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march 8

Jane C. Timm

By early January 2021, Fox News hosts and executives were ready to move on from then-President Donald Trump and his insistence that the election was stolen.

"it's been 8 weeks and none of them has produced anything tangible or verifiable. and now he wants thousands of his supporters to go to DC without shelter or food to demonstrate," host Lou Dobbs texted a producer on his show on Jan. 3. "I believe the election was stolen — but without evidence we can do nothing significant."

"We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights," Tucker Carlson wrote in a Jan. 4 text to an unidentified person. "I truly can't wait."

"I hate him passionately," he continued. "I can't handle much more of this."

The revealing private messages were unsealed Tuesday night, part of a massive cache of evidence in the $1.6 billion Dominion defamation suit against Fox News and the Fox Corp. They paint a remarkably frank picture of how key players at Fox News viewed the stolen election lie that motivated a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Fox News argued the voting systems manufacturer was skewing the evidence.

“Dominion has been caught red handed again using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear FOX News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press," a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement.

Dominion has said the released documents speak for themselves.

Trump and his lawyers "have so discredited their own case, and the rest of us to some extent, that it's infuriating," Carlson continued in his texts. "Absolutely enrages me."

The next day, Jan. 5, Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch tapped an email out on his iPhone: Maybe our top talent needs to take a stand.

"It's been suggested our primetime three should independently or together say something like 'the election is over and Joe Biden won. We are all disappointed by it happened. We love America and have to turn the page. We will now be the loyal opposition criticizing every liberal mistake the new administration makes,'" Murdoch wrote to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott.

"Not those words, but a refinement would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election stolen," he added. "And the basis of his 2024 campaign."

Scott forwarded the email to Meade Cooper, the executive vice president of prime-time programming.

"I told Rupert that privately they are all there — we need to be careful about using the shows and pissing off the viewers but they know how to navigate."

Trump's troubles multiplying. His businesses now ruined! Who is going to throw a party at one of his golf clubs or hotels?

Rupert Murdoch in an Email on Jan. 12, 2021

But the top talent at Fox News never did take a stand.

Instead, prime-time hosts talked up the Stop the Steal rally taking place in Washington on Jan. 6.

On the night of Jan. 5, prime-time host Sean Hannity put Eric Trump on the air, who ran through a laundry list of exaggerated or debunked fraud claims he suggested cost his father the election.

"The Republic, its future, our futures, are hanging in the balance," Dobbs said on Jan. 5, teeing up Judicial Watch's Tom Fitton, who argued that the outcome of the election could be changed by state legislatures and Congress on Jan. 6.

And next morning, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitolin an effort to block the certification of the results of the 2020 election. Rioters smashed windows and doors, looted and ransacked offices andengaged in hours of violent clashes. About 140 officers were assaulted that day, andtwo pipe bombswere also planted nearby, but did not detonate.

The privatetexts and emails included in Dominion's evidence offer a remarkable snapshot of the frustration and discontent at Fox News hours and days after the attack — messages that were far different from what they were putting on air.

"he isn't saying what's actually going on. just beating around the bush," Carlson producer Alex Pfeiffer complained in a text exchange with Carlson senior executive producer Justin Wells and an unnamed individual, dissecting Carlson's show on Jan. 6. "why do people think it was stolen? didn't happen immacutately. trump told them thats what happened."

Inside the Fox companies, the shift was urgent, sometimes frenzied.

"Fox News very busy pivoting. ... We want to make Trump a non person," Murdoch wrote in one email on Jan. 8.

Fox News "is pivoting as fast as possible. We have to lead our viewers which is not as easy as it might seem," he wrote in another days later.

Related coverage

The day after Biden's inauguration, Murdoch was facing heat from Republican senators.

That morning, he met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and other GOP senators who were opposed to impeaching Trump.

“Still getting mud thrown at us!” Murdoch wrote. “Maybe Sean and Laura went too far,” he continued, referring to Hannity and Laura Ingraham.

He asked Scott whether it was “unarguable that high profile Fox voices fed the story that the election was stolen and that January 6th an important chance to have the result overturned.”

Scott punted the request to a group of executives, noting “please send specifics.”

Six hours later, Irena Briganti, the Fox News executive in charge of communications, responded with more than 15 pages of transcripts of examples.

