamed Stellantis following a merger with Peugeot S.A. in 2021.

Getty Images also had Pannebecker captioned as a retired auto maker in an image with Donald J. Trump.

On Thursday on “The Five,” Jessica Tarlov mentioned Pannebecker’s organization.

“On Tuesday, J.D. Vance had a rally there, and there were guys wearing ‘Auto Workers for Trump’ shirts that weren't actually auto workers. So just paid to wear the t-shirt,” said Tarlov.

Her co-host Jesse Watters, attempted to debunk Tarlov’s claim.

“You made a point in the last segment about people wearing t shirts that didn't work in the auto industry. I looked into it. It's another just like a hoax that just took about a commercial break to debunk,” said Watters.

According to reporting by Detroit News in an article dated Tuesday October 8th:

“Several hundred people attended the event, including more than a dozen who were wearing "auto workers for Trump" shirts. However, six of the people in the shirts told The Detroit News on Tuesday they were not actually auto workers.”

Jessica Tarlov Reveals that Trump’s Bibles are Printed in China

On Friday on “The Five,” Jessica Tarlov brought up an important detail about a Bible Trump has been selling for months.

“So, the numbers are not as pronounced in terms of turning against him. But you do see some slippage is that religious voters see a person who has a bad character. They see someone who is an adulterer. They see someone who demonizes migrants, who demeans women. And that is something that is resonating from the Harris campaign. They are making that case, and they are getting somewhere with that. You see someone this God Bless America Bible that he has, that he printed 120,000 copies of in China. So, the America First guy that's producing his Bible in China costs $3 to make it. He's hawking them for $59.99 here. Those are things that people who are actually religious, who care about it, are looking at it and saying, like, is this guy just a people?”

Her co-hosts really had nothing to say about this revelation other than to change the topic and cut to a commercial.

According to reporting by the Associated Press Tump’s ‘God Bless the USA Bible’ is printed in China.

‘Global trade records reviewed by The Associated Press show a printing company in China’s eastern city of Hangzhou shipped close to 120,000 of the Bibles to the United States between early February and late March,’ said the AP.

Trump started selling “God Bless the USA Bible,” in March for $59.99. The book is part of a joint venture with the country singer Lee Greenwood who was promoting his version of the Bible over a year ago on Fox News.

This Bible also features a copy of:

• Handwritten chorus to “God Bless The USA” by Lee Greenwood

• The US Constitution

• The Bill of Rights

• The Declaration of Independence

• The Pledge of Allegiance

All of the additional documents, with the exception of Greenwood’s lyrics, would be accessible for free on any number of platforms.

Trump is also selling 1000 hand signed copies for $1000 each. There is no mention of any of the proceeds going to charity.

The former president has also sold NFT trading cards (digital collectibles), hightop sneakers, gold and silver coins, and $100,000 watches.

Kayleigh McEnany Almost Met a Black Person

On Friday on “The Five,” guest host, Kayleigh McEnany gave her expert opinion on Trump’s chances winning over Black voters.

‘Look, I heard yesterday from a friend who texted me and said that he was talking to a black man in North Carolina, and this black man said, I'm going to vote for Donald Trump. And he pulled out his wallet and he said, this needs help,” said McEnany.

Stories Fox News Ignored

Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS News Hour. Due to space I’ve had to truncate this list to the most important stories of the week that PBS covered that Fox News did not.

• Climate disasters

  • The year 2023 was the driest year for the world’s rivers in three decades. Glaciers have lost the most mass in half a century.

• Updates in the war in Ukraine

  • The Ukrainian Parliament voted to increase taxes to help pay for the war.

  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the new U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

  • Russian drone strikes targeted the Black Sea port city of Odessa. The Ukrainian military shot down 56 out of at least 87 drones launched by Russia over various regions of the country, according to a representative from the Air Force.

  • Victoria Roshchyna, a 27-year-old Ukrainian journalist, died in Russian detainment. She went missing last year in occupied Russian territory during a reporting trip.

  • Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Iran’s newly elected president Masoud Pezeshkian. According to the Kremlin, Putin said he wants to create a “new world order” of Moscow’s allies to counter the West.

  • A Russian court sentenced, an American, Stephen James Hubbard, for fighting for Ukraine. Hubbard, a native of Big Rapids, Michigan, was sentenced to six years and 10 months in a penal colony.

• PBS included short segments on several cases the Supreme Court will hear in its new term.

• PBS included short segments on the Nobel Prize winners for medicine, chemistry, peace, physics, and literature. Han Kang was the first South Korean to win the Nobel literature prize, and the second person from her country to win a Nobel Prize in any category.

• The Georgia Supreme Court reinstated a ban on abortion after six weeks after a lower court threw it out on the ground that it violated the State’s constitution.

• Thirteen states have filed lawsuits against the social media app TikTok claiming it’s addictive and harmful to children.

• Biden-Harris Administration issued a final rule requiring drinking water systems across the country to identify and replace lead pipes within 10 years. To support that requirement, EPA is announcing $168,106,000 in newly available drinking water infrastructure funding for the EPA Region 8 states of Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. 

• MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said there has been a staggering rise in assassination attempts, sabotage and other crimes on U.K. soil by Russia and Iran.

• Talks between Boeing and striking workers have stalled while the company has cut 17,000 jobs or 10% of its global workforce.

• Inflation dropped to 2.4% while unemployment benefits rose to the highest level since August 2023.

• TD Bank was hit was a $3 billion dollar fine for failing to monitor money laundering by drug cartels. The US Department of Justice said in a statement that TD Bank had “long-term, pervasive, and systemic deficiencies” in its procedures of monitoring transactions.

• Cissy Houston, mother of the late Whitney Houston and a two-time Grammy winning singer died at the age of 91 at her home in Newark, New Jersey. Houston performed alongside Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin. Houston was in the well-known vocal group, the Sweet Inspirations, with Doris Troy and her niece Dee Dee Warrick.

• Luis Clemente Tiant Vega, Cuban-born right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher died at the age of 83. He played for teams in six cities but was best known for his time with the Boston Red Sox where he led the team to a World Series and became a beloved player.

• Lily Ebert, a Holocaust survivor and author of a best-selling memoir, “Lily’s Promise,” died at the age of 100. Ebert shared her Holocaust stories with millions of followers on her TikTok account which was managed by her great-grandson

• Ethel Kennedy, widow of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, died at the age of 96. Her 11th child was born after her husband was assassinated as he campaigned for the Democratic nomination for president in 1968. She never remarried. Kennedy spent the rest of her life dedicated to her children and the legacy of her late husband.

By the Numbers