Fox News: Remembering the Victims of The Great Twitter Shadow Ban and Only Black Lesbians Make it out of Russia.
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News of the week ending 12/11/22
A typical Fox viewer might have thought that The Twitter Files were the biggest political scandal in decades and that President Biden only works to free Black lesbian professional basketball players from Russian prisons.
Anyone who exclusively watched Fox News last week would have missed out on a number of stories about investigations involving former President Donald J. Trump or any updates on NASA’s next mission to the moon. They most likely wouldn’t have heard about a volcanic eruption in Indonesia or an anti-government general strike in Iran.
Fox News really ramped up the hysteria last week as some viewers might have actually believed people died due to Twitter’s policies. The network didn’t offer any specific examples but it treated content moderation on a social media platform as a life and death situation.
Shows covered last week
Fox & Friends - 1st hour
The Five
Tucker Carlson Tonight
The Twitter Files - The Story No One Else Will Cover
The Twitter Files - although Fox spent nearly 1/3 of it’s airtime on the public relations stunt Elon Musk has promoted on Twitter, PBS didn’t even mention it. Fox News anchors expressed outrage that no other major network even mentioned Musk’s political machinations poorly disguised as journalism.
When other media companies brought up The Twitter Files not only did they not frame it as a massive scandal they openly mocked it. Part of the reason why most news programs won’t touch the story is it’s a cherry picked mess of nothing.
Musk hired Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss, two opinion columnists with Substack channels along with Michael Schellenberger, a man with a master’s degree in antrhopology who is best known for promoting climate change denialism.
It’s impossible to know exactly how these three writers found their material but so far they’ve all posted select examples of what they claim is proof of government interference on a social media platform.
So far none of the inner office correspondence that is part of the Twitter files have shown anything close to a smoking gun that would prove the government forced Twitter to remove a single tweet. In fact, they have shown the opposite.
In the first day of the Twitter Files reveal Taibbi posted that he had found no evidence of any government involvement in the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Weiss and Schellenberger have focused more on Twitter’s decision to remove Trump, something that is not surprising considering he was using the platform to communicate aggressively to a mob as it ransacked the U.S. Capitol.
Twitter guidelines are simply internal rules within the company. No user, not even the President of the United States, signed any contract agreeing to any standard. If high-ranking Twitter employees thought it was a good idea to change any guideline or regulation due to an extreme situation, they could at any time.
Since Twitter is a private company it can change its own rules on a dime. The company could face litigation if it suddenly decided to block users based on their race, religion, sexual orientation or gender. Otherwise if they company deemed something dangerous and they wanted to remove it they have every right to do so.
If any user wasn’t happy with these rules they could use another media platform. If enough users left Twitter and joined a competitor Twitter could either re-think it’s policies or go out of business.
The Twitter Files would be more newsworthy if Twitter was the primary news source for most Americans, but according to a Pew Research Center study “10 facts about Americans and Twitter” only 1 in 5 American adults uses Twitter. According to the same report about 70% of those Twitter users said they use the platform to read news stories.
In terms of 4th grade math
The amount of Americans who are 18 and up is roughly 258 million. Twenty-three percent of 258 million is roughly 59 million. According to the Pew Report that’s the approximate number of Americans who use Twitter.
If only 70% of those 59 million get their news from Twitter that number is only around 41 million or or just shy of 16% of the 258 million adults or 12.4% of the total population.
By contrast the same Pew Research Report found 81% of American adults used YouTube and 69% used Facebook. In the grand scheme of things Twitter is a much smaller player in the social media universe.
The same report showed around a third of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (32%) report using Twitter, 15 percentage points more than the share of Republicans and Republican leaners (17%).
All of these numbers get much blurrier as most Americans consume media across multiple platforms. It’s hard to know exactly how many Americans would exclusively get their news from Twitter.
The Hunter Biden Story was still available for anyone to read at the NYPost online. The NYPost has one of the largest circulations of any paper in the country. I couldn’t find data on the amount of downloads but there is evidence that suppressing the story only brought more attention to it.
This graph was generated by Philip Bump at the Washington Post. It also appears in this brilliant takedown of the Twitter Files “Hello! You’ve Been Referred Here Because You’re Wrong About Twitter And Hunter Biden’s Laptop” on Tech Dirt by Mike Masnick.
