Fox News

Fox News Channel, also called Fucked News, Faux News (by people who don't know how to pronounce "faux"), Fox/Faux Noise, Pox News,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBGG9TcBZOA 7ox News,https://i.chzbgr.com/full/2717718016/h87DD74E8/ "Bullshit Mountain",
Suebsaeng, Asawin, "'Chaos on Bullshit Mountain': Jon Stewart Lampoons Fox News Response to Romney Videos", Mother Jones (20 September 2012, 11:24 AM).
 America's Pravda,How the right-wing Fox News became Donald Trump’s state propaganda channel: The president begins every day by tuning into – and live-tweeting – the channel’s morning show, Fox & Friends. by Mehdi Hasan (19 May 2018) New Statesman America. and so forth, is an American cable and satellite news channel whose owner News Corp perpetrates all sorts of right-wing slants and sensationalist headlines back home. Bullshit is in fact Fox's internally-recognized brand, having labeled its own host Neil Cavuto's pushback against Donald Trump's 2020 election denial as "brand threat".Fox News is worse than you thought by Erik Wemple (February 17, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. EST) The Washington Post.
The name "Fox News" is misleading, as the channel is better described as tabloid entertainment masquerading as journalism, akin to the National Enquirer but in audiovisual form. As documents from a defamation lawsuit by confirmed, it can also be thought of as a propaganda network for the Republican party, with even its so-called "news" division under considerable pressure to align with the GOP and advance its power."3 early takeaways from the new Dominion-Fox lawsuit documents" by Aaron Blake, Washington Post, 2023 March 7"Fox News Journalists Sound Off on ‘Soul-Crushing’ Dominion Filings" by Justin Baragona and Diana Falzone, Daily Beast, 2023 March 8 Unlike other news organizations, Fox News does not have a department of ethics and standards, nor does it publish ethics guidelines.It’s time — high time — to take Fox News’s destructive role in America seriously by Margaret Sullivan (March 7, 2019 at 10:01 AM) The Washington Post.
Conservapedia now regards Fox News as "a promoter of the homosexual agenda" (!) and a "RINO backer", and has characterized it as undergoing an increasingly "left-wing shift",https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Fox_News_Channel&diff=1707182&oldid=1707181 which only goes on to show how many more screws loose they have.
The network is generally highly reluctant to retract fake news that it spreads, such as that about Seth Rich,The Making of the Fox News White House: Fox News has always been partisan. But has it become propaganda? by Jane Mayer (March 11, 2019) The New Yorker. or promoting Donald Trump's Big Lie "fraud" claims for the 2020 U.S. presidential election."Tucker Carlson Calls 2020 Election 'Sketchy' Amid Fox News Defamation Case" by Aila Slisco, Newsweek, 2023 February 24 In the later case, Dominion lawsuit documents revealed that top Fox on-air personalities promoted Trump's "fraud" claims despite detailing in internal emails and messages that they, along with top executives and board members all the way up to Rupert Murdoch, knew that Trump's claim was complete bullshit."Off the air, Fox News stars blasted the election fraud claims they peddled" by David Folkenflik, NPR, 2023 February 16"Media Matters has obtained a copy of the latest Dominion filing, featuring Rupert Murdoch's deposition (and some light redactions from the court)." by Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz), Media Matters, Twitter, 2023 February 27, archived by Threadreader To avoid a potentially very embarrassing trial, on April 18, 2023, Fox News settled with Domininon for $787.5 million and acknowledged tepidly that they had promoted falsehoods against Dominion."Fox, Dominion reach $787M settlement over election claims" by David Bauder, Randall Chase, and Geoff Mulvihill, AP News, 2023 April 18
==Ownership==
Fox News was founded as part of the now-defunct News Corporation, the media empire of Australian-born AmericanMurdoch's bio. media mogul Rupert Murdoch. News Corporation also owned The Sun, a similarly awful newspaper in the United Kingdom that's a great companion to Fox News. The network, similar to its gutter siblings like the Sun and the Daily Mail, has a reputation for pandering to the lowest common denominator via the Page Three Girls. No, you can look them up yourself. (Warning: NSFW!)
Murdoch isn't easily embarrassed by much, but when the now-defunct tabloid News of the World was caught hacking into phones and bribing police, the British Parliament held hearings, forcing Murdoch to distance himself (arguably, to a degree, from his own son). Curiously, his other news outlets in Australia and the United States, including Fox News, barely acknowledged its sister-rag's disaster across the ocean.
In addition to being started by a dude from Australia, News Corp has as its Nº2 shareholder a Saudi prince and businessman who also heads the "Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation" (formerly the "Kingdom Foundation"). Kingdom FoundationThe Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation's "About" page In 2010, Fox News reported that the "mosque" to be built next to the site of the former World Trade Center was funded by the Kingdom Foundation, an organization they said "funds madrassas all over the world", as a possible link to terrorist motives for the building of the mosque; however, they failed to mention that the guy who funded it is also in business with Murdoch.
Mackey, Robert: Fox News Funded by Kingdom Foundation NY Times.
So if some hypothetical unbiased observer were to judge Fox News by its own standards of guilt by association, the channel would qualify as a terrorist front. Still, by the same token, all real estate developers in New York City are the same.
==Slogan==
"Fair & Balanced" is a trademarked slogan of the network, initially used in conjunction with "Real Journalism."
Slogans previously trotted out include:
*"We Report. You Decide." — Closer to "We Report, You Believe" than you'd like to think. Sometimes heard as "We Distort, You Deride". (Other suggestions include "We Retort, They Have Lied," "They Purport, We Decry," "They Are Short (of truth), We Decry (the truth)", and "Smorty Smort, Blort Deblort."Lies (and the Lying Liars That Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right-Wing by Al Franken (2003) Dustton. ISBN 0525947647.)