In a Jan. 12 email exchange with former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Murdoch said "everything changed" on the day of the riot.

"Trump's troubles multiplying. His businesses now ruined! Who is going to throw a party at one of his golf clubs or hotels?"

He went on: "Could he still resign and get Pence to pardon, then just disappear? Would Mike Pence agree?"

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From Katrina to Helene: A timeline of Fox News’ hurricane misinformation, harmful narratives, and climate denial

August 29 marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in Louisiana

Written by Allison Fisher

Published 08/28/25 mma

For two decades, Fox News has weaponized major disasters caused by supercharged storms to attack political opponents, push right-wing narratives, and deny climate change.

Major storms that hit populated areas generate wall-to-wall TV news coverage. At its best, this coverage exposes systemic issues that leave certain populations vulnerable to disasters, keeps a spotlight on both rescue and recovery processes to keep accountable those responsible for disaster response, and discusses the link between our warming planet and the intensification of storms, along with solutions for reducing climate pollution.

At its worst, coverage ignores these issues, downplaying or denying the role of climate change and using disasters to amplify false narratives and misinformation that serve a political agenda. In 20 years of hurricane reporting, Fox News’ coverage has predominately reflected the latter.

Below is an overview of some of the major storms that have made landfall in the U.S. over the past 20 years – and how Fox covered them.

Hurricane Katrina remains the costliest extreme weather disaster in U.S. history and one of the deadliest, with many of the 1,392 deaths likely having come as a direct result of the federal government’s failed response. Over 1.5 million survivors were displaced, making it also “one of the largest forced migrations in U.S. history. … Families were separated, homes were lost, and entire communities were erased.”

The media latched on to unverified stories of violence and societal breakdown, demonizing those most impacted by the storm and further delaying rescue and recovery efforts. Military forces were deployed to suppress the victims rather than evacuate them. Fox pushed this narrative of violence — “robberies, rapes, carjackings, riots and murder. Violent gangs are roaming the streets at night, hidden by the cover of darkness” — and supported the Bush administration's reported strategy of blaming the faulty emergency response on Democratic state and local officials.

Superstorm Sandy hit the eastern United States in October 2012, causing at least 182 deaths and approximately $65 billion in damage. Fox criticized the Obama administration's Hurricane Sandy relief efforts by comparing them to the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. In fact, there were few similarities between the responses, and the Obama administration's response to Sandy was widely praised by members of both parties.

Discussing Hurricane Sandy on the November 1, 2012, edition of his show, Fox host Sean Hannity asked: “So where's President Obama? Well, after his photo-op with Gov. Chris Christie, and the help of your tax dollars, he boards Air Force One and he begins his day with a stump speech.” Hannity later said, “And with the horrifying images of Sandy's devastation now contrasted with the president's constant campaigning, this is starting to look like, in my opinion, Obama's Katrina.”

Hurricane Harvey was, at the time, “the most significant tropical cyclone rainfall event in United States history” and was particularly devastating to Black and Hispanic communities in Texas. Discussing Hurricane Harvey on the August 25, 2017, edition of The Five, Fox host Jesse Watters downplayed the impact of climate change on hurricanes, stating, “Hurricanes have been happening since the beginning of time. … These things just happen. It’s called the weather” — a nonsensical argument, as scientists are not claiming that climate change causes hurricanes, but that it makes them stronger and more intense.

Hurricane Irma, which hit Florida, was one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic. It claimed 129 lives in the U.S. and Caribbean and cost an estimated $52 billion in damages. Discussing Hurricane Irma on the September 11, 2017, edition of The Five, co-host Greg Gutfeld also brought up the frequency of hurricanes while ignoring intensity, stating that “landfalling U.S. hurricanes, they’ve been decreasing over the last 140 years.”

Hurricane Maria killed an estimated 3,000 people in the U.S. territory and caused roughly $90 billion worth of damage. President Donald Trump’s administration was widely criticized for its response and for blocking federal aid to Puerto Rico, which struggled for weeks to return power to its residents. The mayor of San Juan publicly criticized Trump’s response, and Trump drew backlash when he threw paper towels into the crowd at a relief center. Lying about death toll numbers, Trump claimed Democrats had inflated the number to make him look “as bad as possible.”

