Roe v Wade - Fox News was Hoping for a Riot while Blatantly Misleading its Audience
A condensed overview and breakdown of 4 hours of Fox programming on 6/24/22
On the night the Supreme Court struck down the 49-year-old Roe v Wade decision a typical Fox viewer might have expected live coverage of violent riots across the country. They also might think abortion wasn’t now banned in several States.
Fox News predicted bedlam, destruction and chaos across the U.S. not just for that night but for the entire summer of 2022. What Fox viewers saw instead was a lot of footage of peaceful protests along with clips of angry Democrat congresswomen repeated on several Fox News programs.
On June 24th, 2022 I decided to capture a full four hours of Fox News programming in order to analyze how the network covered the SCOTUS decision. I compared it to the far more balanced programming on PBS.
PBS decided to re-run the “PBS NewsHour” three times that night in addition to dedicating an episode of “Washington Week” to the same topic.
All Fox programming surveyed on 6/24/22 included the following…
A the clip of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) from outside the SCOTUS building.
An archived segment from 2006 of Pres. Joe Biden expressing slightly different views regarding abortion.
A short excerpt of Pres. Joe Biden’s speech about the court’s decision.
Fox News personalities on each program questioning the religious faith of Pres. Joe Biden.
Clips of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) criticizing the ruling.
Footage of The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) making a formal statement about the court’s decison.
The Fox New programs also included live coverage of various protests across the country either for the full screen or a section of the screen. I’ve included the amount of time and percentage of live coverage for every program.
I wanted to get this out much earlier but the additional January 6th Committee Hearing threw off my schedule. The extra time was useful however as many of the Fox predictions of massive violent riots for the evening and days following did not materialize.
Fox News just couldn’t resist this clip of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). They claimed she was inciting an insurrection or a riot. Waters is more likely declaring that women will turn to self-management of abortions if the procedure is banned in their State. Women have been practicing self-managed abortions since the beginning of time, legalizing abortion just made the practice much safer.
The Five
Duration of programming dedicated to Roe v Wade - 34 minutes
Duration of live coverage of protests - 13 minutes - 38%
The Panel
Katie Pavlich - Fox News
Jessica Tarlov - Fox News - Liberal chair
Martha MacCallum - Fox News
Dana Perino - Fox News
Greg Gutfeld - Fox News
Jessica Tarlov managed to get in a brief statement about how this decision would negatively affect the health of women and disproportionately harm lower income women and women of color.
In this clip Katie Pavlich makes a few misstatements. She places the blame for Roe v Wade being overturned on Democrats. She’s entitled to her opinion of course but she gets a couple of facts wrong. Pavlich claims former Speaker of the House Harry Reid changed the rules on the filibuster. That’s partially correct but Reid did not change the rules regarding SCOTUS appointments.
That distinction belongs to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Sen. Mitch McConnell changed the rules for approving a SCOTUS nominee to a simple majority in 2017.
This chart is a comparison of PBS “Washington Week” and Fox News “The Five.” The two shows are similar in length and format. If a word did not exist in either program it was eliminated from the list.
Tucker Carlson Tonight
Duration of programming dedicated to Roe v Wade - 51 minutes
Duration of live coverage of protests - 42.5 minutes - 83% of broadcast time
Experts and guests included:
Senator Josh Hawley - (MO-R)
Eric Schmitt - Attorney General (MO-R)
Dana Perino - Fox News
Shannon Bream - Fox News
Dr. Marty Makary - Fox News Medical contributor - surgeon
Harmeet Dhillon - CEO, The Center for American Liberty, Conservative attorney
Molly Hemmingway - Editor, The Federalist
Candace Owens - Conservative pundit, Blexit
Jeremey Lofrredo - Rebel News
Julio Rosas - Townhall Senior Editor
Lila Rose - President, Live Action
Marjorie Dannenfelser - President, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America
Tucker Carlson focused on how the ruling was supposedly elevating democracy as if everything in our political system is based on the popular vote. One of the purposes of having a court system is to prevent the majority from stripping basic rights from the minority - the tyranny of the majority.
“If they like abortion, they can vote to legalize abortion, if they don't like abortion, they can vote to ban abortion” said Carlson. “That's not shocking. That is how our system is supposed to work not being a monarchy at all.”
In this clip a rather awkward reporter from Rebel News and Tucker discuss they mystery of pre-made signs at a pro-choice protest.