*"The Most Powerful Name in News" — You don't need to be trusted or even merit trust; you just need to be powerful to have people believe in you.
*"America's News Headquarters" — Don't go anywhere else; we have all the information you want (no word on what non-Americans or liberals would use).
==Staffing==
Fox News employs people from a broad base of the political spectrum, from the sort-of-far-right to the mostly-far-right to the ultra-far-right. Nevertheless, on-air personalities tend to fall into recognizable categories: angry Irish guys, attractive women (often blonde, chosen for their nice legs for cameras to creepily pivot around), and milquetoast liberals.
==="Anchor babes"===
A play on their favorite pejorative term "" for immigrant children. To capture the lonely hetero male demographic that's too old to either Google for porn or buy Playboy, Fox News employs a host of attractive women in a cunning, devious strategy to let their viewers watch the very thing they want to see (those heartless bastards!). Since many of these women were former models or have used the network to bolster their modeling careers, Fox News does not hire them for their qualifications, agency, or journalistic integrity, but to have them look good in short skirts and hooker boots while regurgitating wingnut talking points. In fact, this phenomenon might be another case of wingnut welfare, but with sexist seasoning. It's one thing to be presentable and attractive, but qualifications come first, and while we can't blame women for wanting to be hired at Fox News to be successful, we can certainly blame Fox News for being the ones making the judgment calls to prioritize appearance and leering over good journalism.
Fox News is the only network that employs a full-time "image consultant". Compared to other news networks, the amount of makeup used on the network has also been said to be much greater by guests like Liza Mundy."Fox News Makeup For Women Anchors: Why So Much? (PHOTOS)" 08/23/2012"Foxy Ladys", The Atlantic, September 2012
Given the questionable dynamics that Fox News encourages for female employees, women may have had to endure unwanted advances and other abuse; otherwise, their careers would not advance.There was no subtext Former network president Roger Ailes was Tricky Dick's media advisor;Same Old Party he resigned amid widespread accusations of sexual harassment from several women, suggestive of a culture tolerating sexual harassment at the network. There is an allegation that at least one woman was pressured to get other women into positions where they would be vulnerable to harassment and forced to put up with sexual advances from Ailes, who was about twice her age at the start. The victim claimed that this led to her mental health severely deteriorating.Former Fox News Booker Says She Was Sexually Harassed and ‘Psychologically Tortured’ by Roger Ailes for More Than 20 Years
===Notable (dysfunctional) personalities===
===Former personalities===
==Programming==
Fox News' usual programming includes anything containing the words Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith, celebrity, or other such pointless drivel. Occasionally, they let actual news slip by, but it's always quickly removed. They are also your national headquarters for uninteresting .
Fox News mostly enjoys providing shouting matches about anything that bothers them. Say what you will about Rupert Murdoch; he knows a good business model when he sees it. Instead of training journalists and shipping them to newsworthy spots, he hires demagogues to scream hysterically for hours. Filling airtime with real stories costs much more money than having lunatics rave, and besides, temper tantrums are often morbidly fascinating. During the temporary short periods of relaxation to catch your breath, they occasionally mention some real "news" but quickly change the subject.
Fox News was the first to try and convince us that Barack Obama is a Muslim sleeper trained in a radical Islamic madrasa, a co-conspirator of terrorist Bill Ayers, who salutes his wife with a "terrorist fist jab". The network is still awaiting a Pulitzer for these notable revelations.Obama Smeared As Former ‘Madrassa’ Student, Possible Covert Muslim Extremist
Covering international affairs, Fox News finds a way to point out whatever effect it has on the United States, such as: "Lots of murder and genocide is going on in that small African country, but fortunately, the US has no plans to send soldiers there at all," or: "The Asian stock market crashed today in a total collapse of their economy; as a result, the US stock market will likely suffer slightly until the Asians get their act together."
Fox News invented the technique of showing one thing on the screen while commenting upon the opposite, such as Sean Hannity repeatedly asserting that Rudy Giuliani was winning in the 2008 Republican debates, despite live polls showing Ron Paul winning.Fox's Hannity reports Ron Paul losing when actually winning In November 2009, Hannity marveled at the turnout for a conservative political rally while showing footage of another. Hannity and Fox News reported long queues for Sarah Palin's book signings, but the video actually came from a McCain campaign rally a year earlier.Fox News again accused of airing misleading video
When a major news story is breaking, and the news is injurious to conservatives or Republicans or can't otherwise be avoided, Fox News takes one or more of these strategies:
# Remind viewers that President Bill Clinton had fellatio in the White House and "damaged" the Presidency
# Bring in some sort of reminder about 9/11 and emphasize that the nation is safer from terrorism because of what the Republicans are doing.
# Offer 'proof' that Barack Obama is a radical Muslim/Nazi/communist/socialist/anti-American/n-n-Negro/terrorist/born in Kenya or somewhere else foreign
# Change the subject by presenting celebrity gossip or covering "breaking news" (Fox News Alert), such as an oil refinery fire in Arkansas, far away from the damaging news on Capitol Hill
# Blame liberals, leftists, socialists, communists, Antifa, centrists, progressives, fake Republicans, Democrats, Clintons, France, O.J. Simpson, and/or actual news media
# Bringing up the Steele Dossier or something about FISA reports, just when they're losing you, to give the impression they speak from evidence-based facts
# When all of the above fails, just go ahead and change the party affiliation (from R to D) of the person who's in trouble (see below)
===Flogging wingnut pseudoscience===
Naturally, Fox News loves manufactroversies over evolution and global warming. They've gone as far as to hawk Ken Ham's Creation Museum,The Sensuous Curmudgeon provides a few examples. and global warming denial is also a favorite.Watch Bill Nye smack down a denier on Billo's show During the breaking of the Climategate "story", VP Bill Sammon sent a memo encouraging anchors to run with the story, writing, "It is not our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies."Fox News Reporters Ordered to Promote Climategate Conspiracy Theories, Grist Steve Milloy, of course, is a constant source of denialism, general anti-environmentalism, and copious amounts of hippie-punching.
