Fox News REALLY wanted to Demonize Trans People and then Trump Got Indicted.
A condensed overview of 19 hours of Fox News for the week ending 4/2/23
Fox News hosts wanted to make last week all about the demonization of the trans community but the announcement of the criminal indictment of former President Donald J. Trump caused the network to radically shift gears.
When the news broke about Trump the Fox put all of its focus on the story. On Thursday the network aired commercial free programs with a slew of guests each one more outraged than the other regarding the Manhattan District Attorney’s decision to criminally prosecute Trump over hush money payments made to an adult film actress.
No other stories captured much of the network’s focus as two other stories in the top five last week were the civil trial involving actress Gwyneth Paltrow and an I.R.S. investigation into Matt Taibbi, one of the writers who worked with Elon Musk on his public relations stunt known as the Twitter Files.
Shows I covered last week
Fox & Friends - the first hour
The Five
Jesse Watters Primetime
How The Five opened on Monday right after news of the Nashville School shooting broke.
Monday morning Audrey Hale, 28, walked into a small Christian school they used to attend as a child and shot six people, three of them young children.
The victims were identified as Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; Mike Hill, 61; and Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all age 9. Police officers also killed the Hale at the scene.
Although Hale was initially identified as a woman it was later revealed that Hale wished to identify as trans.
Because of the confusion of Hale’s gender and the fact that news outlet used both female and male pronouns for Hale. Throughout this article I’ll be referring to Hale with the gender neutral pronouns they and them. I’m doing this not out of respect for Hale but for the larger trans community.
By 5:00 p.m. that evening Fox News made the odd choice of not leading with the story on its top rated show “The Five.” The network opened with a breaking news segment about the school then awkwardly transitioned to a vague story about a survey that showed Americans had less patriotism than previous generations.
This is the Amount of Times Fox Guests and Hosts Labeled the Shooter as a Trans Shooter in One Day.
On Tuesday I made an edit of every time anyone labeled the shooter as a “trans shooter” or “trans mass shooter” all told it was 27 times over the course of “Fox & Friends,” “The Five,” and “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
There was really no reason to label the shooter as trans at all as the gender identification of shooters is rarely mentioned in school shootings. Even if their gender identification played a role in Hale’s motivation a shooter’s motive is not normally part of their description.
Since the people who carry out crimes like this are almost universally cis-gender men they are simply labeled as shooters, not even male shooters. The only reason to make Hale’s gender identification the main focus of the attack was to smear the trans community.
Jesse Watters tries to Make the Case for a Trend in Mass Shootings Committed by Trans People
On Tuesday Watters opened his show with an extended monologue about the school shooting in Nashville.
In the middle of the monologue Watters went through a series of examples of mass shootings committed by trans people. I broke up each instance and provided more context.
“Well, in 2018, in Aberdeen, Maryland, a trans shooter opened fire on a pharmaceutical distribution center,” said Watters as the image of the killer was flashed on the screen behind him.
In 2018, there were approximately 340 mass shootings. One person would be the equivalent of less than one third of 1%.
“In 2019, a trans high schooler shot up his school in Denver,” said Watters.
In 2019, there was approximately 417 mass shootings. One person would be the equivalent of a less than one quarter of 1%.
“And just back in November, a Colorado Springs nightclub was shot up by someone who identified as non-binary,” said Watters.
So last year, 2022, there was approximately 647 mass shootings. One person would be the equivalent of basically 0.15 of one percent. In 2023 so far there have been 131 mass shootings. One trans shooter would be the equivalent of 0.76% of the total number.
Jesse Waters invited Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) to discuss the issue. Luna seemingly invented a trend when there wasn’t one.
“The activist and liberal media completely went silent after the fact that it was a fact that the shooter was a trans individual and that the last four mass shootings have involved trans individuals,” said Luna.
What past four shootings? There have been over 100 in 2023 so far and only one has involved a trans shooter.
Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women of America, an evangelical Christian non-profit women's legislative action committee condensed five years into four months.
“You pointed out there's been four trans mass shootings in the last five months, Jesse,” said Nance.
Watters actually showed three examples over the span of five years with the four being the Nashville shooter.
According to the Violence Project, about 98% of all mass shootings are committed by men. The vast majority of violent crime is committed by men and boys.
No one on Fox News addressed the issue of the availability of high powered weapons. The network largely ignored gun control or red flag laws.