Fox personalities were among the right-wing media figures who leapt to Trump's defense. Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs called the Hurricane Maria death toll a “farce” and “an amazing tortured inflation.” Fox News’ John Roberts suggested that the dispute over Maria's death toll in Puerto Rico was part of Trump’s “feud with Puerto Rican officials.”

On the October 19, 2017, edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, the former host defended Trump from charges of racism against Puerto Ricans because “Puerto Rico is 75 percent white, according to the U.S. Census.” Carlson characterized as “unfounded” the charges that the Trump administration’s response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was racist and added that “the race angle” bothered him because “it makes people hate each other, and it’s just stupid.”

Hurricane Florence caused catastrophic damage to the Carolinas, claiming at least 37 lives. On Fox, climate denier Joe Bastardi and Rush Limbaugh’s former “official climatologist” Roy Spencer dismissed the link between climate change and intensifying hurricanes in favor of the denier argument that the frequency of hurricanes is decreasing. (Climate science does not argue that climate change is increasing the number of storms, but rather that it is making storms “more intense, with higher wind speeds, heavier rainfall, and more severe storm surge.”)

On the September 14, 2018, edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Spencer talked about the declining frequency of “hits of the United States by major hurricanes,” claiming there’s too much “natural variability” to determine what influence human actions have had on hurricanes. On Hannity, Bastardi stated, “The amount of hurricanes in the last 50 years, from Florida to New England, is 37% of what it was the previous 50 years, so if there’s climate change going on, it's actually decreasing the amount of major hits.”

Affecting many states in the south, Hurricane Dorian was also the worst storm ever to hit the Bahamas and was responsible for at least 78 deaths. But the lives that Dorian claimed were overshadowed by the spectacle of “Sharpie-gate” when the president altered a map of the storm’s predicted path with a marker. After Trump lied about the path of Hurricane Dorian, using a Sharpie to manufacture a threat to Alabama, not only did prime-time host Sean Hannity defend him, but Fox’s Howard Kurtz attacked the media for covering Trump’s comments. Hannity called the media who reported on Trump’s lie “psychotic jackasses” and claimed that only “Trump derangement syndrome” could explain why reporters would point out that the president was wrong.

Roy Spencer appeared on the September 2, 2019, edition of The Story with Martha MacCallum to downplay climate change’s impact on hurricanes. Spencer stated that there is “no long term trend in either their intensity or in the number of major hurricanes … that have hit Florida.” On the September 4, 2019, edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Ainsley Earhardt again brought up storm frequency in order to downplay the link between climate change and hurricanes, stating, “Hurricanes have been happening since the beginning of the atmosphere.” Later, on September 4, 2019, Jesse Watters appeared on The Story with Martha MacCallum to claim falsely that “there's no correlation between temperature and hurricanes, and there's no trend over the last hundred years about intensity or ferociousness or numbers.”

Hurricane Ida caused extensive damage from the Southeast to the Northeast U.S., where it brokeprecipitation records in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania and caused major flash flooding, killing 95 people and causing an estimated $85 billion in damages. Fox News used the storm to downplay the seriousness of climate change and attack then-President Joe Biden’s climate agenda, including the infrastructure bill that contained measures to make communities more resilient in the face of extreme weather.

While discussing Hurricane Ida on the September 7, 2021, edition of The Ingraham Angle, one of the network’s favorite climate contrarians, Michael Shellenberger, said that the frequency of hurricanes is decreasing and that there is “no significant increase” in intensity — a bald-faced lie. On the September 8, 2021, edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Joe Bastardi downplayed the intensity of the storm by arguing that other bad storms happened in the 1950s.

On the September 2, 2021, edition of Fox News’ Hannity, Sean Hannity began a segment downplaying the impacts of climate on Ida by stating, “The left is blaming climate change for the heavy rainfall, severe weather, and using it as yet another pretext to push their Green New Deal socialist agenda.” On the September 5, 2021, edition of Fox News’ The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton, host Steve Hilton ran a short segment on Democrats supposedly using Ida to implement the Green New Deal.