In April 2018, Fox News promoted the contrasting opinions of conspiracy theorist/Biblical numerologist David Meade and young-Earth creationist Jonathan Sarfati while briefly mentioning NASA regarding Planet X/Nibiru.Biblical prophecy claims the Rapture is coming April 23, numerologist says (April 11, 2018) Fox News.Fox News: Either Planet X Will Kill Us All on April 23rd or the Rapture Can Happen Any Time, Take Your Pick by Tom McKay (April 12, 2018, 12:20am) Gizmodo.
===Ad refusals===
Fox News is known for occasionally refusing advertisements that don't align with Murdoch's view of what's good for America. For example, in May 2010, it refused to air an ad from VoteVets, veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, which asked for clean energy development to reduce the U.S.'s dependence upon Middle Eastern oil. Weber, Christopher. Fox News Refuses to Air Climate Bill Ad PoliticsDaily
===Gold coin ad scams===
Fox News, however, is happy to run many advertisements that are outright scams. Specifically, its favorite scam advertisements concern gold. As far back as the late 2000s, Fox News host Glenn Beck was happy to shill gold (as a supposed "hedge" against "economic collapse") from a shady company called Goldline."Glenn Beck’s Gold Deal Raising Questions at Fox" by Bill Carter, New York Times, 2009 December 13 Goldline pioneered the business model of baiting customers seeking to invest in gold bullion and instead selling them highly overpriced gold coins by using bullshit paranoid claims, such as insinuations that the government will come after any standard bullion gold and claims that an economic collapse is coming soon. For this, in 2011, they were charged with false advertising, conspiracy, and theft by false pretenses."Goldline Execs Charged With Fraud" by Matthew Mosk and Brian Ross, ABC News, 2011 November 11 In 2012, Goldline received an injunction where they had to refund $45 million to defrauded customers and drop the paranoid bullshit advertising tactics."Glenn Beck’s Favorite Gold Company Forced to Refund $4.5 Million to Customers" by Stephanie Mencimer, Mother Jones, 2012 February 23
Despite Goldline's bust-up, several other scam organizations (many of them fronted by ex-Goldline employees) copied Goldline's model of running gold advertisements on Fox News (and other conservative outlets such as Newsmax) with tales of economic doom designed to scam senior citizens out of their retirement savings. Naturally, many of these advertisements took advantages of the hyper-partisan propaganda Fox News was spewing by darkly parroting similar Chicken Little style doom bullshit about Democrat politicians like Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden."A shiny scheme is draining retirement accounts. Right-wing media enables it." by Hanna Kozlowska, MSNBC News, 2023 August 20 Sometimes, in order to enhance the appeal of the scam ads, the advertisements used actors recognizable to the Boomer demographic target (such as the 1980s primetime soap opera star who shilled for a shady gold coin operation called ) In other cases, in a similar manner to Beck's Goldline shilling, conservative pundits political figures directly did the shilling themselves (as an example, Rudy Giuliani shilled for yet another shady gold company called American Hartford Gold on his podcasts)."Fox News Is the Gold Standard of Television Journalism" by Galanty Miller, Huffington Post blog, 2014 August 16"InterMedia Entertainment Goes For The Gold With William Devane As Spokesman For Rosland Capital", PR release, InterMedia Entertainment, 2013 July 29 As anecdotal examples, in July 2023, the Washington Post reported that one disabled retiree was scammed out of $80,000 by a gold scam company called Lear Capital, and another senior citizen was scammed out of $47,000 by American Hartford Gold."How right-wing news powers the ‘gold IRA’ industry" by Jeremy B. Merrill and Hanna Kozlowska, Washington Post, 2023 July 25
Of course, the scam companies don't just rely on Fox News TV advertisements. These companies also specifically look online for Fox News viewers so that they can run gold coin scam ads on their Facebook feed, using the same fear-mongering tactics."A precious-metals scheme used fear and Facebook to trick older conservatives out of their savings" by Jeremy B. Merrill and Hanna Kozlowska, Quartz, 2019 November 18
===Musical interludes===
In 2006, Trent Reznor of the rock band Nine Inch Nails issued a cease and desist to Fox News for using his band's songs "La Mer", "The Great Below", and "The Mark Has Been Made" on their program War Stories with Oliver North without his permission.Reznor, Trent; Fox News, War Stories, and Nine Inch Nails NIN Hotline Reznor posted on his blog, "Thanks for the Fox News heads-up. A cease and desist has been issued. Fuck Fox Fucking News."Reznor, Trent; Fuck Fox Fucking News NIN Hotline
In 2011, Adam Levine of Maroon 5 issued a similar cease-and-desist order to the network for playing the band's song "Moves Like Jagger". He stated on Twitter, "Dear Fox News, don't play our music on your evil fucking channel ever again. Thank you." Fox News anchor Andy Levy replied in a tweet, "Dear @AdamLevine, don't make crappy fucking music ever again. Thank you."http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1672878/adam-levine-fox-news.jhtml Wait, if they hate Maroon 5, why did they even play their music in the first place?
===Language===
Fox News is known to continually pervert the English language to further a right-wing agenda. Thus, suicide bombers became, in Fox Newspeak, homicide bombers at the same time the Bush administration was encouraging news outlets to use this term. Don't like political correctness? Fuck you libtards; let's make our own!