Greg Gutfeld Actually Makes a Good Point about the Media’s Treatment of Mass Shooters
On Monday during “The Five,” Greg Gutfeld pointed out that obsessive coverage of the killer in mass shootings seems to inspire other people to commit similar attacks.
“I don't I don't necessarily need the information, to be honest with you. I mean, there is math to this. When a mass shooting occurs, there's an increased probability of another one within 30 days because it's something called generalized imitation. That's when a person's behavior is amplified and influences other people's behavior to engage in similar actions. We know this happens with mass shootings.
The World Health Organization has issued guidelines for suicide and reporting suicide to reduce the the the incidence of copycats or imitation of suicide. I really wish you know, we sit here, we do this all the time. Oh, boy, why does this keep happening? What is this happening? Look in the mirror. You know, we we constantly prominently place these stories.
We repeat facts over and over again. The frequency plays a role. We provide step by step descriptions of the crime. We do not limit the use of photos or videos. We have live press events. What I'm talking about is we increase the spectacle of an event so that it stays in somebody's mind. The more you increase the frequency of a report, the more likely somebody is going to hear it be influenced by it.
All I'm saying is treat this, change the reporting methods. Finally, let's just change the reporting methods and treat it like we treat teen suicides, celebrity suicides. We do actually tamp down that coverage,” said Gutfeld.
Fox News Demands The Shooter’s Manifesto
Sadly the network that Gutfeld works for is one of the worst offenders in terms of how it covers mass shootings.
In the case of the school shooting at Uvalde, Texas Fox News even featured a segment that delved into the family life of the shooter. The piece was produced and shot by an independent journalist but Fox aired it during their primetime shows.
The segment was exactly what the shooter might have wanted it showed that his mother was largely absent from his life and his grandparents were indifferent. His face was splashed on the screen and viewers got to see his sad living arrangements.
Any parent who would abandon their teenage child is not likely to change their behavior after watching a segment on Fox News that shows another person’s child in a similar plight. A neglectful parent rarely sees themselves as the problem.
Instead of tamping down its coverage of the shooter Fox News ramped it up. Calls for the shooter’s manifesto increased. Last week the manifesto was mentioned 37 times.
I’m not sure what value the manifesto would have to law enforcement as the shooter died at the scene. Knowing Hale’s motive might help prevent a future shooting but it would be extremely difficult to know out of several emotionally disturbed, socially withdrawn people which one might act out violently.
Jesse Watters and Sen. Lindsey Graham Have No Idea What’s in the RESTRICT Act.
This clip was added for comic relief. Jesse Watters expressed outrage over the RESTRICT Act, a brand new bill in the Senate that hasn’t even made it out of committee.
The bill would create a pathway for a national ban of the controversial Chinese social media app TikTok. Critics say it is too broad and far-reaching and would impede on the basic privacy rights of U.S. citizens.
Jesse Watters seemed to understand the bill while he was reading about it from a teleprompter but the moment he went off script to confront Sen. Lindsey Graham’s decision to co-sponsor the bill he was reduced to a stammering mess.
Graham seemingly had no idea he agreed to support the bill and got it confused with other pending legislation.
The result was two men getting really worked up about something neither one of them seemed to understand.
Thursday - The Trump Criminal Indictment
I dedicated a podcast to the night Trump got indicted. I realized very quickly into my analysis that there was no way I could fit everything into a Substack newsletter as it was just too much information.
This is a brief breakdown of each program on Thursday.
The Five
Duration - 52 minutes (two commercial breaks before the indictment)
Notable guests
Trey Gowdy - Former Congressman, Fox News - Gowdy called in at one point to add to the discussion.
News of the indictment dropped about halfway through the program during a segment on trans athletes. The hosts immediately dropped every planned segment and focused the rest of the show on the indictment.
Special Report with Bret Baier
Duration - 1 hour (no commercials)
Notable guests
Jonathan Turley - Fox News legal analyst.
The tone of this show was much more subdued than the opinion shows. George Soros was only mentioned twice on this program and in both cases it was when someone was reading a quote by either Mike Pompeo or Donald J. Trump.
The most memorable quote came from Turley.
“But then the election becomes a very odd debate because a president in my view, can give himself a pardon. And so the election could come down to how people feel about a self-pardon Donald Trump could run in part on saying, I'm going to pardon myself and go after the Deep State,” said Turley.