Hurricane Ian brought a historic storm surge and catastrophic flooding to Florida and was responsible for at least 84 storm-related fatalities. As Hurricane Ian pummeled Florida and the Carolinas, Fox News dismissed, mocked, and outright denied climate change’s impact on hurricanes. On the September 29, 2022, edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, former Fox host Tucker Carlson focused on hurricane frequency and downplayed the intensity argument, falsely claiming that “there’s no science behind these claims.” On the September 28, 2022, edition of Hannity, Sean Hannity stated, “During hurricane season, you usually have hurricanes, like we did a hundred years ago.” Later that night on The Ingraham Angle, Michael Shellenberger stated that hurricanes are “not intensifying right now, so any perception that hurricanes are more intense is just a perception fed by that relentless alarmist media.”

Meanwhile, Jesse Watters mocked Biden's disaster response. Watters said, “Maybe the reason Joe [Biden] isn't talking with the leader of the state that's about to be devastated by this natural disaster is because he's already got the whole thing covered with the Inflation Reduction Act. Sen. Amy Klobuchar laid it out for us clearly. There's no need to worry, people, because the Inflation Reduction Act and voting for Democrats is going to stop hurricanes.”

Hurricane Idalia slammed into Florida's Gulf Coast, causing approximately $4 billion in damage to one of the state's poorest and least populated areas. As climate-fueled Hurricane Idalia barreled toward Florida, Jesse Watters Primetime hosted Judith Curry, a climate contrarian who consulted for oil and gas companies during her time in academia, to argue that scientists have “seriously mischaracterized” the threat of climate change. She claimed that the “dominant factor” in climate change is “far and away” Earth’s “natural climate variability.”

On the August 30, 2023, edition of Fox News’ so-called straight news program Special Report with Bret Baier, anchor Bret Baier dismissed comments from Joe Biden connecting the storm to climate change.

With 213 fatalities, Hurricane Helene became the second deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland in 50 years, with economic losses estimated at more than $200 billion. Fox used Hurricane Helene to attack the Biden administration’s policies and disaster response while laundering harmful misinformation, even while politicians of both parties representing the impacted areas praised the response and begged media and bad actors to stop spreading misinformation that ultimately disrupted rescue and recovery efforts and put Federal Emergency Management Agency workers in danger.

One of these false and harmful claims contended that FEMA’s hurricane victim relief funds had been drained by aid to undocumented immigrants. In reality, the funding is separate and unrelated. Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity led the charge in repeating the false claim; Watters’ prime-time show repeated the lie in 5 consecutive broadcasts starting October 3, and Hannity managed 6.

Fox News also falsely claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris and the Biden administration were ignoring millions of Americans impacted by intense flooding while dishonestly claiming that victims were only entitled to $750 in aid, when in reality that is just the start of federal benefits. Fox’s misleading coverage of the $750 payments was “one of the more dishonest omissions ever seen on Fox News – which is saying something,” Mediaite senior editor Michael Luciano wrote of the misleading attack by Fox hosts Hannity, Watters, and Laura Ingraham.

Fox personalities also complained about the Biden administration’s pledge to give $157 million to Lebanon, incorrectly claiming that the humanitarian aid for Lebanon was being taken from funds that would otherwise be used for disaster relief assistance. Hannity misleadingly suggested U.S. foreign aid was competing with disaster relief for funding. Watters, meanwhile, incredulously asked, “How is it that Biden and Harris can send money overseas faster than they can send it to our own citizens?”

In May, just weeks before the start of the Atlantic hurricane season and peak extreme weather, CNN obtained an internal memo warning that FEMA was “not ready” for hurricane season. According to the internal assessment, preparations for hurricane season have been “derailed” and issues abound at the agency, “including a general uncertainty around its mission, lack of coordination with states and other federal agencies, low morale and new red tape that will likely slow responses.” Fox ignored reporting on the agency's lack of preparation for this year’s extreme weather season. The network was also quiet about multiple states that expressed frustration over delayed or denied disaster relief from the Trump administration.

On June 2, acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson made headlines, first in Reuters, for telling staff in a daily briefing that he had been unaware the U.S. has a hurricane season. Legacynewsoutlets, including cable networks CNN and MSNBC, covered Richardson’s controversial remarks and the wider concerns about FEMA’s hurricane preparedness while Fox News seemingly ignored them.

After the deadly flooding in Central Texas in early July, Fox News personalities attacked the media and prominent Democrats for linking the flooding to climate change and for raising concerns about Trump administration cuts to agencies and services that predict and respond to extreme weather events. When reporting showed that the Trump administration’s response had been delayed, Fox ran defense for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

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mma

The right’s decade-long lurch toward Vladimir Putin’s Russia

Written by Matt Gertz

:{Published 03/06/25

President Donald Trump’s actions over the past few weeks have drawn cheers from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government — and with good reason.

