Feb 27, 2021

Fox Used To Pretend It Was Part News And Part Opinion. That Pretense Is Over. Now Its Lies All the Time.

Side by side, Fox News’s and North Korean State TV’s reverence for their countries’ respective leaders is pretty telling.


The Evidence


For the first time ever, Media Matters has named Fox News our Misinformer of the Year. In addition to the network's lies, propaganda, conspiracy theories, bigotry, and misinformation, Fox's coverage of -- well, everything -- in 2020 was also frequently very stupid. 



Statement from Media Matters President Angelo Carusone on Shep Smith stepping down from Fox News


Media Matters: The Fox “News” Lie
Fox's “news” side pushed misinformation every day for four months straight

Fox News likes to tout the “hard news” side of its operation, setting up a false distinction between its right-wing prime-time hosts and the members of its news team as a defense against those who flag the propaganda, lies, conspiracy theories, and bigotry that pervade the network. But a Media Matters investigation found that the “news side” isn't as inoculated as the network claims. We looked at Fox News and Fox Business programming for the first four months of 2019, and we documented examples of the “news” division spreading misinformation on air every single day between January 1 and April 30.




Media Matters: CNN guest: Fox's remaining dayside shows “look like news shows but they’re stacked with people who replicate the talking points of the White House” - The Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik tells Brian Stelter that Shep Smith resigning is a “severe blow” to Fox News' credibility









Media Matters: How Fox News is exploiting Texas' power outages to fearmonger about clean energy

Industry-backed climate deniers and The Wall Street Journal editorial board also join in to scapegoat renewable energy


Seth takes a closer look at the Republican Party lying about the Green New Deal and the 2020 election as the U.S. passes a grim coronavirus milestone and Texas experiences an unprecedented power crisis.



  • As a historic winter snowstorm devastated Texas, personalities and guests on Fox News and its sister network Fox Business went to bat for the fossil-fuel industry by falsely blaming frozen wind turbines and green energy policies for statewide power outages a staggering 128 times since Monday evening. Fox has continued its false narrative even after other outlets already debunked the claim that renewable energy sources and green energy policies were solely or primarily the cause of the blackouts.

  • Texas blackouts
  • For instance, on the February 15, edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, host Tucker Carlson stated that “It seems pretty clear that a reckless reliance on windmills is the cause of this disaster.” On the February 16, edition of Fox & Friends, guest host Pete Hegseth began a segment on the Texas snowstorm by highlighting that the state’s “wind turbines are frozen solid” and then asking, “Is this what America would look like under the Green New Deal?” Numerous Fox segments ran chyrons claiming, “Frozen wind turbines cause blackouts in Texas.”

    Overall, personalities and guests made such claims 104 times on Fox News and 24 times on Fox Business. The vast majority of those claims -- 75% -- came from journalists and pundits affiliated with either network.

    Fox & Friends, including its early morning counterpart Fox & Friends First, pushed such claims the most -- 38 in total. Following with 16 claims each were Fox’s Tucker Carlson Tonight and America’s Newsroom -- a supposed “straight-news” show co-hosted by Dana Perino, a former White House press secretary for George W. Bush.

    Contrary to claims on Fox, renewable energy sources and the shift toward green energy policies are not solely or primarily to blame for the current power outages in Texas. As Bloomberg reported, the cold weather wreaked “havoc on the region’s entire energy complex” and crippled “fossil-fuel and renewable resources alike.” Further, wind farm failures were not a large part of the state’s electricity issues. Rather than frozen wind turbines or green energy incentives, “systemic, long-standing issues with how Texas manages its power system” appear to be the primary culprits. In fact, a senior official from ERCOT, which runs the state’s power grid, has acknowledged that turbines were the “least significant factor in the blackouts” and that natural gas, coal, and nuclear played a bigger role.

