Fox News: Young Voters were Brainwashed, Everyone is Going to Starve and Freeze, Happy Thanksgiving!
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 11/27/22
Fox fans celebrated Thanksgiving last week as their favorite news anchors talked about starving Americans who were freezing in their homes due to President Biden’s terrible policies. Several Fox hosts came up with elaborate theories of why Republicans couldn’t lure more young voters in the midterms while also dedicating an inordinate amount of time to an unsolved murder in Idaho.
Anyone who exclusively watched Fox News last week would have no idea that a major earthquake hit Indonesia or that Russia is purposefully targeting Ukrainian power plants in an effort to freeze the country into submission. They might have also missed recent updates to NASA’s latest mission to moon.
The War on Christmas has already started as I found exactly one mention of the phrase “War on Christmas” in the transcripts from last week. I’m sure this is the beginning of the usual annual onslaught of fear-mongering about the beloved Christian holiday.
Last week was a typical holiday week for Fox. Some of the shows were obviously pre-taped and filled with recycled segments. An episode o f “The Five” featured an entire hour of viewer fan mail and Rachel Campos-Duffy hosted “Fox & Friends”, “The Five” and “Jesse Watters Primetime” in the same day.
How PBS and Fox News covered Three Mass Murders
The top story on Fox News last week was the tragic murder of four college students near the University of Idaho. The story is salacious and terrifying and typical of the type of story Fox will spend an excessive amount of airtime on.
Four college students were stabbed to death while they slept. So far there is no known suspect, no sign of forced entry and no murder weapon.
All of the victims were young and white, with three being young attractive women. Although the story is absolutely horrific and traumatizing for the victim’s families and the University of Idaho community it doesn’t really warrant nonstop national coverage.
Fox dedicated over 12% of its airtime to the story even though no major developments have come to light in the two weeks since the murders occurred. The local Police Chief has made several statements that his department will not release some information because they think it would harm their investigation.
PBS also dedicated two segments to the story immediately after the murderers were discovered two weeks ago.
This is a comparison of the two networks
The murders in Idaho occurred on November 13th. The Colorado Springs mass shooting at a LGBTQ nightclub happened on November 19th, while the mass shooting at the Walmart in Chesapeake Virginia was the most recent tragedy last Tuesday on Nov. 22nd.
Most of the victims in the Walmart shooting were people of color. Most of the victims in the Colorado Springs shooting were LGBTQ.
Fox News has a known pattern of putting a lot of emphasis towards a story with white victims especially young attractive white women. The bias towards covering the murders and abductions of white women is so well known it’s even been named ‘The Missing White Girl Syndrome.”
The University of Idaho murders appear to be the most recent example of this phenomena. Given the specifics of this case I’m not sure how daily excessive news coverage will help law enforcement solve the murder. If anything this will just put the victim’s families through even more torment.
Happy Thanksgiving: Everything is Terrible
The following is a montage of clips from Thanksgiving Day on Fox News. It was obvious that Jesse Watters Primetime was pre-recorded as the host used segments from past episodes. In his Thanksgiving themed monologue Watters laid the negative energy on thick. The Fox News host created a scenario of starving families huddled together to keep warm under the hellish conditions created by the Democrats and President Joe Biden.
Jesse Watters Primetime
Jesse Watters was by far the bleakest of the Fox News personalities when he spent three minutes focusing on how the high rate of inflation has affected the holiday.
“Democrats used the pandemic to flood our economy with funny money, leaving us with record setting inflation . . . They maybe had to figure out a creative way to afford groceries. . . Good luck buying a house. Your grocery bill looks more like a mortgage payment now. Who shows us how the Democrats green nightmare is killing us . . . Because it's not just gas. I hope you've got plenty of blankets at home. It's going to get cold this winter. Home heating oil prices have skyrocketed, leaving millions of Americans scrambling to bundle up to stay warm. ” said Watters.
Fox & Friends
Rachel Campos-Duffy made two verbal stabs at President Joe Biden.