Trump falsely blamed Ukraine for the war that began with Russia’s 2022 invasion and described Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator,” then threw him out of the White House following a public confrontation. His administration over the same period began working with Russia on terms for a ceasefire with Ukraine, attempted to extort Ukraine for partial U.S. control of its rare mineral rights, voted with Russia against a United Nations resolution condemning its “aggression” in Ukraine, floated U.S. sanctions relief for Russia, and on Monday cut off military aid to Ukraine.

The remnants of the right-wing media still somewhat in step with the values of Ronald Reagan have spoken out against Trump’s Putinist turn. But its more popular and influential members are lining up behind the president and praising his actions.

The right-wing commentariat’s decade-long shift from near-universal antagonism to Russia to eager amplification of Kremlin propaganda has helped create the environment for Trump’s recent moves selling out Ukraine in favor of an effective alliance with Putin.

As late as 2012, the GOP and its propagandists were still uniformly anti-Russia. When former President Barack Obama told then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have “more flexibility” to negotiate on the issue of missile defense after the November election, his words were seized upon by right-wing commentators across the spectrum, from far-right outlets like Breitbart.com and The Gateway Pundit to the staid conservatives of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board to the pseudopopulists of Fox News, where hosts repeated the attack for years.

But following Obama’s reelection, a faction of the right changed course. Initially they were a fringe group seeking to rehabilitate Putin — a dictator who assassinated political opponents and defiant journalists — as a contrast with the purportedly elite Democratic president and what they deemed his excessively pro-LGBTQ policies. But the faction grew over time, drawing support from pundits like Sean Hannity, who sought counternarratives to excuse Trump’s Russia ties and attack Joe Biden’s Ukraine ones, and Tucker Carlson, who seemed to simply favor Russia’s success in its invasion of its neighbor.

The shift toward Russia became so prominent that in recent years, GOP lawmakers have sounded the alarm about pro-Kremlin propaganda infesting their party’s communications apparatus. And now, we are seeing the devastating consequences.

2013-2014: The right launches love affair with “macho man” Putin, calls him “one of us”

The right’s Putinist turn began as a revolt against a potential future of equal rights and dignity for LGBTQ people and escalated as the movement came to champion the brutish Russian dictator as an anti-Obama.

Putin signed sweeping laws during the summer of 2013 which banned the dissemination of “gay propaganda” and prohibited same-sex couples in Russia and foreigners from nations with marriage equality from adopting Russian children. This triggered widespread condemnation and even calls to boycott the impending Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

When Obama added his voice, saying in an August appearance that he had “no patience” for countries that impose laws “violating the basic morality that I think should transcend every country,” a faction of right-wing media responded by siding with Putin.

“Our moral and cultural elites have put Putin on notice: Get in step with us on homosexual rights — or we may just boycott your Sochi games,” wrote the paleoconservative Pat Buchanan. “What this reveals is the distance America has traveled, morally and culturally, in a few short years, and our amnesia about who we Americans once were, and what it is we once believed.”

Buchanan added that Putin was trying to restore the “moral compass” of the Orthodox Church. After quoting a Putin remark praising Christianity’s influence on Russia, he wrote: “Anyone ever heard anything like that from the Post, the Times or Barack Hussein Obama?”

(Putin’s opposition to marriage equality made him “one of us” in “the culture war for mankind’s future,” Buchanan suggested later that year.)

Right-wing commentators over the following years began praising Putin as the polar opposite of the caricature they had created of Obama as an effete, indecisive intellectual. In disputes between Putin and Obama — between Russia and the United States — they started hewing to the Kremlin line.

Amid U.S.-Russian altercations over the Syrian civil war, Matt Drudge deemed Putin “the leader of the free world,” while Tucker Carlson argued that he was “riding to President Obama's rescue.”

As Russia invaded Ukraine the following month, right-wing pundits like Fox’s Bill O’Reilly dissected photos of shirtless “macho man” Putin on a horse and a helmeted Obama on a bicycle. While Russian troops were occupying the Crimean Peninsula, Rudy Giuliani was telling Fox’s audience that Putin is “what you call a leader” because “he makes a decision and he executes it quickly,” while Obama has “got to think about it” before taking action.