The graph shows an enormous spike in interest in the Hunter Biden story after Twitter suppressed it. Anyone who searched for it would most likely end up at The New York Post or another right-leaning publication that mentioned the story.
The Great Twitter Shadow Ban
This one-minute edit is made from roughly 30 minutes from Tucker Carlson Tonight from Thursday December 8th. I spliced together the most outrageous statement by Carlson and his guests.
Charlie Kirk of Turning Points USA had some of the best lines.
“And I don't think we'll ever be able to measure the impact of what Twitter did to our voices online in the calendar year of 2020, the lives that were lost,” said Kirk.
Kirk also thanked the Lord for Elon.
“And Elon, praise God for his courage and his bravery,” said Kirk.
Jason Whitlock of Blaze Media took things even farther,
“This is about propaganda and mind control. The mind control propaganda game they've been playing on the American public to overthrow our Constitution and our way of life. And they've been successful. And these people are evil and need to be held responsive,” said Whitlock.
If Whitlock is correct we no longer have a Constitution and should probably get to work immediately and restoring it.
Jessica Tarlov points out the many flaws in The Twitter Files
Jessica Tarlov, the liberal voice on “The Five” managed to point out some of the flaws with Elon Musk’s publicity stunt.
“I'd start by saying that Matt Taibbi nor Barry Weiss have actually told us what the American government asked to have done. Matt Taibbi specifically put it in links of Joe Biden's campaign, so not in elected office, asked to have taken down but didn't show us what Donald Trump and his administration must have taken down, even though he admitted that the government ,and that's the one that the First Amendment applies to, had asked to do that,” said Tarlov.
As she spoke Judge Jeanine Pirro tried to interrupt her. Tarlov continued.
“Barry Weiss gives us no details as to why Charlie Kirk or Dan Bongino were de-amplified. Tell us exactly what they did, cause that's that,” said Tarlov
Pirro interrupted.
“You're going to blame the messengers?” said Pirro.
Tarlov continued,
“I'm going to blame someone who doesn't give us the full story and claims that she's being an objective journalist,” said Tarlov.
Doocy Goes Rogue
Steve Doocy has had more than one instance of seemingly going off script. I have no way of knowing if these brief examples are scripted or if Doocy really is mildly reeling against Fox management.
During a discussion of The Twitter Files on Monday, Doocy manages to get out a brief verbal stab at the former president.
“Ultimately, would it have changed the outcome of the presidential? Well, obviously, Donald Trump felt so because he felt he said yesterday that the Constitution should be thrown out, which was pretty crazy. He wants a redo,” said Doocy.
Doocy was even bolder on Tuesday when he openly challenged the opinion of Senator Ted Cruz who had just appeared in a clip from a primetime show recorded on Monday.
“I don’t know exactly what Ted Cruz is talking about because he mentioned the FBI right there. But if you read all of Matt Taibbi posts the thread, you can see what what perhaps he's alluding to, but Ted is wrong. Matt Taibbi, his 22nd thread, said although several sources recalled hearing about a general warning from federal law enforcement that summer about possible foreign hacks. There's no evidence that I've seen of any government influence in the laptop story. In fact, that might have been the problem. So according to the guy who Elon Musk gave all the secrets to, he said, I don't see federal law enforcement involved in the laptop story at all,” said Doocy.
What About Paul Whalen? The Man Trump Forgot to Mention for Two Years!
The other story that dominated Fox News coverage last week was prisoner exchange of WNBA player Brittney Griner detained in Russia for a Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Instead of celebrating the return of a U.S. citizen Fox New anchors targeted their rage towards President Biden for allowing another prisoner, retired Marine Paul Whalen, to remain in Russian custody.
No one at Fox even acknowledged that Whalen was arrested and tried for espionage charges during the Trump administration. Trump didn’t even publicly acknowledge Whalen once during his administration.
Dan Bongino - This is some Soviet Style Bullsh*t
When Fox host Dan Bongino discovered his account was briefly suppressed on Twitter he complained of Soviet style censorship to an audience of nearly three million people. The struggle is real.
Fox Actually Thinks other Media Companies Ignore Stories - The Opposite is True.
