The Impeachment Inquiry! Even Fox News Hosts Were Not Impressed.
A condensed overview of 18 hours of Fox News for the week ending 9/17/23
Last week was supposed to be a huge for House Republicans - Hunter Biden got indicted for lying on a gun application and Speaker McCarthy formally ordered an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden alleging a ‘culture of corruption’ involving him and his son.
You’d think the streets would be filled with cheering Americans lifting the Speaker aloft grateful for his steadfast leadership and courage. President Biden and Vice President Harris would agree that resigning together at the same time was the best thing for the country and the new Republican revolution could begin.
The Speaker has not thought this one through.
Most Americans are more focused on inflation, the state of the overall economy, a future for their children, or whatever local issue is causing them concern. No matter what any poll might show Hunter Biden’s self-destructive past is not a top priority for anyone besides maybe Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
Even Fox News couldn’t muster that much excitement for McCarthy’s crusade. The top topic last week were segments that criticized the president’s age and cognitive decline, while Hunter Biden’s expected criminal indictment for lying on a gun form and an escaped prisoner in Pennsylvania warranted almost as much airtime on Fox as the impeachment inquiry.
The network did briefly mention the catastrophic flooding in Libya that has cost the lives of thousands and the devastating earthquake in Morocco that killed at least 2900 while leaving thousands homeless.
On Fox the two natural disasters were reduced to brief ‘Headline News’ segments on “Fox & Friends” for a total of 0.25% of the coverage. PBS produced several segments nearly every day last week on both stories which amounted to 9% of its programming.
In stark contrast PBS spent 0.5% of its total coverage on an escaped prisoner in Pennsylvania while Fox featured the story on multiple programs for a total of 7% of the airtime I analyzed last week.
There was more overlap between the two networks than usual last week but Fox News neglected to inform its viewers about a new investigation into U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan or new U.S. sanctions against Iran among other stories.
Shows I covered last week
Fox & Friends
The Five
The Ingraham Angle
Special Report with Bret Baier, Jesse Watters Primetime, Hannity - on Tuesday only
The Impeachment Inquiry - Fox News Shrugged
I decided to pick up extra primetime hours on Tuesday, the day Speaker McCarthy announced the House would start an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
The segments were fairly tepid, so I edited them out and set them aside and decided to take another look at them the next day. On my second viewing I noticed the trend of Fox News hosts openly disparaging the inquiry.
On “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Chad Pergram stoically looked directly into the camera and gave the basic facts behind the investigation.
“The White House says there's no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden. Democrats believe impeachment could backfire on the GOP,” said Pergram.
Susan Davis from National Public Radio weighed in as a member of a bipartisan panel later in the program.
“It is worth noting that Kevin McCarthy right now probably doesn't have the votes in the House to pass an impeachment inquiry opening if he put it to a test. He certainly doesn't have the support of Senate Republicans, who I think it would be fair to describe as lukewarm about this news today. And frankly, it's not clear yet that he has enough to really make a case to the public, which is ultimately what matters. The Joe Biden is worthy of an impeachment trial,” said Davis.
Another guest on the panel Fox News analyst, Howard Kurtz, agreed.
“I'll just go a step further and say Kevin McCarthy doesn't have the votes because 12 days ago, he said the House the full House should have to authorize this. And even some Republicans are wary about this feeling It could backfire on them. At the same time, it's a meaningless exercise. I'm not even getting into the evidence. And clearly, Joe Biden was more involved in his son's business than he had initially relied on because the Democratic Senate is never going to convict President Biden,” said Kurtz.
The next hour on “The Ingraham Angle” Ingraham herself had her doubts.
“Well, in some circles, this was really hyped up, this announcement. But could it be that Republicans are actually stepping into a trap here?” asked Ingraham.
Ned Ryun, CEO and founder of American Majority, was also critical.
“So, until there's an actual formal vote in the House authorizing impeachment hearings, I'm not sure how serious McCarthy actually is about this . . . They better thread the needle very carefully, have a very good team of investigators putting together very compelling, very narrow case that really shows Joe Biden and Hunter Biden’s involvement,” said Ryun.
Ingraham interrupted him.