==Availability==
As of 2020, Fox News is available to 90 million households in the United Stateshttp://press.foxnews.com/ and to other viewers internationally. Many more outrageous or potentially controversial clips, particularly those of their opinion pundits, are widely available on YouTube.
Towards the end of 2014, the satellite television company Dish got into an altercation with Fox News's parent company, with the network claiming that Dish needed to pay them more to continue carrying their channel due to the rising cost of maintaining it. Dish reported that Fox News attempted to double their contract rate, which Dish was willing to meet, but the network tried to triple the rate on an unrelated channel that had a contract not set to expire for some time.As told from a Dish supporter's POV As a result, Fox News was blacked out on all Dish Network devices for several weeks, causing quite a nasty dip in its ratingsAs per IBTimes before the two could reach a new deal.Fox and Dish Reach a New Deal
Fox News was available in the United Kingdom via Murdoch's Sky satellite TV service until 2017, when it was withdrawn.Sky stops broadcasting rightwing US channel Fox News in UK It had a tiny audience in the UK (2,000 viewers a day) and was the target of some Ofcom rulings, although its withdrawal may have been related to a Murdoch takeover attempt, even though Sky stated it was because of the audience, which for them is due to Fox News being made for an American viewership.
==Popularity==
Fox News effectively secured a dedicated and loyal audience of considerable size, virtually all conservative Republicans. Many viewers consider Fox News the only reliable source of information in America, with the channel literally being the only media outlet out of 30 American media sources that most Republicans trusted in a Pew survey in January 2020.Mark Jurkowitz, Amy Mitchell, Elisa Shearer and Mason Walker (January 24, 2020). "U.S. Media Polarization and the 2020 Election: A Nation Divided". Pew Research Center. It would be laughable if it wasn't so awful for American politics."This 1 chart explains how bad Fox News is for our politics", Chris Cilizza, CNN.com, 2020 January 24
===Polls===
====Popularity====
In January 2010, a survey conducted by Public Policy Polling revealed Fox News as the most trusted name in television, voted top by three-quarters of Republicans and considerably fewer Democrats.Most Trusted name in TV News {PDF} 
Despite their higher-than-everyone-else ratings, everyone else is labeled as the "mainstream media". That fact, combined with the conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group's dominance over local television news, could bring one to wonder where the "mainstream liberal media" idea ever came from.
====Reliability====
Popularity does not translate into integrity or knowledge. In 2010, a University of Maryland study found that Fox News viewers aren't merely the most uninformed but the most misinformed.Fox News Viewers Are The Most Misinformed In 2015, 58% of Fox's rated statements at PolitiFact rated "Mostly False" or worse, with 29% of all statements rating "False" outright.PunditFact scores the news, one year later
In 2011, a study conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University found similar results: that people who watched no news were better informed than those who watched Fox News. Fox News viewers were much more likely "to believe false information about politics."Fox News Viewers Know Less Than People Who Don't Watch Any News The study also revealed Fox News fans had a poor grasp of situations in the Middle East.Study Shows Fox News Viewers Less Informed on Major Stories
==Political involvement==
George W. Bush White House communications director credited Hannity and El Rushbo with shaping Republican strategy.HannityPAC: The GOP's man inside Fox
In February 2023, it was revealed in the Dominion lawsuit that Rupert Murdoch personally shared un-aired Joe Biden campaign ads with Donald Trump advisor , potentially violating the law."FEC complaints filed over allegations Murdoch gave Kushner unaired Biden political ads" by Julia Mueller, The Hill, 2023 March 5
===Republican Governors donations===
In August 2010, Fox News Corp continued its 'fair and balanced' doctrine, donating $1 million to the Republican Governors Association.The Daily Show; Jon Stewart Slams Fox News For Giving $1 Million to the Republican Party, 2010-Aug-19 Bloomberg News reports Fox News Corp is the largest corporate donor to the RGA.BusinessWeek; Republicans See Gains in Governors’ Races as Funding Hits Peak, 2010-Aug-16Media Matters; Fox News' corporate parent gave Republican Governors Association $1 million, 2010-Aug-16
===Tea Party===
Throughout the 2009-2010 congressional campaign season, Fox News Corp strongly backed and at times took credit for the Tea Party movement, showcasing Sarah Palin and often backing fringe candidates such as Christine O'Donnell"Mike Castle is over. Christine O'Donnell is now": The making of a Fox News candidateFox News Has a Christine O'Donnell Problem and Sharron Angle,Sharron Angle suggests she prefers to appear on Fox because they let her raise moneyHannityPAC: The GOP's man inside Fox: "Sharron Angle bragged about raising money on Hannity's show" as well as lunatic figures such as Michelle Bachmann. They've also been notorious for racist and sexist slurs against politicians such as President Barack Obama, House member Nancy Pelosi, and congressman Maxine Waters.
Fox News took out full-page ads in the Washington Post, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal.Fox News Newspaper Ad Makes False Claims About Tea Party Coverage In promoting the Tea Party, Fox often took the false approach that mainstream news ignored this important news story, crafting prominent headlines reading, "How did ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN miss this story?"'False' Fox Ad Enrages ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN This blatant attempt at smearing the media offended a lot of hard-working and real journalists.