“Bottom line, I don't think anyone sitting around the Thanksgiving table this Thanksgiving saying I'm thankful for Joe Biden, said Campos-Duffy.
Later in the program she casually made a comment about how President Biden is somehow in collusion with the Chinese government. She offered no specifics.
“He (President Biden) should be investigated. But this is different. This isn't just about corruption. This is about a national security threat. He is compromised by the Chinese,” said Rachel Campos-Duffy.
The Five
During a segment where cast members shared their family traditions of the holiday Judge Jeanine Pirro took things to a dark place.
“There is no fun on Thanksgiving. You buy it, you cook it, you clean it. No,” said Judge Jeanine Pirro.
Jessica Tarlov attempted to steer the conversation back to a more positive direction.
“I never do that in my house. But when you go to other people's houses and they do that sweet thing where people write down things that you're thankful for. Oh, yes, I really like that,” saidTarlov.
“I’ve done that,” said Pirro.
“It's sweet,” said Tarlov.
“It’s kind, boring. I want to talk. People are, like, full of it. No I’m mad. You’re adding another person. You made a mess of my tablecloth and you’re drunk,” said Pirro.
Judge Jeanine Pirro complained about drunk people at her Thanksgiving table.
Fox News has Theories on Why the GOP did not attract Young Voters
In the past midterm election young voters came out in the second highest voter turnout for their age group in the past 30 years. The youngest demographic traditionally doesn’t vote in large numbers but in this past election most of them voted overwhelmingly for Democrat candidates.
The youngest demographic, voters under age 30, were the most likely to vote for Democrat candidates.
Fox News has a complicated relationship with younger viewers. According to Forbes, the median age for a typical viewer watching the midterm elections on Fox News was 64 years old, whereas CNN’s audience, although much smaller, had a median age of 57.
In total via Forbes:
· 43% watched broadcast network coverage
· 57% watched coverage on cable networks
· 7% of viewers were aged 18-34
· 25% of viewers were aged 35-54
· 65% of viewers were aged 55 and older
Yet the same time Fox News also fills all top ten slots in terms of capturing the coveted 25-54 age group for cable television.
Although “The Five” had a larger viewership of 3.7 million voters, Tucker Carlson Tonight got a larger share of younger viewers as part of his 3.5 million viewers.
It’s a bit of a myth that Fox News doesn’t attract younger viewers. The network does but overall those viewers didn’t seem to make much of dent in terms of voters. The anchors on Fox News seemed fixated on this dilemma last week.
At the start of the week, Steve Doocy made some wild claims about how the social media app TikTok may have played a role in luring younger voters towards the Democrat Party.
“The interesting thing about TikTok, you know, if you've got Facebook or Twitter, they will suggest who to follow and you decide who you want to follow. TikTok does not ask that. There's an algorithm that figures out what the next video you're going to see is going to be. And when asked about who decides what the algorithm is, TikTok will not answer,” said Doocy.
He continued.
“What's interesting is the place to your point about how many young people are on TikTok. There's an item in the Hill today and the headline is ‘Did TikTok Tip the midterms?’ Keep in mind all those young people aren't getting their news from TikTok. It reads in part If a substantial percentage of the younger voters in the midterms were getting their information about the world, including politics, from a social media outlet owned by a Chinese company, and running an algorithm being manipulated by Chinese cyber-engineers there suggesting, you know, there's no proof,” said Doocy.
Doocy must have put a lot of faith in the algorithm as he brought it up again.
“But given the fact that the algorithm, which is a secret and TikTok, is run by a Chinese entity. Did they tip the midterms? That is the name of the item,” said Doocy.
On Thanksgiving right after his incredibly depressing monologue about holiday, Watters misrepresented Biden’s proposed student loan forgiveness plan.
“All the relief for the college grad students that Biden bribed them with. They're using it for vacations and fine dining, not paying down debt,” said Watters.