Jesse Watters Primetime
Duration - 55 minutes (1 commercial break)
Notable guest
Dan Bongino - Fox News host and former Secret Service member.
Watters remained an emotional mess throughout his broadcast. His opening monologue was short and he leaned heavily on guests for content. He even recycled guests as the show progressed. His studio was mildly reminiscent of a game of musical chairs.
Bongino was amusing because he had nothing to offer except more hysteria. He also gave a shout out to this project and others like it.
“I mean, we're in a police state. I'm not even arguing this with the you know, liberal zero's out there who watch this network all the time. I mean, some of them that their only job is to watch our shows, which is kind of humiliating. But that's for another day. It's not open for debate that we live in a police state,” said Bongino.
Tucker Carlson Tonight
Duration - 1 hour (no commercials)
Notable guests
Glenn Beck - conspiracy theorist and founder of TheBlaze media.
Rod Blagojevich - former governor of Illinois.
Carlson was much more prepared in that his monologue was well crafted and slick. Carlson also had the strangest choice of guests in the entire primetime lineup.
Trump’s civil attorney Alina Habba and Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy both demanded that Pres. Joe Biden somehow intervene and decry the actions of D.A. Alvin Bragg.
The former disgraced governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich took his time on Carlson’s show to talk about his own criminal conviction while insisting on his innocence. Blagojevich never mentioned once that he was released from prison thanks to a presidential pardon from Trump.
Glenn Beck went on an extended doomsday rant filled with dire predictions of a currency collapse.
“That means a dollar collapse. That means we become Venezuela. We will have war with China. We will have war with Russia and Iran. We have the restrict bill. We have social media and our NSA and everybody else in bed with each other silencing people. We, of course, have the raccoon dogs, which we all know is bullcrap. And now this week we have a new gun grab that they're trying to do. Biden and his family taking money from the Chinese. What do you think this Donald Trump thing is really all about?” said Beck.
Hannity
Duration - 1 hour (no commercials)
Notable guest
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
The most memorable moment of the evening was Graham’s impassioned plea for supporters to donate directly to Donald J. Trump the billionaire.
“To the conservatives out there, make sure you vote. If you got friends, make sure they vote. If you don't have any friends. Go make some friends. But you need to help this man, Donald J. Trump. They're trying to drain him dry. He spent more money on lawyers than most people spend on campaigns. They're trying to bleed him dry. Donald J. Trump dot com. Go tonight. Give the president some money to fight this bullshit. This is going to destroy America,” said Graham.
The Ingraham Angle
Duration - 1 hour (no commercials)
Notable guest
David Schoen, represented Trump at this second impeachment trial
Ingraham also started with an extended monologue. Ingraham kept bringing up January 6th while warning of a similar uprising by Trump supporters. She was the only Fox host to explicitly call for non-violent protests.
The best quote of her show came from a surprising source. Miranda Devine of the NY Post was the only Fox guest the entire evening to point out a huge vulnerability for Trump.
“They want to sort of usher Donald Trump into the GOP nomination as an injured party and that that every decent patriot in the country is going to rally around because you don't want the evil doers to win who have weaponized the justice system against their political opponents. But on the other hand, I think it makes him very damaged goods for the general election,” Miranda Devine.
Stories Fox News Ignored
Every week I compare 15 hours of Fox News to five hours of the PBS NewsHour the following is a list of stories that PBS covered that Fox did not.
The U.S. Senate held a hearing titled “No Company is Above the Law: The Need to End Illegal Union Busting at Starbucks.” During the hearing Howard Schultz, Starbucks board member and former CEO, openly sparred with Senator Bernie Sanders over the companies anti-union practices.
Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a bill that would roll back many of Biden’s regulations on fossil fuels. It is not expected to survive in the Senate.
PBS continued its series of segments exploring the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War.
According to the director-general of the U.N.'s nuclear agency, Rafael Grossi, a Russian occupied nuclear power plant in Ukraine is still vulnerable to an accident or meltdown.
Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist working for the Wall Street Journal was arrested and detained in Russia on espionage charges.
Last week marked the one year anniversary of the liberation of the Ukrainian city of Bucha from Russian forces. Soldiers found hundreds of dead civilians in the streets and mass graves when the entered what was left of the city.