At times, the right’s Kremlinist corps would make explicit its desire to have the Russian running the U.S. instead of Obama.

“Can we get like Netanyahu or like Putin in for 48 hours, you know, head of the United States?” former Fox host Kimberley Guilfoyle commented in August 2014. “I just want somebody to get in here and get it done right, so that Americans don't have to worry and wake up in the morning fearful of a group that's murderous and horrific like ISIS.”

While the right-wing media’s pro-Putin faction was not yet dominant, it included one particularly influential figure: Donald Trump, the reality TV star and real estate mogul who had become the GOP front-runner for the 2016 presidential nomination.

Trump touted Putin on the campaign trail as a “powerful leader” who “represented his country” better than Obama did the U.S. That praise, along with Trump’s known past (and secret contemporaneous) business interests in Russia; his hiring of campaign advisers notorious for their ties to the country; his waffling on NATO’s security guarantees; his open call for the Kremlin to intercede on his behalf; and the clear (and ultimately successful) effort by Russia's government to help him win the 2016 election triggered widespread concern about his ties to the country as he ascended to the Republican nomination and then the presidency.

Trump’s pro-Russia stance was unacceptable for some in the right-wing media — but not the stars of Fox, who made excuses for his actions.

In July 2016, for example, Trump called on Russian intelligence services to follow up their successful hack of the Democratic National Committee by finding Hillary Clinton’s emails.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said during a press conference. “You will probably be rewarded mightily.”

National security experts were horrified. But on Fox, the comment was played off as either a joke, a misunderstanding, or a media lie.

“The media has got the whole thing wrong,” Hannity claimed. “They’re purposefully distorting this whole thing, which is what they do.”

“I think what he was saying was they already stole them. They have them. Can you please return them to us,” offered Carlson.

Both Greg Gutfeld and Bret Baier told viewers that Trump had been making a joke.

However, the Kremlin seemed to take Trump both seriously and literally.

“Russian officials began to target email addresses associated with Hillary Clinton’s personal and campaign offices ‘on or around’ the same day Donald Trump called on Russia to find emails that were missing from her personal server,” PBS reported of an indictment brought by special counsel Robert Mueller two years later.

As the extent of Russia’s pro-Trump campaign came into focus, the most devoted Trumpists waved it away.

Carlson posited that claims that Russia had been behind the leaked Democratic emails published by WikiLeaks were “a lie” and repeatedly argued that the U.S. intelligence community was pushing an “unsubstantiated claim” that cyberattacks on American political institutions were “a Russian propaganda effort.”

Hannity put forward a similar thesis about the allegation of a Russian hack-and-leak effort to benefit Trump. “I'm just assuming this is another liberal media fake news story that they're all falling for, and it's politically motivated,” he claimed.

It was not.

The Trumpist right’s fervent need to defend him at all cost led to its inexorable adoption of pro-Russian narratives over the course of his presidency. During Trump’s four years in office, three main threads braided together into a rope yoking pro-Trump media figures to Putin.

First, Trump continued to habitually praise Putin and take inexplicably pro-Russian actions over the course of his presidency. In response, pro-Trump media figures defended him by explaining away or ignoring what other press outlets and even members of Trump’s own party considered abhorrent.

Trumpist commentators became practiced in responding to the president’s public statements about Russia, arguing that in contrast to his rhetoric, his “actions” against Russia had been “tough.” When Trump shocked the international community by standing next to Putin at a 2018 press conference in Helsinki and validating the Russian dictator’s false claim that he had not interfered in the 2016 presidential election, Trump’s media allies touted his “very strong” performance and criticized the “mass hysteria” to the contrary. And damning reports about Trump sharing classified information with the Russian ambassador at the White House and meeting with Putin without a note taker or translator were downplayed or avoided altogether.

Second, Mueller’s investigation created a steady stream of damaging stories for Trump as the special counsel successfully indicted and prosecuted some of the president’s closest aides, revealing both the breadth of the Kremlin’s effort to bolster Trump’s campaign and the eagerness of Trump’s allies to participate. In response, Trump’s media supporters, led by Fox’s Hannity, developed a sprawling counternarrative in which Mueller’s Russia probe was the result of a “soft coup” by a shadowy cabal of journalists, Democrats, and “deep state” operatives.