===Gabrielle Giffords shooting===
Fox backed away from self-criticism in the January 8, 2011 shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, in which six others were killed, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl. In repudiating responsibility for rhetoric, Sean Hannity implied liberals were at fault. On January 12, Sarah Palin issued a “blood libel” video statement, denying her Giffords-in-the-crosshairs attacks could be at fault while implying she (Palin) was the real victim.Sarah Palin's 'blood libel' claim stirs controversy
Meanwhile, Fox canceled a planned appearance of Joan Rivers, who partially blamed the Arizona shootings on Palin and referred to Sarah as "stupid and a threat."Controversy Over Fox Show Canceling Joan Rivers Fox naturally denied cancellation, insisting it wasn't censorship but a 'mistake', immediately refuted by Joan's daughter Melissa Rivers and a Rivers producer and representative.Fox Bans Joan Rivers over Controversial Sarah Palin Comments
==Criticism==
Fox News has been the subject of a variety of criticisms.
===Conspiracy theories===
Fox News has supported many conspiracy theories about subjects such as Benghazi, the IRS, Jonathan Gruber, Obamacare, the deep state,Trump touts Hannity’s show on ‘Deep State crime families’ led by Mueller, Comey and Clintons by Samantha Schmidt (April 12, 2018) The Washington Post. and many others, to the point of idiots citing them.10 conspiracy theories that turned Fox News into the Donald Trump Channel (commentary) by Douglas Perry (November 01, 2017 at 02:10 PM | Updated November 01, 2017 at 02:10 PM) The Oregonian.
Fox has been sued for spreading defamatory information from conspiracy theoriesFox News and Alex Jones Are Being Sued for Conspiracy Mongering by Adam K. Raymond (March 14, 2018 11:39 am) New York Magazine. but has been happy to (rightly) claim that YouTube also spreads conspiracy theories.YouTube apologizes for top trending conspiracy video that claimed Parkland survivor is an actor by Chris Ciaccia (February 21st, 2018) Fox News.
===Disguised opinion===
Instead of sourcing, Fox News uses phrases like "some say…" or "someone asked…" to obscure editorial manipulation and opinion-casting. 'Some' have called it (wink) empty calories of journalism.Video: Credibility Loss in 93 Seconds
Their inclination towards being a comedy show is heightened by their ridiculous opinion debates, where they all sit around a table, spouting out rubbish propaganda that conservatives have paid them to say. They have also contradicted their own reporters when they find the news not to their liking. They then try to think of a way to disguise this travesty of a debate into a legitimate one by inviting a guest, who then debunks them before they cut them off. This is a regular occurrence in the Fox News network - conservative propaganda, ignoring stories that hurt the Republican party, and if they can somehow squeeze it in - bash President Obama and sing songs of Trump. One could call Fox News a comedy show, but one of poor, unintentional humor.
===Graphics===
Fox News exploits the mathematical illiteracy of the public by using graphs distorted beyond what mere incompetence could explain. In many cases, their figures don't add up, and in others, numbers are graphically misrepresented - as people rarely examine the traits of the graph such as scaling, numbers on the X and Y axis, and proportions of the pieces of the graph.Boing Boing - Fox News decrees that 8.6% > 8.9%
On their website, Fox News has also been known to publish digitally manipulated images altered to suit their narrative."Fox News runs digitally altered images in coverage of Seattle’s protests, Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" by Jim Bruner, Seattle Times, 2020 June 12
===Fox Nation===
In April 2009, Media Matters began documenting Fox Nation's false and blatantly biased stories. After one year, their laundry list of the most extreme examples contained approximately 425 entries.Media Matters: Fox Nation Blatant errors and falsehoods
===Transphobia and homophobia===
Fox News has long been criticized for transphobic and homophobic bias. Back in 2014, Fox News played an important rule on turning the Jack Phillips controversy--a story based around a homophobic baker who didn't want to bake a wedding cake for gay customers--into national news.How Fox News Helped Promote State Anti-Gay Segregation Bills Fox News also has a long history of giving the spotlight to Christians who attempt to use their religion as a justification for homophobia.How Fox News Is Helping Homophobes Hijack Christianity
In 2015, Fox's homophobia led them to believe a utterly nonsensical story about a student in California being bullied on the basis of anti-gay beliefs.Fox News Gets Duped By Another Bogus Anti-Gay Horror Story
Fox has also long been accused of transphobia, to the point where multiple experts have said that their coverage of transgender issues contributes to violence and discrimination against transgender people,Experts: Fox News' Coverage Contributes To Violence, Discrimination Against Transgender Community with many taking the time to document the various ways Fox fear mongers about transgender people.How Fox News Turns Transgender People Into Villains
During the first two months of the Biden Administration, Fox aired eighty six segments vilifying transgender people.Fox News has aired 86 segments about trans people since President Biden took office
===Outfoxed===
The documentary Outfoxed examines the biases and internal pressures at Fox News and its network outlets.Outfoxed Rupert Murdoch's war on journalism
===Further wingnut welfare===
Besides its stable of news babes, Fox keeps many other wingnuts on its dole. The two most egregious examples are the former GOP convicts it employs, Oliver North, an architect of the Iran-Contra affair, and G. Gordon Liddy, one of the Watergate plumbers. (Bets on when Tom DeLay gets hired?) Then there are the "analysts" like Frank Luntz and Karl Rove. Don't forget your Steve Milloy-type corporate shills, either.
===Wikipedia===
Wikipedia dedicates an entire article to Fox News distortions and questionable acts. It is 88 kilobytes, about 10,000 words long, while the main article is only around 64 kb and 8000 words long. is so controversial they had to semi-protect it. Constant changes to this article were found to have been made from an IP address in a Fox News office.
===Media Matters===
Media Matters reports instances in which Fox News altered images of people, places, and things to influence viewers.Media Matters on Fox They even have subcategories for individual programs and personalities.
====The party switch====
One of the more interesting Fox techniques involves the fairly consistent "party switch" from Republican (R) to Democrat (D) when a prominent GOP member is caught up in a public scandal. The following is a list of various examples of such:See here for screen captures.