“Yeah, but when have Republicans ever done that? When have Republicans ever done that? I mean they’ve never done that. Comer has done a good job but on these big sweeping investigations into Hillary they really could never connect the dots. I don’t know. It’s always been difficult for the Republicans, for whatever reason.”
Jesse Watters went through possible scenarios for the inquiry his last one being,
“The impeachment inquiry stays and inquiry and drags out, making the Republicans look weak and foolish,” said Watters.
Sean Hannity was the only holdout. He did not express any doubt about McCarthy’s plan nor did any of his guests.
Brian Kilmeade Goes Rogue
On “Fox & Friends,” the next morning the main doubter was surprisingly Brian Kilmeade.
“Because there was no vote. The question is what changes? How much more power do they have? Andy McCarthy says. Without a vote, you're just renaming the Comer/Jordan investigation,” said Kilmeade.
His co-host Pete Hegseth agreed.
“That is something I expected to happen. I thought there would be a vote on the front thing.”
Kilmeade leaned in and said almost under his breath,
“I don’t think it would pass.”
Jessica Tarlov on the Impeachment Inquiry
On Tuesday, Jessica Tarlov the lone liberal voice on “The Five,” began with a list of Republican Congressman who were not enthusiastic about the inquiry.
“So much so that they're on record saying things like that, David Joyce, congressman, ‘I'm not saying the facts are evidence.’ Dusty Johnson, ‘There's a constitutional legal test that you have to meet with evidence, and I haven't seen it.’ Don Bacon, ‘There should be a direct link to the president and some of the evidence. I think we need to have more concrete evidence to go down that path.’ And then Ken Buck, ‘The time for impeachment is the time when there's evidence linking President Biden. And I don't think that evidence has been presented.’
Now, these are not people who are Democrats. They're not members of the lamestream media or whatever you want to call it. Those are Republican congresspeople. Kevin McCarthy, I guess, has amnesia. He has short term and long term.
Last Friday, he told Breitbart that there would be no impeachment inquiry without a vote. He also, in 2019, went after Nancy Pelosi saying if she was going to have an impeachment inquiry without a vote, it would create a process completely devoid of any merit or legitimacy. Well, welcome to the circus, Kevin McCarthy. That's what you've done. Nancy Pelosi did have that vote on October 31st in 2019.
McCarthy has made too many promises to too many lunatics. Marjorie Taylor Greene, I hear this Politico's reporting this afternoon that Donald Trump was on the phone with Elise Stefanik. Number three in the conference, the GOP conference chair talking about impeachment. He continues to do Donald Trump's bidding. Now I return to where I started. No one wants an impeachment inquiry.
It's never fun. It's not going to help anything. But it is going to show that the GOP is a fiercely unserious party. They have to keep the government open. That should be the priority. You should, I don't know, have some plans to make life better for the American people. But no, you're going to spend the next several months, by the way, collecting evidence. You've been doing that for nine months already. You just haven't come up with anything,” said Tarlov as her co-hosts shouted over her drowning her out.
Fox vs. PBS on the UAW Strike
Last week the United Auto Workers decided to strike against GM, Ford and Stellantis. This could end up being one of the largest strikes in U.S. history.
Fox News likes to position itself as a populist champion but Republicans have been aggressively anti-union for decades. Since the strike started at midnight on Thursday last week Fox News has tried to thread the needle of appealing to working class viewers while not demonizing the automakers.
The network has done a spectacularly bad job at this. On Friday they had Charles Payne of Fox Business come on “Fox & Friends,” to give his expert opinion on the labor dispute.
Payne rambled incoherently weaving in multiple topics without really addressing the reasons the workers voted to strike.
“Right now. Obviously, it's it's it's it's a few hours old and it's not a complete strike. It's not 150,000 people walking off the job, but they are threatening that that's what it will become. You know, it's interesting, we just had a lot of inflation data out this week, including prices on cars. You know, it was crazy because at one point a ten-year-old minivan was the best investment you could have made because the price was going up.
