Fox News: Subway Shooter Mania, Elon Musk is a Superhero and Poopgate
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 4/17/22
Last week Fox News viewers might think a wave of Black nationalists shooters were roaming the streets, that inflation was single handedly caused by “Sleepy Joe” and his radical socialist policies and that Elon Musk was going to save the world or at least Twitter.
Before I get into the main topic this week, I’d like to share a clip that as of the time I’m typing this has exceeded 600,000 views on Twitter and then was turned into a story on NY Daily News. Before this clip went viral the most views I got on any tweet from Decoding Fox News was about 20,000.
Clip of the week
What does one say about a clip like that? Watters might be kidding but what an odd thing to joke about. Watters left out that he was a married father of two at the time and the woman he was trying to date was 14 years his junior, and an intern on his show. Way to keep it classy Jesse!
Fox News called the Subway Shooter a Black Nationalist
Although other Fox anchors avoided labeling the subway shooter, Frank James, a Black Nationalist, Jesse Watters decided to open his show on Wednesday with a 16-minute screed about the dangers of the rising Black Nationalist movement in America.
Watters started with a list of every Black mass shooter in recent history claiming each shooter was motivated by Black supremacy or an overwhelming hatred of white people. Although Watters used a couple examples where a Black assailant specifically targeted white victims his first example was Darrell Brooks, a man who drove his SUV into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin killing six and injuring 60.
Although some right wing propagandists such as Andy Ngo of the Post Millennial and Tim Pool tried to cobble together a racially motivated reason for the accident, Brooks, a man with a long criminal past, was leaving a domestic disturbance when he blew past barriers and indiscriminately mowed down parade marchers.
To quote the Associated Press coverage of the accident,
Police Chief Dan Thompson said he acted alone, and authorities say there is no evidence he knew anyone in the parade or that his actions were any kind of terrorist attack.
There is also no proof that Frank James was affiliated with any larger Black Nationalist group or political organization.
Watters selected a handful of rage-filled diatribes about white people from the many videos James produced on his YouTube channel.
These handful of clips were supposedly evidence of James motive for the shooting. Even in the few examples Watters used though, some of the quotes were quite vague.
In one quote James simply referred to “human beings” he claimed needed to die, in another he trashed “Spanish speaking people.”
The Daily Beast also viewed the material and pointed out that James also took aim at other Black people.
“[N-words] should be wiped off the planet, even though I am one,” said James in one of his videos.
James also referred to Black people as “cattle.”
Another target of the shooter’s anger was the Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, who is also Black. James also criticized the mental healthcare system in New York City and lamented his own struggles with PTSD and other mental illnesses.
To bolster his case that James was a Black nationalist Watters had fellow Fox News host and former Secret Service agent, Dan Bongino and Dr. Zudhi Jasser, President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, to discuss the incident. Jasser was an especially odd choice as he is a medical doctor who is best known for his controversial views on Islam.
On Friday Lawrence B. Jones, sitting in for Watters on Jesse Watters Primetime had Kyle Shideler of the Center for Security Policy to talk about James. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the Center for Security Policy as,
A hawkish think tank focused on foreign affairs to a conspiracy-oriented mouthpiece for the anti-Muslim movement in the United States.
Shideler brought up a 2017 Intelligence Assessment about “Black Identity Extremism” prepared by the FBI Domestic Terrorism Analysis Unit that he claimed was suppressed due to political correctness.
What Shideler left out was the long and terrible history the FBI has had with the Civil Rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King was a huge target of the agency who went so far as to try to encourage him to commit suicide.
On December 4, 1969, Fred Hampton, the 21-year-old chairman of a Chicago Black Panthers was gunned down in his home by undercover police officers. Documents later revealed the shooting was coordinated by the FBI as part of a program to neutralize the Black Panther Party.
After these repeated abuses the FBI increased the amount of oversight on how they investigate “sensitive” groups - religious, political or academic organizations.
To further weaken the claim Watters and his guests were making about the threat of Black Nationalism, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI under President Donald J. Trump both issued statements about the increasing threat of white supremacists and groups affiliated with white nationalism.
To quote the FBI Director, Christopher Wray from the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in March 2021.
“I would certainly say, as I think I’ve said consistently in the past, that racially motivated violent extremism, specifically of the sort that advocates for the superiority of the white race, is a persistent, evolving threat,” he said. “It’s the biggest chunk of our racially motivated violent extremism cases for sure. And racially motivated violent extremism is the biggest chunk of our domestic terrorism portfolio, if you will, overall.”
Sources
“Black Identity Extremists and the Dark Side of the FBI” - The Marshall Project
“Fear of a Black Homeland” - The Intercept
Revealed: Video Threats and and Slurs from Man Sought in New York Subway Attack - The Daily Beast
Elon Musk is a Superhero
Fox News also spent a lot of time and focus on Elon Musk’s attempt to take over Twitter.
Mask Hysteria
The CDC issued a two-week extension on its mask mandate for airlines and other modes of travel. A federal court today reversed the decision.
A Wealthy White Man Explains the Problems with Black Families
“Fox and Friends” wanted to highlight Gov. Ron DeSantis new bill to promote fatherhood in Florida. They asked Will Cain, one of the hosts of the weekend edition of “Fox & Friends” to talk about it since he’s a father himself.
The clip got especially cringe worthy when Cain discussed the many problems facing Black families and fathers. I guess they couldn’t find a Black father who worked at Fox that day.
Poopgate
President Joe Biden told a speech in a barn and a bird pooped on him during the speech. For Fox News, this was a major story.
Bogus Expert of the Week
Another bogus expert this week was Alex Epstein, author of a book about fossil fuels who was featured on Jesse Watters Primetime. Epstein does not have a background in the energy sector or fossil fuels. He also has no science background and has been labeled by Rolling Stone as a top Global Warming Denier.
His for-profit think tank Center for Industrial Progress is largely funded by the Koch foundation. The Koch family had derived most of its wealth from fossil fuels.
Stories Fox News Ignored
Jared Kushner received $2 billion from Saudi Arabia for his new private equity fund. This is despite the fact that he has never run a private equity fund and most of his business experience has been in commercial real estate. Unlike Hunter Biden, Kushner played an active role in his father-in-law’s administration.
IMF lowered global growth forecasts for 143 countries due to problems stemming from the war in Ukraine. Despite the fact that Fox News continually beats the drums of inflation they never bothered to mention this huge development. Fox News continues to pretend that inflation is isolated to the U.S. and was somehow single-handedly caused by President Joe Biden rather than admit its a global problem affecting every economy.
A police officer fatally shot a Black driver, Patrick Lyoya, during a traffic stop. Fox News mentioned it once in a 30 second clip during it’s Headline News section of “Fox & Friends.” It was a major story across most of the media landscape including The PBS NewsHour.
By the Numbers
In a completely baffling move, Jesse Watters Primetime included a four minute long segment about the German Shepherd named Major who once lived in the White House but was re-homed after excessive aggressive behavior towards the staff.
The right-wing advocacy group Judicial Watch submitted FOIA requests to get emails and other correspondence regarding the dog. Fox News decided this warranted another look at this year old story.
As usual Hillary Clinton and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made the list as they always do as did Hunter Biden. Ukraine’s president was only mentioned three times.
For next week I’m planning on watching and breaking down Tucker Carlson’s original special on men. I will include a bonus podcast and news letter just for that program with clips included. I’m also planning on covering my usual “Fox & Friends”, “The Five” with “Hannity” as my choice for a primetime show.