The overall tone of Carlson’s approach to the subject was a panic-filled fear mongering festival of chaos.
A reporter from Townhall, Julio Rosas was also anticipating a riot or some violence at the event he was covering from the field,
“These things don't able to get out of hand until after the sunsets and that's about to happen in the next 30 minutes or so. So we'll just see what what happens once once it's finally gonna get dark,” said Rosas.
Tucker Carlson claimed the protesters were mostly white or of “The affluent soul cycle set.” Rosas did not agree and said there was a “healthy mix of races.” A diverse crowd of people was visible behind Rosas as he corrected Carlson.
Carlson implied Speaker Nancy Pelosi wasn’t a Christian and that somehow all Democrats were Satanic.
“They hate Democracy like the devil hates Holy water," said Carlson.
Carlson also repeatedly pushed the idea that corporations were somehow anti-family and didn’t want their employees to have children. His anti-corporate stance is odd since Fox is normally very pro-capitalism.
In this case I compared “PBS NewsHour” to “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Hannity
Duration of programming dedicated to Roe v Wade - 56 minutes
Duration of live coverage of the protests - 49 minutes - 87.5%
Experts and guests included:
Kayleigh McEnany - Fox News, former White House Press Sec. - Trump Admin.
Kellyanne Conway - Former Counselor to the President Donald J. Trump
Stephen Miller - Former advisor to Donald J. Trump
Pam Bondi - Former Attorney General - Florida
Sen. Marco Rubio - (R-FL)
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-CO)
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO)
Jonathan Turley - Fox News legal analyst
Gregg Jarrett - Fox News legal analyst
Tammy Bruce - Conservative podcaster
Alan Dershowitz - Attorney
Shelby Talcott - Daily Caller
Hannity started with two reporters from location at protests in Washington D.C. and Chicago. Both insisted the crowd was mostly women despite the fact that a significant amount of men were clearly visible behind them.
Both Fox reporters predicted possible riots. Hannity brought up a “Summer of rage” and “A night of rage” that he anticipated would be worse than the riots during the summer of last year of the Trump administration.
“We saw protests in the summer of 2020,” said Hannity. “Many of them spiral out of control. We had dozens of dead Americans and thousands of injured cops and billions and property damage. We don't want to go back to those days. But when you have big crowds, it's always dangerous.”
Hannity also kept the camera on crowds on protests in New York City and Washington D.C. as guests spoke. The protests remained calm and peaceful.
In this clip Tammy Bruce, conservative podcaster, claims leftist activists love drama while saying going a dramatic list of dire circumstances facing Americans right now.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) also predicted violence at the rallies as did Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO)
Alan Dershowitz was the only dissenting voice. He basically said the court didn’t have to overturn Roe v Wade in the Mississippi case which would overlap with a lot of Justice Roberts opinion. Desrshowitz called it judicial activism.
“We're not going to decide the case before us,” said Dershowitz. “We're gonna ban Roe vs. Wade, overrule it and allow states allow states to be sure allow states to abolish abortion completely. That was judicial activism . . . You should join me and agree with Justice Roberts, that judicial activism was at play here and it was unnecessary.”
This chart is a comparison of words used on “PBS NewsHour” vs “Hannity" for the broadcast on 6/24/22
The Ingraham Angle
Duration of programming dedicated to Roe v Wade - 50 minutes
Duration of live coverage of the protests - 40 minutes - 80%
Kristi Noem - Governor of South Dakota
Rep. Kat Cammack - U.S. Representative (FL-R)
Monica Crowley - Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury - Trump Admin.
Dr. Ben Carson - Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development - Trump Admin.
Carrie Severino - Former clerk for Justice Thomas
Robert Dunn - Former clerk for Justice Thomas
Megan Wold - Former clerk for Justice Alito
Savannah Hernandez - Independent journalist
Raymond Arroyo - Fox News
Ingraham started her broadcast with footage of pro-choice advocates celebrating outside of the Supreme Court. She then went into an extended monologue where she praised and gushed over former President Donald J. Trump.
“This court, this decision solidifies President Trump as one of the giants of American history. For many Americans, this is like the Berlin Wall coming down,” said Ingraham.
Unlike her Fox News cohorts Ingraham didn’t just invite on her usual retinue of guests to discuss the ruling. Instead she pulled from her own background and invited three former SCOTUS clerks to discuss the specifics of the ruling. Ingraham started her career as a clerk for Justice Clarance Thomas.