* — A Republican member of the House of Representatives from Florida, Foley was alleged to have sent sexually inappropriate messages via email and text messages to teenage male pages. Ironically, he also introduced the "Child Modeling Exploitation Prevention Act of 2002". In several interviews, Fox News tagged him as a (D), or Democrat, on their subtitles.They really have done this - as documented by the Daily Show on October 4, 2006.
*John McCain — Seen by many as a more moderate Republican during and following the 2004 Republican primaries, Fox News also labeled him a (D).
*Whitehouse / Chafee — During the pivotal 2006 Senate election in Rhode Island, eventual victor Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse was polling 10+ percentage points over the incumbent Lincoln Chafee. Fox News reported that Whitehouse (R) was leading Chafee (D) by 11 points.
* — Before the 2008 Senate elections, this Senator from Alaska faced charges of failing to disclose benefits received. Fox News labeled him a (D).
*Mark Sanford — The Republican Governor of South Carolina in 2009 was dramatically found to be having an affair with an Argentinian woman after a week in which his whereabouts were unknown. During his press conference in which he admitted his affair, Fox News identified him as a (D).
* — Missouri governor who was indicted on invasion of privacy in early 2018. While he was a Democrat until 2015, he switched parties and ran for governor as a Republican, but Fox decided to pretend the latter few years never happened and identified him as a (D).
===Foxual revisionism===
Fox has notoriously edited crowds at staged events to inflate the appearance of large numbers that attended Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Tea Party "events". Writer James Hibberd shows a "fun gotcha" how Fox photoshops (or videoshops) footage to exaggerate crowd number sizes for their reality program Master Chef.James Hibbard, MasterChef Fake Crowd Shot. Entertainment Weekly, 22 June 2011.
Chris Wallace interviewed Jon Stewart on his show Fox News Sunday, where Stewart gave a pretty decent spanking to Fox News and Wallace. However, when it was broadcast, Fox had deleted 10 minutes of the 24-minute interview, including all the embarrassing bits.Jon Stewart LIVE On Fox News, Tells Host 'You're Insane' (VIDEO)Chris Wallace: Jon Stewart Interview Editing Was Fair (VIDEO)
Not to be deterred by revisionism, the following Tuesday, Stewart used the predominant theme "Fox News doesn't lie" in the edited interview and listed dozens of Fox lies.Jon Stewart Trumpets False Fox News Statements Fact-Checked By Politifact (VIDEO) Wallace's response to the editing and lies pointed out by Stewart was to apologize for saying Fox News provided the other side of the story instead of the full story... or, as Stewart paraphrased, "That's your 'setting the record straight'? 'I accidentally told the truth and now I wish I could take it back'?"Jon Stewart Rips Chris Wallace, Fox News 'Crybabies' For Not Responding To Fact Checks (VIDEO)
===Alleged racism===
In 2008 a former employee named Harmeen Jones complained of daily racism against him and others, to which he was fired. These comments concerned African-Americans, Arabs, Muslims, Hispanics, women, and Jews. The said employee proceeded to sue Fox News. Harmeen also claims he was often told "you look like a gangster" or "like you're ready to shoot someone" and that he was advised by other minorities to keep his head down.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/20/fox-news-lawsuit-sued-employee-racism-abuse_n_770718.html
===Criticism of Fox's use of ISIS raw propaganda video footage===
In February 2015, Fox News embedded an Islamic State propaganda video in its entirety of captured Jordanian pilot Muadh al-Kasasbeh being burned to death, including the (untranslated) ISIS propaganda narrative. Jack Nance, an expert on Islamic extremism, including ISIS, stated,Fox News site embeds unedited Isis video showing brutal murder of Jordanian pilot: Only US network to feature graphic video showing Muadh al-Kasasbeh burning to death. Twitter accounts associated with Isis supporters are sharing video via links to Fox News
===COVID-19===
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fox News spent much of the time downplaying the severe nature of the disease"Fox News’ COVID Denial Hasn’t Aged Well" by Caleb Ecarma, Fox News, 2020 September 24 and was more likely to spread disinformation about social distancing or promote medical quackery by Donald Trump."How did U.S. television news networks cover the pandemic? Here’s a scorecard." By Ceren Budak, Ashley Muddiman and Natalie (Talia) Stroud, Washington Post, 2021 Feb 3 Fox News hosts (Tucker Carlson in particular) also regularly promoted anti-vaccination skepticism."Tucker Carlson Is Leading the Anti-Vax Right" by Alex Shephard, News Republic, 2021 March 17"Whiplash: Fox News Can’t Get Its COVID Vaccine Story Straight" by Charlotte Klein, Vanity Fair, 2021 March 17 A 2020 study found that exposure to Fox News was correlated with decreased social distancing and less inclination to heed public health guidelines, harming containment efforts and contributing to the higher death toll of COVID-19 in the United States."Exposure to Fox News hindered social distancing in the US" by 
Maxim Ananyev, Michael Poyker, and Yuan Tian (20 Oct 2020) VoxEU (Centre for Economic Policy Research). A 2022 study found that Fox News reduced vaccination rates among viewers, separately from the known effect of Republicans getting vaccinated less often than Democrats.Cable News and COVID-19 Vaccine Compliance by Matteo Pinna et al. (2021-07) Center for Law & Economics Working Paper Series 2021(09). doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000496948.How much of right-wing opposition to vaccination was Fox News’s fault? by Philip Bump (October 10, 2022 at 2:10 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post. Tucker Carlson's show was particularly noteworthy for spreading misinformation about vaccines in the study.