Belarus might host strategic nuclear missiles along with part of Russia’s tactical nuclear arsenal on the border of several NATO countries.
WHO organization recommended an additional booster for high risk patients. Fox News featured a story where they claimed the WHO revised its recommendations for vaccines for children. The network misrepresented the report. It basically said that for populations with a lack of resources high risk groups should be vaccinated first and that children may not need a booster shot.
The General Assembly of the U.N. adopted a resolution requesting the International Court of Justice to prove an advisory opinion on States’ obligations concerning climate change.
A federal judge ruled that former Vice President Mike Pence must testify before a grand jury as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s role in the riot on the Capitol on January 6th.
The U.S. Justice Department and EPA filed a complaint against Norfolk Southern for unlawful discharge of pollutants and hazardous substances the East Palestine derailment. The point of the lawsuit is to force the company to pay for all damages and cleanup costs.
Protests, strikes and riots continued throughout France over President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Labor unions in Germany staged a long-ranging transportation one-day strike. The unions are seeking wage increases to keep up with inflation.
The city of Minneapolis agreed to reorganize the city’s police force, three years after a Black man, George Floyd, died at the hands of a white police officer.
The United States and South Korea conducted defensive naval exercises to counter North Korea’s build up of ballistic missiles.
PBS produced an extended segment on Reina Morales Roja, a missing undocumented immigrant from El Salvador. Boston Police waited six weeks before they put out an appeal to the public to help find her. Missing women of color are generally not given the same priority as white women by the media or law enforcement.
Pope Francis was hospitalized for a respiratory infection that was not COVID-19. He responded well to antibiotics and was released by the end of the week.
Last week the Kentucky legislature voted to override the Governor’s veto of what has been called the most anti-LGBTQ bill in the country. Protests erupted in the capital resulting in 19 arrests. Fox News tried to tie this into anti-gun protests in Tennessee and the school shooting in Nashville.
Several states have anti-trans bathroom bills that would criminalize trans people from using pubic restrooms.
A new law in the state of Utah could dramatically limit minor’s access to social media platforms. It requires anyone under 18 to get parental consent before joining a social media platform. It gives parents access to children’s accounts a sets a curfew on social media use.
Sam Bankman-Fried was criminally indicted for attempting to bribe Chinese officials to unfreeze assets related to his crypto currency business.
China staged combat patrols over the Taiwan Strait amid Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s visit to the United States. Ing-wen briefly stopped in New York City on route to Central America.
Former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, returned to Brazil after a three month stay in Florida.
Singer Joni Mitchell was awarded the Gershwin Prize for popular song.
PBS produced a segment about the homeless crisis in Washington D.C. that explored how city agencies were tackling the problem after programs that helped during the COVID-19 health emergency have expired.
Judge Reed O'Conner of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on Thursday ruled that the ACA provision requiring health plans to cover certain kinds of preventative care was unconstitutional. The ruling could affect as many as 160 million Americans. On Friday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an appeal against the ruling.
The Republican led legislature in North Carolina voted for Medicaid expansion. The state became the 40th in the country to fully expand Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act.
Humza Yousaf became the first Muslim elected to rule the Scottish government.
A Maryland appellate court on Tuesday reinstated the conviction of Adnan Syed. The court said the lower court had violated the rights of the victim’s brother, Young Lee, to attend a key September hearing when a judge vacated Syed’s conviction, leading to his release. Syed will remain a free man.
An annual report by the Boards of Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds warned that both programs could become insolvent by 2033 if changes aren’t made by Congress.
Political satirist and comedian Mark Russell died at the age of 90. He was best known for his series of bimonthly comedy specials on PBS from 1975 and 2004.
By the Numbers
Fox really wanted to make something out of the Gwyneth Paltrow civil lawsuit but there wasn’t much to the trial. The IRS investigation into Taibbi wasn’t even mentioned on PBS.
Artist profiles are a staple of the network as the segments cover the broad spectrum of the arts. Fox News did a couple of brief segments about the detained American journalist but didn’t mention the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War.