Although Ingraham started of strong with her choice of experts about midway through her program she included a live segment produced by an independent journalist, Savanah Hernandez who spoke like a bratty high school student,
“Laura, what I'm seeing here on the ground is basically the biggest tantrum I've ever seen in my life. I was following Antifa for a while. And they're basically just hijacking this movement. And they're trying to make it about abortion, but also hating police officers, but also burning the American flag and crapping on our country,” said Hernandez.
The segment also included exactly 15 seconds of footage of protesters with umbrellas dressed in black Hernandez identified as “antifa.” What made this unintentionally hilarious is that they repeated and looped the coverage at least 8-9 times to make it seem like the group was much larger and menacing.
Ingraham also took some personal credit for the ruling. She claimed her outspoken activism against former President George W. Bush’s pick, Harriet Miers, was one reason the court ruled against Roe v Wade.
A younger Ingraham expressing her opinion on Fox News about the Miers nomination.
The nomination of Miers immediately drew criticism, especially from Republicans. As much as Ingraham would like to take credit for Miers’s withdraw she was one voice in an angry chorus of outrage towards her potential appointment.
This chart shows a comparison of words used on “PBS NewsHour” and “The Ingraham Angle” for the night of 6/24/22.
PBS NewsHour coverage
Duration of programming dedicated to Roe v Wade - 48 minutes
NO live coverage of protests
Judy Woodruff - PBS News
Marcia Coyle - The National Law Journal
Mary Ziegler - Law professor at University of California at Davis, Historian of anti-abortion movement
Marjorie Dannenfelser - President, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America
Alexis McGill Johnson - Planned Parenthood Action Fund
Michael Gonidakis - Ohio Right to Life
Kelly Davis - New Voices for Reproductive Justice
Jonathan Capehart - The Washington Post
Michael Gerson - The Washington Post
PBS was sure to give equal time to both sides of the argument. They invited two leaders from pro-life groups in addition to two leaders from pro-choice organizations.
They also had two legal experts who explained the specifics of the SCOTUS decision and what it might mean for women at the state level and how it could affect the validity of other past rulings effecting privacy.
PBS used language such as “The right to an abortion has been overturned” while Fox kept insisting that the issue would just move to the States.
Unlike Fox News that kept insisting the decision did not lead to a ban on abortion, law professor and author Mary Ziegler correctly pointed out,
“Essentially, what had been a constitutional right in all 50 States is now going to be protected in less than half.”
Alexis McGill Johnson of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund called for political activism.
“We want young women to grow up in a world where they're able to pursue their own freedom, their own imagination, and we're going to continue to fight with them and for them until they take the baton so they can fight along with us,” said McGill.
PBS NewsHour also included a four minute segment dedicated to a summary of various news stories and a three minute segment on the SCOTUS ruling on gun control.
In this clip, the only guest to appear on both PBS and Fox News, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, offers her solution to women facing unplanned pregnancies.
PBS Washington Week coverage
Duration of programming dedicated to Roe v Wade - 26 minutes
NO live coverage of protests
Y’amiche Alcindor - PBS
Josh Gerstein - Senior Legal Affairs Reporter, Politico
Nia-Malika Henderson - Senior Political Analyst, CNN
Zolan Kanno-Youngs - White House Correspondent, The New York Times
Leigh Ann Caldwell - Washington Post LIVE
This program features journalists who normally cover national politics. The panel included Josh Gerstein of Politico, he was the journalist who obtained the leaked draft of the decision in early May.
The journalists discussed the impact on lower income women and women of color who will be disproportionally affected by any restriction on abortion. Nina-Malika Henderson of CNN pointed out the need for additional resources for women facing unplanned pregnancies,
“For some of these states, will there be an expansion of the social safety net? For instance, if you in the states are compelling women to carry their babies to term,” asked Henderson.
They also explored the President Joe Biden’s reaction to the ruling and what he can and can’t do to blunt the impact of abortion bans all over the country.
“He called on Congress to take action and they doesn't look like they have the votes right now,” said Leigh Ann Caldwell of Washington Post LIVE. “So it'll be another test as well of this administration and this President's ability to work with members of Congress to try and enact actual change at this time.”
Coming up…
If I can cram it in with the rest of my work this week I’m planning on doing a review/analysis of the Tucker Carlson Original “Patriot Purge.”