Right. Minivan or Apple stock, You know, And so, you know, we've just gone through a price shock. And only recently have some of these prices started to come down. We know that's going to that could change dramatically if there's a big hiccup at these at these automakers. But, you know, I think there's some other issues going on here. This Biden agenda is really the problem,” said Payne.
“The electric car agenda, right?” asked Kilmeade.
Payne continued.
“It's really a climate agenda. And electric cars are just part of it. And it's a it's a crazy climate agenda. It's going nowhere. It makes no sense. It will do nothing for the climate. We're taking energy independence and throwing and flushing it down the toilet. This is the most maddening, crazy thing. I watched Germany a lot because they're ahead of us in this madness and they have destroyed one of the greatest industrial nations ever, Ever. They're destroying it. Is it? It's economic suicide. We are going down the same exact path,” said Payne.
The NewsHour on PBS covered the topic completely differently. Co-anchor Anna Nawaz broke down the union’s demands first.
“The union is asking for a 36% wage increase over four years and the restoration of some pay and benefits cuts made in the 2008 recession, including cost of living adjustments, an end to a tiered wage system and changes to pension plans and retiree health care. They're also proposing a four day workweek. The union says companies raked in billions in profits and worker wages have not kept up. Between 2013 and 2022. Combined profits for the Big three Ford, GM and Stellantis surged 92% to $250 billion. Total. President Biden today gave his support to striking workers and said he hoped for a fair agreement,” said Nawaz.
Tulsi Gabbard Embraces Xenophobia and Promotes Trump
Last week former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard appeared in the liberal chair on “The Five.” Gabbard formally left the Democrat Party in October 2022. It was puzzling to see her in the liberal chair as her views were further to the right than her casemates.
On Wednesday she harshly criticized Biden’s immigration and border policies.
“President Biden's open border policy is no different from his policies domestically to not prosecute criminals . . . Basically, it's an undermining of the rule of law. This president doesn't care about the safety and security of the American people. Is unwilling to enforce even the laws that actually exist to protect the American people. And ultimately, therefore, as is de facto taking the side of criminals, human traffickers and the cartels and the American people, these communities are the ones who suffer as a result.”
On Thursday she added a few Fox News talking points while also trashing her former party.
“Our borders have been handed over to the cartels. Our cities have been handed over to the criminals. Parents rights are being threatened with regard to their child's education. I mean, the list goes on and on. It's not a hard argument to make to voters about why a Joe Biden presidency or frankly, any of the Democrats they could pick to replace him could end up pushing our country to a place that is dangerously beyond repair.”
On Friday while a guest on “The Ingraham Angle,” she openly endorsed former President Donald J. Trump’s border policies.
“We got to go back to the Trump policy of remain in Mexico. We've got to go back to the policy of actually securing our borders, whether through physical or electronic means. And Congress and the administration have to work together to fix these broken asylum laws. . . He (Biden) admitted, this is politically driven. It's not driven out of a concern for the country or the people.”
Ingraham then asked Gabbard a question that seemed to promote the racist ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory.
“They want to remake the country, do they not? In part. They want cheap labor. They also want a kind of new electorate,” said Ingraham.
Gabbard nodded.
“Yeah, that's it exactly.”
Tulsi seems to LOVE Russia
I also noticed a familiar theme with Gabbard - her love and defense of Russia.
On Thursday she brought up Russia while on, “The Five.”
“But one thing that I thought was interesting is, you know, people are talking about Biden's accomplishments. And in that Ignatius piece, he said Biden's accomplished so much. He's done all these things. His greatest accomplishment was that he beat Donald Trump. Right. That was that was like a few years ago. Yeah. And then you have Hillary saying, you know, we'll just look at what Joe Biden's gotten done.
Well, when we actually look at what he's gotten done, the reality is our country is worse off now than when Joe Biden took office. And there's a whole laundry list of things that we can get into. I've wrote down about ten of them without even scratching the surface. But but most seriously, he's gotten us into a new Cold War and a hot proxy war with Russia that has increased the likelihood of nuclear catastrophe.
We just saw how he has pushed Russia and North Korea directly into each other's arms, increasing the threat coming from North Korea directly to the American people and our national security. . . We're seeing this rise in food and fuel costs that are really causing the American people to struggle. Nobody's pointing to the fact that this comes as a direct result of Biden's war to punish Russia trying to destroy their economy.