Absolutely no borrower will get direct funds or a check from the government. Fox anchors have repeatedly mislead their viewers about the program for months now.
If the proposed plan survives the court challenges it faces, borrowers will simply have $10,000 - $20,000 taken off whatever amount they owe in the program. They will not have a choice on how to spend the benefit. The money will go directly to debt forgiveness.
What Watters was referring to was a survey that found that borrowers would use the money they normally would have spent on loan payments for things like travel and dining out. If the survey is accurate that type of spending would help promote economic activity in the travel and hospitality industry.
It’s actually better for local economies if people spend money in nearby restaurants rather than send it to a a federal student loan program.
Maria Bartiromo also chimed in that the debt forgiveness program had somehow caused younger voters to vote for Democrats.
“Such a great point that you made because I have spoken with a number of young people and they're all talking about this forgiveness of debt. And I said, I don't think this is going to happen for you because there are charges that it's unconstitutional. But you know what? It worked. Did it work for the Democrats to actually lure in these young kids,” said Bartiromo.
“Bribes do work even though they’re illegal,” said Watters.
This exact same argument could be made for any number of large tax breaks the Republicans have passed in the past few decades that specifically benefitted the wealthiest Americans. Of course no one on Fox News is going to mention that.
The topic of younger voters just kept coming up. In this clip from “The Five,” more than one Fox personality made bold claims that young voters had been indoctrinated by the left.
On Friday while sub-hosting on “The Five,” Rachel Campos-Duffy added one of her usual conspiratorial theories for why the Republicans weren’t able to capture more of the youth vote.
“I have no idea how they did so well in the midterms. I suspect it's a lot of the indoctrination of young people. We can talk about that later. And that's what they're. And big tech and big tech,” said Campos-Duffy.
Also sub-hosting Johnny “Joey” Jones repeated Campos-Duffy’s sentiment.
“That is the end of the line. And they focus on that because they can indoctrinate 18 to 30 year olds the vote for them like we just saw,” said Jones.
Fox Shares Misleading information about a Children’s Tylenol Shortage
I missed these incredibly misleading segments until after I had gone through the five hours of PBS NewsHour segments I compare to Fox News. I noticed that this wasn’t mentioned at all on PBS.
When I started researching the story every single article was about a Tylenol shortage in Canada, not the United States. I went back and re-visited both segments to see exactly how Fox News framed this story.
On Wednesday the alleged Tylenol shortage was part of a quick thirty second Headline News segment on Fox & Friends read by Carley Shimkus.
“A children's Tylenol shortage in America. The supply crisis unfolding as seasonal bugs return after being suppressed during COVID related lockdowns. The scarcity of children's Tylenol making it tough for hospitals dealing with a surge in RSV and flu cases in kids. As of last week, a total of 14,000 patients have been admitted,” said Shimkus.
On my second viewing of the segment I noticed the copy read “Tylenol shortage in America.” Technically the shortage was affecting North America not the United States but the choice of words seemed intentionally misleading.
On Thursday Rachel Campos-Duffy introduced a short medical segment featuring Fox medical contributor, radiologist, Dr. Nicole Saphier.
“Coming up. Pharmacies across the country are running out of children's Tylenol and other antibiotics as dangerous viruses like RSV and the flu surge, a rise in cases of RSV and the flu causing store shelves across the country to become bearer of children's Tylenol,” said Campos-Duffy.
I want to point the obvious mistake in the copy. “ Pharmacies across the country are running out of children's Tylenol and other antibiotics.” The way this is worded it’s implied that Tylenol is also an antibiotic. Tylenol of course is an analgesic, a pain reliever and an antipyretics, a fever reducer, not an antibiotic.
When Campos-Duffy asked Dr. Saphier about the shortage this was her answer.
“Well, Rachel, the good news is we don't have an official Tylenol shortage here in the United States. Really? Canada is the one who has put forth an official shortage. And some of the places in upstate New York and other places are seeing some empty shelves. Here's the good news here in the United States, if you go to the pharmacy and you see that your children's Tylenol, the shelves may be empty, it's likely to be replenished within the next day or even that same day,” said Saphier.