    Scientists have linked such extreme weather to the warming Arctic Circle, which is heating up faster than the rest of the planet, and a weakened Arctic jet stream that has driven frigid air south to the continental United States. But despite these direct connections between disruptive weather events and climate change, Fox continues to host industry-backed climate deniers like Marc Morano, who is the director of communications for the conservative and ExxonMobil- and Chevron-funded think-tank CFACT, and climate skeptics like Bjorn Lomborg, a Danish political scientist with a history of dismissing climate science.

    The effort by Fox networks to push false claims about frozen wind turbines and green energy policies is just the latest example in a long-running, fossil-fuel industry supported campaign to discredit emerging renewable energy technology and deny overwhelming climate science pointing to the warming of the planet. It’s also just another attempt by Fox News to blame Democrats for any and every problem in America. Their argument that “the left” -- which has had no state-wide control in Texas in over a decade -- and that the Green New Deal -- which isn’t official policy anywhere, let alone Texas -- is to blame for Texas’ power problems is simply laughable.

They’re experts on law and order because they’ve committed crimes, they celebrated victories over coronavirus in March, and they think “every death is a tragedy, but…” This is Fox News.

 

Politics



Feb 26, 2021

With Democrats in Control of the White House, House and the Senate They Must Get Rid Of The Filibuster Or Choose Undemocratic Minority Rule

Republicans, financed by big money, have been rigging elections to control the majority with a minority for a long time. With all three branches of government in Democrat hands, there is no reason to overrule the will of the majority for a party that is openly misinforming its base, especially given the damage they have wrought with just one of their misinformation campaigns.

Rachel Maddow reports on the limited options available to Democrats to pass the extremely popular minimum wage increase even though Democrats control Congress and the White House, as long as the filibuster allows the Republican minority to obstruct the will of the American people.


At 39secs: "We haven't had a minimum wage hike in 12 years are we really not going to have one now? Either? With huge public support for it, with a desperate need for economic stimulus particularly for low wage Americanswith Democrats in control of the White House, House and the Senate, are we really not going to get a rise in the minimum wage because the minority in the Senate doesn't want it? Apparently 0 Republicans support the $15/hr minimum wage that President Biden and the Democrats are seeking that is wildly popular in the United States.... unless Democrats get rid of the filibuster, by which the minority party gets to flex its muscle in the Senate, unless they get rid of the filibuster the minority party will - Republicans in the Senate - will stop 27 million low wage Americans from getting a raise, by raising the minimum wage to 15$ an hour. That would be a hugely unpopular outcome. It would be literally and truly, undemocratic minority rule as an outcome." - Rachel Maddow

Archaic Senate rule keeper was dismissed by the GOP;





Republicans in the way of minimum wage hike most Americans want - Rachel Maddow shows how even in places where voters elect Republican politicians, raising the minimum wages enjoys an even greater margin of support from American voters. 

2 separate independent polls confirm the majority opinion;



Even Republicans want a minimum wage increase, they just seem to think the GOP/Trump will give it to them!


The Filibuster isn't constitutional;



GOP should not be allowed to silence the voices of the majority:

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich breaks down the GOP's plan to entrench themselves in minority rule — and how we can stop it.

Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last 8 elections,... in the above video is their playbook and what the rest of us can do to stop them:



No Compromising with the GOP Cult | Robert Reich
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich explains why it would be a grave mistake for Joe Biden to try and compromise with today’s conspiracy-fueled, hate-filled Republican Party.



The GOP Is Actively Working to Restrict Voting in Key States | The Daily Social Distancing Show Republicans are using false voter fraud claims as fuel to limit voting. In Georgia, Republicans are trying to end Souls To The Polls and make it illegal to hand out water and food in line 


Politics

After Helping To Cancel 500,000 Lives With Coronavirus Misinformation, Fox News Conservatives Go On TV To Complain About Cancel Culture

Media Matters:Fox prime time marks the 500,000th U.S. pandemic death with the same lies that helped get us there - Fox spent 2020 recklessly minimizing the danger posed by the pandemic. Led by its prime-time team, the network denounced social distancing measures, face masks, and the public health officials who supported them, championed purported miracle cures that didn’t work, and propped up kooks and charlatans, Read More.