Biden tells us this is a small price to pay to defend and spread democracy around the world. But number one, Biden and the elite are not paying the price. Number two, he is trying to undermine our democracy,” said Gabbard.
Fox Had to Find a Reason to Do a Segment about AOC
On Wednesday Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as part of hearing held by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability made a passionate statement about Supreme Court Justices receiving lavish trips and gifts from large donors.
“We thought, finally, we are going to address the biggest scandal in American democracy that we are currently having right now, which is the extraordinary corruption and wholesale purchase of members of the Supreme Court. I also find it amusing that we just heard from the Republican side, Why do we want to talk about this? Because women have lost the right to choose, because indigenous people have lost rights, Because minorities have lost rights, because working people across the country have lost rights due to this level of corruption,” said Ocasio-Coretz.
The clip of AOC’s speech went viral on social media. I suspected Fox News would find a way to produce a negative segment about her in response and on Thursday as expected Judge Jeanine Pirro led the charge against the congresswoman on “The Five.”
“Aggressive squad leader AOC loves to lecture others about corruption. . . But AOC has her own ethics scandals she should be more worried about. The far left lawmaker repeatedly listed her fiancee, Riley Roberts, as a spouse and disclosures filed with the House Ethics Committee after bringing him on overseas trips to leftwing countries. Except they aren't married. AOC’s office saying in a statement, quote, They're not legally married. House ethics is commonly recognize the term spouse to extend to long term partners. But lying on that form is a big deal. AOC could face a hefty fine, prison, or censure by the House,” said Pirro.
AOC has been with her fiancée for several years. I cannot imagine the ethics committee would send the congresswoman to prison for calling her long-term live-in partner her spouse.
The Big Secret - Everyone at Fox Has Gotten the Shot
On Tuesday during a discussion about how the new social Meta social media platform Threads has removed some COVID-19 related content Jessica Tarlov revealed that her co-host Judge Jeanine Pirro received the vaccine.
“We obviously know a lot more now. I think it's really distressing, especially considering the fact that a majority of Gen Z go to social media for their information. So if they're going, let's say, to see it when they're eligible for the next vaccine or something that the government would want them to do or these social media companies would want them to do, they can't get that information.
But they also do need to figure out a system to stop people from spreading rumors, like when Bronny James, for instance, collapsed while playing basketball for USC. Immediately it was his because of the vaccine. It was not because of the vaccine. But that became the leading story. And the James family released a statement 48 hours later. But the damage had already been done from that.
And you need to find some safe middle ground where people know that the vaccine is safe for you, but you don't,” said Tarlov.
Pirro made a noise that sounded close to a grunt. Tarlov responded.
“Oh, well, what do you mean? You look, you're fine. You're vaccinated.”
Pirro turned away from Tarlov without speaking.
“What are you going?” asked Tarlov.
Pirro gestured to Greg Gutfled, “It's your turn. It Sure it's your segment.”
According to reporting by the New York Times Fox required all of its employees to get at least one dose of the COVID vaccine by December 27, 2021.
Newt Gingrich on Lies and the Liars Who Tell Them
On Wednesday while a guest on “The Ingraham Angle,” former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich sort of described Fox News perfectly while criticizing other media companies.
“Look, if you are a hard-line left winger, you believe in a world that's a fantasy. Now, if you really believe in that world, you can't face any facts because the facts would destroy your belief system. So you make things up and you get used to lying to each other,” said Gingrich.
Stories Fox News Ignored
Every week I compare the hours I watch on Fox News to five hours of the PBS NewsHour. The following stories were covered by the PBS NewsHour but ignored by Fox.
Developments in the Ukraine War
Ukraine has reclaimed several gas and oil offshore drilling platforms the Black Sea near Crimea.
PBS produced a segment about the many challenges the Ukrainian counteroffensive has faced since it began.
President Zelenskyy replaced his Defense Minister. It is the first major shakeup in his administration since Russia invaded.
PBS produced a segment about new technology from the U.S. that uses A.I. and drones that could help clear landmines in Ukraine.