It almost seemed like Fox was trying to manufacture a shortage by causing panicked parents to rush to their local drugstore and buy up whatever Children’s Tylenol they could find.
It could have just been a mistake although it seemed odd that this same story ran for two days and it took a medical doctor to set the record straight.
Bogus Expert of the Week
Marc Morano - another repeat offender for this category. Morano writes books about green energy and climate change but he doesn’t have a background in either topic. Morano started his career working for Rush Limbaugh.
Morano is a textbook fake expert. He is a grifter to his core.
In 2009 Morano founded ClimateDepot.com which is funded by the non-profit Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow which is dedicated to debunking climate science.
The following is a condensed edit of his complete and utter nonsense. He says China nine times, and Chinese four times. Then there’s some absolute drivel about the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, a “Woke green climate fantasy” and how the U.S. won’t be a super power anymore. The montage ends with Rachel Campos-Duffy, an outspoken pro-lifer,
“Well they should keep their hands off of women’s fertility that’s for sure,” said Campos-Duffy.
Stories Fox News Ignored
A 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck Cianjur town in West Java Indonesia. So far the death toll has risen to 310.
A combination of climate change and conflict has put millions at risk of famine in Somalia. Roughly seven million people, or half the population of the country, face chronic hunger.
Russia has continually targeted the energy civilian infrastructure in Ukraine in an attempt to freeze the Ukrainian people into submission as winter sets in. Last week in the capital of Kyiv about 50% of Ukrainians went without power in near-freezing temperatures. The UN estimates that more than 7.8 million war refugees from Ukraine have relocated to other parts of Europe with an additional 6.9 million displaced internally. Roughly 50 mass grave sites have been found in liberated cities.
The latest update on NASA’s new moon mission - The spacecraft Orion entered a distant lunar orbit on Friday where the spacecraft will remain for about a week to test systems in a deep space environment above the lunar surface before beginning the journey back to Earth.
SCOTUS Justices clear the way for House committee to obtain Trump’s tax returns
DOJ wants to interview Mike Pence for their investigation into the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.
Imran Khan, the former Prime Minster of Pakistan, along with his followers continue to protest for early elections in the hopes that he would return to power. Imran Khan is a former international cricket star turned politician. In March he became the first Prime Minister in Pakistan’s history to be ousted in a vote of no confidence. PBS featured an extended interview with Khan.
Twin blasts near bus stops in Jerusalem, killed a Canadian-Israeli teen and injured 18 other people. Although bombing attacks like this were once more common two decades ago they’ve become increasingly rare.
The UK Supreme Court blocked Scotland from holding a second referendum on whether to secede from the United Kingdom.
Congress passes a law banning non-disclosure agreements (NDA’s) in sexual harassment cases.
Hospitals are being hit with a triple combo of flu, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and COVID-19 patients.
Georgia’s highest court reinstates ban on abortion after six weeks. This was after a lower court struck down the law as being unconstitutional.
A study found links between chemical hair straighteners and uterine cancer. Chemical hair straightening products are mostly used by Black women. The history of hair straightening in Black women is partly due to racist attitudes toward natural African-American hairstyles.
By the Numbers
There was an exact tie for the fifth category this past week which is why I included six. Segments trashing Biden and Hunter Biden both made up 5% each of Fox News programming.
Since it was a holiday week PBS leaned heavily on their artist and author profiles. The shooting at the LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs was a major story as was the war in Ukraine and a looming famine in Somalia that could affect as many as 7 million people.
Fox News rarely even mentions the continent of Africa much less features a news segment about any African country.
Coming up…
I’m currently in St. Louis due to a death in my family. Because I’ll be traveling mid-week my posts might be a bit late. For this week I’ll be covering the first hour of “Fox & friends,” “The Five,” and “Hannity.”