Night after night, Hannity and his anti-Mueller crew put forward a series of bogus premises: “The media has been corrupt and lying to you”; “so-called Trump Russia collusion” is a “tinfoil hat conspiracy theory,” while Democrats had committed the “real collusion” with Russia; Trump was the victim of “the biggest abuse of power corruption case in American history”; and a second special counsel was needed to “expose” all of the above and ensure that the perpetrators “go to jail.”

With Trump amplifying such claims and rewarding Republicans who promoted them, these talking points became the heart of the GOP’s Mueller rebuttal. The counternarrative even led to the appointment of a special counsel for an “investigation of the investigators,” albeit one who turned up remarkably little of note.

Third, Russia’s campaign to sway U.S. elections on Trump’s behalf continued as the president sought reelection in 2020. Right-wing media figures like Hannity and John Solomon responded by participating: They teamed up with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, the minions of a pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch, and a sanctioned Ukrainian lawmaker described by the U.S. government as “an active Russian agent” to concoct and disseminate purported evidence that former-Vice President Joe Biden acted corruptly by pushing Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, who was supposedly investigating Biden’s son’s business interests.

This disinformation campaign was flagrantly false — U.S. policy called for firing the prosecutor, who was viewed as unwilling to prosecute corruption by U.S. diplomats, foreign governments, international bodies, and Ukrainian anti-corruption groups.

But the right-wing narrative caught Trump’s eye. He subsequently tried to condition vital military aid to Ukraine and a state visit by Zelensky on the Ukrainian president announcing an investigation into the Bidens. The revelation of Trump’s conduct ultimately triggered his first impeachment — during which his media allies settled on the conclusion that the president had done nothing impeachable.

As Trump’s Fox propagandists scrambled to defend his conduct, one host broke new ground by suggesting that the U.S. shouldn’t have been supporting Ukraine in the first place.

“Why do I care? Why do I care what's going on in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia?” Carlson asked on his prime-time show. “Like, why do I care? And why shouldn't I root for Russia? Which I am.”

Carlson quickly claimed he had been joking — but the mask had slipped.

On March 3, 2022, just days after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, a Russian government agency issued new instructions to state-sponsored propaganda outlets: Promote Tucker Carlson.

“It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the United States [and] NATO, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the Western countries and NATO towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally,” the memo, which was leaked to Mother Jones, stated.

The Kremlin’s assessment of Carlson’s broadcast was accurate. The Fox star, in the days before and following the Russian incursion, had passionately defended Putin, criticized Zelensky as Biden’s “puppet” and his country as a “growing dictatorship,” denied that a war was imminent and then blamed the U.S. for its start, and mocked the bipartisan supporters of U.S. aid to Ukraine. And over the following months, a Carlson-Kremlin feedback loop developed in which Carlson picked up disinformation campaigns originating with Russian state media, then Russian outlets promoted his reports.

Carlson was the loudest and most influential MAGA media figure to adopt pro-Russian talking points about the country’s brutal bombing and occupation of portions of Ukraine — but he and his guests were far from alone.

Commentary that toed the Putin line became increasingly commonplace on the right among Carlson’s Fox colleagues as well as from online fever swamps like The Gateway Pundit and far-right influencers like Jack Posobiec. Within months, the right-wing propaganda machine was in full-scale revolt over the U.S. sending aid to support Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion.

The MAGA movement’s information ecosystem became increasingly honeycombed with pro-Putin propaganda over the course of the war.

Hannity, his House Republican allies, and his Fox colleagues spent 2023 attempting to manufacture an impeachment case against Biden which largely rehashed the disinformation debunked four years earlier about the fired Ukrainian prosecutor. The story did feature one new wrinkle — a report from an FBI informant that a Ukrainian oligarch had paid Biden a $5 million bribe to get the prosecutor removed.

Hannity promoted that account in dozens of segments, arguing that the FBI informant’s “bombshell” was “smoking-gun evidence” of “the very definition of a high crime,” and “might end up being the biggest story of the year.” But the tale disintegrated in February 2024 when federal prosecutors arrested the informant — who reportedly had deep ties to Russian intelligence — and charged him with fabricating his allegations (he later pleaded guilty). The GOP’s impeachment push dissolved soon after.