A Ukrainian attack in Russian occupied Crimea damaged two warships and injured 24 people.
Russian attacks across 10 cities and villages in the Donetsk region in Ukraine killed three people and injured three.
Extreme weather events
Phoenix, Arizona finally got a brief break from excessive heat after 55 days of temperatures over 110 degrees.
Tens of thousands of protesters in every continent took to the streets last Friday to call for an end to the burning of fossil fuels. Demonstrations continued into the weekend.
Ian Wilmut a British a scientist, biologist and geneticist who helped advance the science related to cloning died at the age of 79.
Over twenty years after the 9/11 attack 30 men remain detained at at a United States military facility at Guantanamo Bay. There is also debate over potential plea deals for five of the suspects including the alleged architect of the 9/11 attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The Department of Justice’s anti-trust case against Google began last week. The DOJ has argued that Google started illegally maintaining a monopoly in the search engine space as early as 2010.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a statement that the criminal charges former President Donald J. Trump faces are a sign that American democracy is corrupt. He also said that Trump’s claim that he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours will bring happiness.
Five former Memphis police officers were charged with federal civil rights violations in the beating death of Tyre Nichols.
PBS produced a segment about children who need inpatient care for mental illness and the challenges their parents face finding appropriate facilities for minors.
The Red Cross is appealing for help as 6800 migrants landed on a tiny Italian island. The boats set out from Tunisia a Northern African country that is embroiled in an economic collapse and political turmoil.
The Ken Doll topped the list of toys that might make the cut into the National Toy Hall of Fame for the year 2023. Other possible inductees are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Cabbage Patch Dolls and Nerf toys.
As part of its America at a Crossroads series PBS featured Sarah Longwell, a political strategist and publisher of the The Bulwark, interviewing a focus group of Democratic voters in Pennsylvania. The network has featured a similar focus group of Republican voters also interviewed by Longwell in a past episode.
NASA wants to join the search for UFO’s. The agency has found no evidence of extraterrestrial life but wants to remove the stigma around “unidentified anomalous phenomena” or UAP’s.
More Americans have returned to work in offices. The numbers of workers working remotely is still higher from pre-pandemic levels but has decreased.
Rat populations are on the rise in several urban areas. Part of the problem stems from changes of human behavior during the pandemic.
Last week marked the 60th anniversary of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Twenty-two people were injured and four young girls were killed as they prepared for the weekly Sunday service. Between 1977 and 2002 four members of the KKK were tried and convicted for their role in the bombing.
The Biden administration announced new U.S. sanctions on Iran on the 1-year anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died while being held by the country’s morality police. She was arrested for not wearing a ‘proper hijab.’ Amini’s death sparked a series of anti-government protests that spread throughout the country. The government responded by aggressively cracking down by jailing, torturing and even executing some of the protesters.
Elizabeth Tsurkov a Russian-Israeli citizen with family in the U.S. has been missing in Iraq for six months. She was conducting research for her PhD at Princeton when it’s believed she was kidnapped by an Iraqi militia. PBS spoke with her sister about the effort to bring her home.
The Chinese defense minister has disappeared. He was last seen in public on August 29, 2023. Reports last week suggest he’s under investigation for corruption and set to be removed, but a the Chinese government said he is suffering from a health condition.
Columbian painter and sculptor, Fernando Botero, had died at the age of 91. He was known for depicting people in plump exaggerated forms. His work is featured all over the world including in the Times Warner Center in New York City.
The United States military has announced it will conduct interviews with service members in a new investigation into the events that led up to the bombing at the Kabul airport during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The psychedelic drug MDMA moves closer to U.S. FDA approval as a treatment for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
PBS produced a segment about the alarmingly high rate of mortality in Louisiana prisons, jails and juvenile detention centers. The Incarceration Transparency Project at the Loyola University Law School says there's been a 50% increase in deaths from 2019 to 2021.
By the Numbers
Coming up…
I will be in Austin, Texas for the Texas Tribune Festival from Wednesday night until Sunday. I’m not completely sure what I will have for next week but I plan to work through the event as best I can. I’m hoping to meet some supporters of this project who work in the media.