Saluting the Heroes of the Coronavirus Pandumbic | The Daily Show - Hannity. Rush. Dobbs. Ingraham. Pirro. Nunes. Tammy. Geraldo. Doocy. Hegseth. Schlapp. Siegel. Watters. Dr. Drew. Henry. Ainsley. Gaetz. Inhofe. Pence. Kudlow. Conway. Trump. We salute the Heroes of the Pandumbic.




US Hits 500K COVID Deaths & People Will Do Anything for a Vaccine | The Daily Social Distancing Show The U.S. surpasses 500,000 coronavirus deaths, a 90-year-old Seattle woman walks six miles in the snow for her vaccine, and two Florida women dress up as grannies to cut the vaccination line. 

Media Matters: Right-wing media helped usher in the age of “cancel culture,” but now pretend it's an invention of the leftFrom Roger Ailes to Andrew Breitbart to James O'Keefe to Donald Trump, right-wing media has been built on cancel culture for decades

In an op-ed plastered across Monday’s New York Post front page, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) calls for an end to the “muzzling of America.” Despite getting a spot on the front page of the fourth-largest newspaper in the U.S., coverage across the entire Fox News lineup, a new book deal, an audience of more than half a million followers on Twitter, and a lengthy list of credits on IMDB, Hawley would like you to believe that he is a man without a voice.

Hawley’s essay makes a now-familiar argument against so-called “cancel culture,” which naturally, came for him all because he tried to invalidate the votes of millions of Americans and maybe, sorta, kinda helped incite a deadly mob to attack the U.S. Capitol. Who among us hasn’t had a brush with insurrection at one point or another?

That same morning, former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced her bid to become the next governor of Arkansas. In her announcement, she played on the same theme as Hawley, saying, “I took on the media, the radical left, and their cancel culture, and I won. As governor, I will be your voice and never let them silence you.”

“Cancel culture,” like “identity politics” and “political correctness,” is an ill-defined concept that has been weaponized to shut down criticism of conservatives.

Are Hawley, Sanders, and the many other politicians and people in conservative media who regularly denounce “cancel culture” actually the steadfast supporters of radical free speech they make themselves out to be? No, of course not. They’re mostly just raging hypocrites. After all, this week News Corp. Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch bemoaned “awful woke orthodoxy” just days after purging Fox News of employees who correctly called the presidential election.

....

The successful branding of “cancel culture” as the invention of the left is both sad and remarkable -- as well as factually incorrect.

What was the purpose of the House Un-American Activities Committee or of the Army-McCarthy hearings if not to root out and “cancel” Communists? And what of the so-called “Lavender Scare” purge of gay employees within the federal government? The idea that “cancel culture” is new or limited to any particular political ideology is patently false.

Right-wing media try to portray this move as being driven primarily by the left, but just look at this (admittedly incomplete) list of conservative cancellation targets: ABCACORNThe Beatles, TV host Samantha BeeCampbell’s SoupThe Chicks (then known as the Dixie Chicks), New York Times reporter Sopan DebFranceGillette razors, comedian Kathy GriffinGuinness, director James GunnHallmark, CNN commentator Marc Lamont HillThe Hunt, tech reporter Sarah Jeong, then-NFL quarterback Colin KaepernickKellogg’sKeurigKitKatMatch.comMexicoThe MuppetsThe New York TimesNikePepsiRachael Ray (and Dunkin Donuts), left-leaning college professors, a series of words that include “science-based” and “evidence-based,” progressive commentator Sam Seder, former Department of Agriculture employee Shirley SherrodStarbucksTargettransgender people, Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel (on more than one occasion), and even the White House Easter Egg roll.

Just last week, The New York Times canceled freelance editor Lauren Wolfe’s contract after she tweeted that she had “chills” watching then-President-elect Joe Biden’s plane touch down ahead of the inauguration. 

Will Wilkinson, a New York Times contributing opinion writer who was the vice president for research at the Niskanen Center, lost his job at the moderate think tank this week after conservatives willfully misinterpreted a joke he made by riffing on the “hang Mike Pence” chant of members of the Trump-incited January 6 riot.