===Supporting Trump's bullshit election fraud claims===
After Donald Trump lost the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Trump's response was to repeatedly make baseless allegations that widespread fraud caused his defeat. This led to a noticeable split in network coverage, particularly after December 10, 2020, when voting machine manufacturer threatened legal action."Fox News is debunking election fraud claims made by its own anchors in response to a legal threat" by Yelena Dzhanova, Business Insider, 2020 Dec 20"Fox News’s election fraud pandering may be its most dangerous lie yet" by Peter Kafka, Vox, 2020 November 13 One side of the network knew very well the libelous nature of Trump's claims and was reluctant to support them. There even were a few anchors that pushed back against Trump's claims as bullshit "designed to undermine your faith in American democracy"."Fox News Anchor Thoroughly Debunks Trump’s Election Fraud Claims" by Josephine Harvey, Huffington Post, 2020 November 15 The other side (particularly prime-time hosts like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson) were all too happy to portray the election as rigged."Fox News hosts sow distrust in legitimacy of election" by Oliver Darcy, CNN Business, 2020 November 5 This despite that, privately, many of these prime-time stars (as well as many other Fox News staff) knew that Trump's election fraud claims (as well as the over-the-top antics of Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and ) were completely full of shit."Fox News hosts, execs privately doubted 2020 conspiracy claims shared on air" by Jeremy Barr and Rachel Weiner, Washington Post, 2023 February 17
The mere suggestion from the "news side" of Fox News (where facts still mattered a little) that Trump lost the election was a step too far for some Fox News viewers. Preferring Trump ass-kissing propaganda outlets where facts didn't matter, they fled to "news networks" like Newsmax and OANN."With TV news viewing polarized, slice of Republicans leaving Fox and watching Newsmax" by Anthony Man, South Florida Sun Sentinel, 2021 Mar 9"Newsmax Rises On Wave Of Resentment Toward Media — Especially Fox News" by David Folkenflik, NPR, 2020 November 30"Fox News’s post-Trump identity crisis, explained by an expert" by Aaron Rupar, Vox, 2020 December 25
Ultimately, these fraud allegations accumulated on January 6, 2021, to spark the 2021 U.S. coup attempt, where a few thousand far-right terrorists, fueled by the rhetoric of Donald Trump at a rally a few hours earlier, stormed the Capitol building to try and stop the confirming that Joe Biden won the election. Predictably, Fox News hosts tried to shift the blame to Antifa"Right-Wing Media Is Desperate To Blame Antifa For The Pro-Trump Capitol Riots" by Nick Robins-Early, Huffington Post, 2021 January 7 despite there being zero evidence that Antifa activists were any part of this attack."FBI Director Christopher Wray repeatedly rebuts claims that antifa activists attacked Capitol" by Rebecca Shabad, NBC News, 2021 March 2 At least one Capitol riot defendant claimed that he suffered from "Foxitis" and "Foxmania" and believed the lies about the 2020 election propagated by Fox News and Trump.Paul LeBlanc, Man who claimed ‘Foxitis’ prompted him to rush Capitol says he believed ‘America was being robbed of a president’. CNN, 10 May 2021.Matt Shuham, Capitol Rioters’ ‘Trump Defense’ Comes Up Again And Again. Will It Make A Difference? Talking Points Memo, 18 May 2021.
On February 4, 2021, voting machine manufacturer got tired of the bullshit and filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News, along with three Fox anchors that were prominent in making baseless fraud claims (, Lou Dobbs, and )."Fox News Is Sued by Election Technology Company for Over $2.7 Billion" by Jonah E. Bromwich and Ben Smith, New York Times, 2021 Feb 4 Fox News responded 24 hours later by canceling Lou Dobbs as a sacrificial lamb."Why Fox News canceled Lou Dobbs" by Alexis Benveniste, CNN Business, 2021 February 8 followed up on March 26, 2021, by filing a $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News over false claims.Fox News sued for $1.6bn over false election claims: Dominion Voting Systems filed the claim against the broadcaster by Louise Hall (March 26, 2021) The Independent.
In September 2023, a former Fox News producer named Jason Donner, who had worked there for 12 years as a Capitol Hill producer until he was fired from his job in September 2022, sued Fox News for wrongful termination. According to the lawsuit, Donner alleged that his firing was punishment for his political views, as part of a "purge" of employees who refused to only report information that would "appease" Donald Trump and his supporters. In particular, Donner who was inside the Capitol when the 2021 coup attempt happened, vehemently disagreed with Fox News' coverage of the self-coup participants. (When he heard Fox News report that rioters were "peaceful" in spite of the actual violence going on, he called the Fox News control room to yell a bunch of expletives at them and declare that "you're gonna get us all killed".) Donner also was ticked off by Tucker Carlson's pseudohistorical schlockumentary "Patriot Purge"."Former Fox News reporter says in lawsuit he was fired after challenging Jan. 6 coverage" by Lindsay Whitehurst, AP News, 2023 November 13"Producer sues Fox News, claims he was fired for challenging Jan. 6 coverage" by Will Sommer, Washington Post, 2023 November 14
===Quotes about Fox News===
==A string of lies too big to swallow==
In the aftermath of the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris by Muslim extremists, anti-Islam fever was at an all-time high. Naturally, this led to much speculation from many news channels about how Islam would be affected by the general public's new attitude toward it. Over on Bullshit Mountain, however, they decided to cut the speculation crap and dive into their asses headfirst to feed the hysteria.