Coming up…
This week I’ll be covering the first hour of “Fox & Friends,” “The Five” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
I have a trans cousin who didn’t transition until her 40’s. She came from an extremely poor background and grew up in a trailer. Most of her immediate family has rejected her. She didn’t identify as a gay man before she transitioned. She was a cis-gender man who dated women. Her immediate family is solidly Republican. I am hardly an expert on trans issues but I know what Erica has been through and I know a number of trans folks in New York City There is evidence of people flipping genders that goes back as far as earliest recorded history. I think we are in a transition right now as this is the first time in the Western world when trans people are fighting for acceptance. It’s a bit rocky as transitions like this tend to be. I’m not sure where we’ll end up but I do think trans people are authentic. I know people who have transitioned for 30 years and have absolutely no desire to go back. I definitely don’t think they are predators or emotionally unhinged as Fox News tends to depict them. They’re just human beings trying to live their lives authentically.
I'm a centrist Democrat and a man who is a senior citizen and gay. I've been following the issues surrounding gender ideology fairly closely over the past several years. My primary source has been the podcast "Gender: A Wider Lens," in which: "Two therapists explore the expanding concept of "gender" from a psychological depth perspective."
https://gender-a-wider-lens.captivate.fm/
When I was a little boy in the late 50s and early 60s I was a gender nonconforming sissy. I lacked the stereotypical boy's drive to run around and kick or catch balls. I wasn't noisy or rowdy; I was "sugar and spice and everything nice." I was small for my age and looked like a little blond pixie. One day I came home in tears because as I left the school bus the kids chanted "Davy baby little lady." I threw away all my cap guns because I didn't like the violence they implied. My mother acceded to my request to buy me a Barbie doll. I loved Barbie's outfits and once even put on a runway show on the dining table. I was disappointed when my quest to obtain a Barbie Dream House fell through.
My mother, sister and her best friend were very worried then about how I would fare in society later in life. I am grateful that I was raised over half a century ago and not today. You see, my trajectory was the same as that followed by most gender nonconforming (GNC) children. Before long I realized I was attracted to members of the same sex. By the time I was eight or nine I was less effeminate, and as time went by I butched up even more and not because of any internalized homophobia. Now I am a masculine gay man. Most GNC and gender dysmorphic children desist during adolescence, with many of them realizing they are attracted to the same sex.
It is no exaggeration to say that if I were the same little boy today, somewhere along the line, quite possibly in school, I might have been told that gender exists independently from sex and culture and that I could pick whichever gender identity I liked best. (This is an ideological belief for which there is no sound scientific basis.) Since my behavior and interests more closely matched girls' than boys', a gender-affirming therapist or physician might have recommended to my parents that they socially transition me. Many parents who consider themselves trans allies would have gone along with it. It would not have mattered in progressive states that I lacked the capacity to give informed consent. Well, that nightmare scenario never unfolded.
Getting back to Fox's alleged demonization of trans people, what we're seeing in red states is a reaction to the excesses of trans rights activists and their capture of such key sectors of society such as medicine, education, human resources and government. There is no doubt that our national dialogue on trans is out of balance. Red states' legislative measures are an overreaction. That's obvious.
What's much more difficult for most Democrats to see is that key institutions in American life have accepted trans rights activists' demands and ideology so uncritically and inflexibly that it is anathema for anyone who's left of center to question them. Trans rights activists reinforce this by refusing to debate their critics on the merits of their ideas, responding instead with bullying tactics and calls for censorship. A recent example is the firestorm of criticism that trans rights advocates and their allies directed at the New York Times for publishing an article that questioned trans dogma concerning gender medicine.
While trans rights activists in the US are doubling down on their defense of gender medicine and attacking dissent, health authorities in Europe are finally walking back past claims about the safety and efficacy of puberty blockers and hormones. Until September, 2022, New Zealand's health ministry made the following claims: "“Blockers are a safe and fully reversible medicine that may be used to help ease distress [accompanying the condition of gender dysphoria] and allow time to fully explore gender health options.” In September 2022, the "limited and thin evidence on puberty blockers" caused New Zealand health authorities to modify their position on gender medicine. The statement now reads: "Puberty blockers are a medicine that can be used to halt the progress of potentially unwanted puberty-related physical changes.” https://genderclinicnews.substack.com/p/red-flags-in-europe
Democrats have to be more discerning about who and what they call out for being transphobic. Some of the legislation that's being proposed in red states in unquestionably transphobic, possibly because it is rooted in Fundiegelical belief and value systems. However, it is a grave mistake for Dems to follow trans activists' suit and denounce any and all departures from today's trans and gender orthodoxy as examples of transphobia. They're not.