Part of the reason the idea of “cancel culture” may seem like it comes more from the left than from the right is that conservative media outlets simply will not stop talking about it. The New York Post has an extensive list of stories tagged “cancel culture.” The same is true of Breitbart, the Daily Caller, and the Daily Wire.

Cancel culture isn’t real, but probably not for the reason you think.

In short, the world is far more complicated than can be contained in a two-word catchphrase. Conservatives have tried to stretch the meaning of “cancel culture” to include pretty much everything. Was it cancel culture for Amazon to cut ties with Parler after Parler refused to comply with requests to remove certain content? If anything, it seems more oppressive to suggest that people or companies should be compelled to continue working with a company that hosts potentially illegal content. 

Is it cancel culture to use your First Amendment right to free speech to boycott a business because it took a public stand you disagreed with? If it is, wouldn’t it also be cancel culture to say that someone shouldn’t use their First Amendment right to free speech to encourage that boycott? 

Is it cancel culture to express disappointment when a popular author comes out against legal protections for a marginalized group? And if it is, how is it not also cancel culture for the author to advocate for their position in the first place, as, after all, they are trying to curtail someone else’s freedoms?

There’s a nuanced discussion to be had about who gets held accountable for their speech and actions, who doesn't, and why. Unfortunately, we’re now at a point where Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is calling the impeachment of Trump over his role in inciting violence at the Capitol on January 6 “the zenith of cancel culture.” That probably does not bode well for anybody hoping for nuance.

Read more.


Media Matters: Fox prime time marks the 500,000th U.S. pandemic death with the same lies that helped get us there

Fox spent 2020 recklessly minimizing the danger posed by the pandemic. Led by its prime-time team, the network denounced social distancing measures, face masks, and the public health officials who supported them, championed purported miracle cures that didn’t work, and propped up kooks and charlatans, all in service of then-President Donald Trump’s political standing. Their coverage influenced Fox’s audience -- but the impact was much greater than that. The Fox-obsessed Trump altered federal pandemic policy to align with the network’s programming, even hiring regular guest radiologist Scott Atlas to help lead the White House coronavirus task force. The results were catastrophic.

Fox defended its coverage of the pandemic in a statement to Insider’s Tom Porter for a story published Tuesday morning. “FOX News Media has continuously provided viewers with the latest news on the global pandemic over the past year,” a Fox PR representative said. “Both FOX News Channel and FOX Business Network hosted over a dozen pandemic-related town halls over the last 11 months, while extensively promoting the use of mask-wearing and vaccinations to our audience via public service announcements across all of our key platforms.”

But the network’s coverage Monday night alone puts the lie to Fox’s claim to being a credible source for information about the pandemic. 

In spite of Fox’s claimed support for mask wearing, Ingraham used her show to once again falsely suggest there is no evidence of their effectiveness. She described Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, as an “ancient medical bureaucrat with a fancy title  spewing lies or unprovable accusations,” as an on-screen graphic described him and Dr. Anthony Fauci as “Liars in Labcoats.” 

Collins’ sin? He argued in an interview that masks are a “life-saving medical device” that could have saved tens of thousands of Americans if properly utilized. Ingraham went on to issue questions for Collins which called into question the efficacy of face masks, concluding, “The answers to these questions go directly to exposing some of the big COVID lies that our press — they’re either too stupid or too biased to uncover for themselves."

Later in the program, Ingraham hosted Atlas, who also took a shot at mask usage.

Contra Fox’s purported support for vaccination, Carlson once again used his show on Monday to promote a cowardly and pathetic brand of anti-anti-anti-vaccine commentary. “Since COVID, Bill Gates has gained extraordinary powers over what you can and cannot do to your own body,” Carlson warned, in a nod to conspiracy theories about the Microsoft founder. “Bill Gates would like you to take the coronavirus vaccine, and it’s not a request.”

Read More.






Some Fox News hosts have accused other media outlets of politicizing coronavirus and creating unnecessary panic. 



Politics