On a Friday much like any other typical Friday at Fox, Fox Report host Julie Banderas was hosting a self-described "Islamic Terrorist Expert" going by the name of Steve Emerson. During the interview, Emerson referred to the "fact" that Birmingham in England was a city with a population composed of 70% Muslims (somehow overlapping with the 46.1% of the population that are listed as Christian in the 2011 and most recent census) and that there were several places in Sweden, London, Germany, Paris, etc. that had sharia law set up as that region's law, and that they were almost "a country within a country".Steven Emerson On Fox News - Birmingham is all Muslim (Full clip), YouTubeThe Guardian, "Birmingham is ‘totally Muslim’ city, claims Fox News pundit", January 12, 2015 However, the huge lie that got everyone's attention was Emerson's claim of supposed "no-go zones" in Paris, which Fox repeated in other reports.Fox News: France, Paris "NO-GO" Zone / Special Report, YouTube
The following Saturday, the network apologized for the factual errors not once but four times.New York Times, "Fox News Apologizes for False Claims of Muslim-Only Areas in England and France", January 18, 2015 Within minutes, memes were flying, and FOX's usual detractors were rolling out the "I told you so"s. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, announced plans to sue Fox News for the slander and libel brought about by the network and received approval from the city's council.The Guardian, "Paris moves to sue Fox News for false reporting on Muslim 'no-go zones'", February 12, 2015
Even if we disregard Steve Emerson's comments, the days following the Hebdo attacks were an awful week for racist scaremongering by Fox pundits. Bob Beckel lamented the increase in interracial dating among young people and suggested this helped make them more receptive to radical Islam.Salon, "Fox's Bob Beckel compares supporting radical Islam to supporting interracial dating", January 9, 2015 Shannon Bream wondered aloud how we can tell whether masked criminals are "typical bad guys" if we can't see their skin color.Huffington Post, , January 9, 2015 Jeanine Pirro launched a hateful rant calling for the mass extermination of Islamic extremists by arming other Muslims and then "simply looking the other way".Vox, "Fox News host calls for mass murder of Islamists in unhinged rant", January 12, 2015.
Not even two weeks later, Bill O'Reilly pushed that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had not been charged with desertion (no doubt to impassion his viewers against our "Muslim-in-Chief"). However, this lie had been confirmed since that morning, and they were again caught in the act.If You Only NewsBREAKING: FOX NEWS EPIC BLUNDER! US ARMY SAYS BERGDAHL HAS NOT BEEN CHARGED WITH DESERTION, January 27, 2015 While it is true that there will first be a hearing held to determine whether to proceed to trial, this is a far cry from not charging the man.
Things quieted down on the network for a few months after the Bergdahl claim. Although during the Brian Williams scandal Bill O'Reilly fended off statements by his former employers and coworkers that he had not covered those wars with his pen in the thick of it.Bill vs. Brian's Claims InvestigationHere's Every Claim Made Against Bill O'Reilly So FarCBS staffers dispute Bill O'Reilly's 'war zone' story While Bill had called for Brian Williams to be pulled off the air, Fox and Bill didn't have a single care about the many exaggerations of Bill's experiences, dismissing them as part of a left-wing campaign while admitting that at least some of the detractors' claims appeared to be correct.Bill O'Reilly claims false, admits Fox News: Why that won't hurt him at Fox
However, then came the 2015 Baltimore riots. News media, in general, was pretty incompetent when it came to informing the public about the Baltimore riots, and Fox was no exception. All the news media organizations focused on the actual rioting, and very few focused on the peaceful protests, but when they did, it was full of blunders. Geraldo Rivera mistakenly attempted to speak to one of said peaceful protesters whom he thought was Russel Simmons, then claimed he looked like Russel Simmons when the man denied he was Mr. Simmons (though it's worth pointing out that CNN took it a step further and actually speculated Mr. Simmons was masquerading as the man in question when he wasn't). But Fox took their coverage of the riots further than anyone else.
On May 4, 2015, Fox attempted to get fears of the rioting started again with Mike Tobin, who claimed to be on the scene in Baltimore with the Fox crew, and that a Baltimore police officer had shot a young black man. Greta Van Susteren then stirred the pot by announcing this on Twitter without adequately following up on it. She followed up with a couple more tweets until the Baltimore Police Department tweeted that no one had been shot, refuting Tobin's claim. Van Susteren attempted to save face by saying everyone should turn on Fox to watch as they tried to sort it out.
Eventually, a freelance reporter managed to get Tobin to admit that he had not actually witnessed the crime he had apparently witnessed and that he had been in his van the entire time, the exact opposite of what he had said 20 minutes before. After a few hours, Shepard Smith had to step in, bring it back to the set, and apologize for screwing up yet again.
Nevertheless, it didn't stop people from circulating the information after the retraction, but the Baltimore Police Department is firm in that it didn't happen. The whole saga can be seen on Snopes Today.THE BALTIMORE SHOOTING THAT WASN’T
==See also==
*Fun:Fox
*Fake news
*Fox Business Network
*GB News — Whose backers deny being the British version of the Fox News
*Liberal bias
*Mainstream media
*MSNBC — The liberal counter
*Newsmax — A Fox News competitor that's somehow even more loonier 
*OANN — The conservative counter
*Pravda.ru — the Russian affiliate
*Roger Ailes
==External links==
*Official YouTube channel
*Idiocracy - Fox News Opening - never has a Fox parody been so simple.
*Caos on bullshit mountain ! lolololol
*Murdoch rips competitors for bias even as more Fox critics emerge on the right (source of Frum quotation)
*David Frum: Fox News Has An Interest In Marginalizing The GOP
*Misperceptions, the Media and the Iraq War, PIPA
*NewsHounds: We watch Fox so you don't have to!
*#FoxNewsFacts -- Try scrolling to the bottom. (Hint: There doesn't seem to be one.)
*fox & friends is nicer to your march if it includes neo-nazis
==Notes==
==References==
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