In one of the most comical examples of the complete lack of self-awareness by anyone on Fox both Joe Concha and Ainsley Earhardt insisted Fox News covered more stories than other major networks.
This is provably false as I typically in my comparison of Fox News to the PBS NewsHour that PBS covers at least two dozen stories each week that Fox does not even mention.
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 News completely ignored.
The SCOTUS hears a case involving a website designer in Colorado who refuses to create websites for same sex couples on the grounds that gay marriage goes against her religious beliefs.
The SCOTUS hears a case that could give State legislatures more power over elections
Fox didn’t mention much about the war in Ukraine. The only real segment about the war was a monologue on Tucker Carlson Tonight that was highly politicized and contained inaccurate information. Carlson continues to portray Russia as the misunderstood victim of a war it started.
Hospitalizations for the flu are the highest they’ve been in over a decade
After several intense anti-government protests in China the government has begun to ease some COVID lockdown rules.
The President of Peru, Pedro Castillo, attempted to dissolve Parliament hours before an impeachment vote. He was arrested and detained after the Parliament voted to impeach him. Within hours the Vice President, Dina Boluarte was sworn in as the sixth president in less than five years.
In Indonesia the country faced a volcanic eruption, the Parliament passed a new criminal code that critics say would violate international human rights laws. The government also released Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, a radical cleric who was convicted of a bombing in Bali tha t killed 202 people. The cleric is 82 years old and is believed to have been rehabilitated.
PBS produced a segment about the various investigations involving Trump and his real estate business. The network included details about the guilty verdict in the tax trial of the Trump Organization. PBS also reported on classified documents in a storage unit owned by Trump in Florida. The search was conducted by an outside group hired by Trump’s lawyers.
Jay Alexander Kueng, the former Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on the back of George Floyd while another officer kneeled on his neck until he died was sentenced to three and a half years on state charges. Kueng pleaded guilty of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met with the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform issued a report on the Washington Commanders NFL team citing a toxic work culture of "ignoring and downplaying sexual misconduct.” Commanders owner Dan Snyder was involved in the misconduct, according to the report.
A U.N. report published last week showed that more than one in five workers worldwide face some form of violence or harassment at their workplace.
The University of California workers strike entered its fourth week. It is the largest higher education strike in history as roughly 48,000 academic workers participated.
The EU, G7 nations and Australia reached an agreement to cap the price of Russian oil at $60 a barrel. The price cap is meant to limit Russia’s ability to fight its war against Ukraine.
A trial in Belgium begins for 10 men allegedly involved in the 2016 bombing in Brussels that killed 32 and injured 340.
Germany arrested 25 suspected far-right extremists for plotting to overthrow the government. The group was influenced by the QAnon conspiracy theory as well as other far-right ideologies. The plot originated out of a movement called the Reichsbürger — literally, “Reich citizens.” They believe the German government since WWI is illegitimate and want to re-establish a monarchy.
NASA continues to make advancements on its latest attempt to send astronauts to the moon.
Iranians staged a three day general strike as part of the ongoing anti-government protests. The Iranian government staged the second execution of a protester via a public hanging.
Meta’s oversight board was critical of special treatment in terms of content moderation granted to celebrities and other high profile accounts on Instagram and Facebook.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a law protecting same sex marriage.
By the Numbers
The 5th category “One More Thing” is the last segment on “The Five” which is usually dedicated to lighthearted human interest stories each host brings in every night. Fox promotion refers to the many short segments the network dedicates to various books written by Fox News hosts or other Fox programs.
The network put most of its focus on The Twitter Files.
PBS put most of its focus on the prisoner exchange that brought Brittney Griner home. Artist profiles are always a prominent part of the PBS NewsHour and run the full spectrum of the arts from dance, music, visual arts, theater to poetry.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is back on the list. She has only not appeared here twice since I started this project in mid-February. The topic of crime has fallen remarkably since the midterm elections. Gas prices used to be a major point of discussion but that has also fallen off now that gas prices are lower than they were a year ago.
Coming up…
On Wednesday I will publish the newsletter/podcast of my interview with Andy Campbell the author of “We Are Proud Boys.” I will also be analyzing “Fox & Friends”, “The Five” and “Hannity” this week.
This is the first time I've read one of your posts here...excellent work. Thank you for the analysis.