Meanwhile, Carlson was not just excusing Putin’s invasion, but doing an interview with the Russian dictator that was heavily touted by Kremlin propagandists and producing glowing videos that extolled the Russian system.

The situation became so bleak that in April 2024, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) — the former GOP chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee — told a reporter that because of right-wing media, Russian propaganda had “infected a good chunk of my party’s base.”

McCaul was not exaggerating — later that year, federal prosecutors alleged several prominent right-wing influencers had unwittingly received millions of dollars that originated from a Russian government operation aimed at promoting Donald Trump.

They didn’t push Russian talking points for the money — the Kremlin gave them the money because, like so many of their MAGA colleagues, they were already pushing Russian talking points.

===

A guide to Sean Hannity’s role as Trump’s chief White House propagandist

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 01/22/25 12:56 PM EST

Fox News host Sean Hannity — President Donald Trump’s pick to provide his first Oval Office interview, which airs tonight — shattered every imaginable ethical standard during Trump’s first term as he transformed his program into a nonstop White House propagandafest.

Hannity, long a consistent mouthpiece for GOP talking points and naked partisan cheerleading, became the sitting president’s confidant and adviser. The Fox star became known within the West Wing as Trump’s “unofficial chief of staff,” shaping policy outcomes and widespread conspiracy-minded counternarratives through both his private conversations with the president and his public program, which Trump regularly watched. Hannity’s on-air propaganda and unethical actions drew outrage from his colleagues, but his bosses were largely unconcerned with his dual role as network host and Trump political operative.

Hannity didn’t stop propagandizing on Trump’s behalf when he left the White House in disgrace in 2021. The host worked tirelessly to help the president fend off his legal problems, return to power within the GOP, smear Democrats, reposition for the general election, defuse potentially damaging critiques, and ultimately win the presidency again.

Trump theoretically crossed a red line for Hannity with Tuesday’s pardons of hundreds of January 6 insurrectionists charged with violent offenses such as assaulting law enforcement during Trump’s 2021 coup attempt — a decision Trump claims to have made after determining that some of them “love our country.” But knowing the Trump/Hannity relationship means understanding that the Fox host will either ignore the move or do everything in his power to help Trump sell it.

Below is a timeline of the Trump-Hannity relationship during the president’s first term — including a sequence of ethical morasses that would lead to the termination of a host at any remotely credible news outlet.

Jump to year

===

MMA

CNN’s Daniel Dale fact-checks Trump’s claims that CA water policy exacerbated LA fires

Special ProgramsClimate & Energy

Written by Allison Fisher

Published 01/24/25

On January 20, as part of his day one executive orders, President Donald Trump directed several U.S. agencies to restart a policy from his first term that reroutes water from Northern California to Southern California. The order ties Trump’s policy to the devastating fires in California that are so far responsible for 28 deaths and more than $250 billion in damages, effectively canonizing the false right-wing media claim that current California water policy impeded efforts to contain the LA fires.

Right-wing media wildfire misinformation underpins Trump’s executive order on California water policy

At the outset of the LA fires, the most costly in California history, Trump blamed “federal and state protections for California’s endangered delta smelt fish. He falsely claimed that those regulations led to inadequate water availability for firefighting efforts.”

As The New York Times explained at the time:

> Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Pacific Institute, a California research organization that focuses on water, said Mr. Trump was spouting “complete nonsense.”

“There’s no link between California’s water policies and efforts to protect endangered species and water availability for firefighters,” Mr. Gleick said. “They’re completely unrelated."

He noted that Southern California reservoir levels, including ones that feed Los Angeles, are above normal for this time of year. “There’s no water shortage,” he said. “The real issue is that urban water systems are not built or designed to fight massive, urban wildfires.”

Despite this and other fact-checks confirming Trump’s claims are inaccurate, right-wing media elevated this misinformation while firefighters raced to suppress the fires. As firefighters continue their battle to contain the blazes, Trump and right-wing media have continued to spread this falsehood, undeterred by the facts.

During Trump’s first sit-down interview since his swearing in, the president and Fox host Sean Hannity continued to push falsehoods about the LA fires, saying they were caused by poor forest management and lack of water due to California’s water policies. During the interview, Hannity asked Trump whether aid to the state would “be contingent on them practicing the science of forestry.” In response Trump said, “I don't think we should give California anything until they let water flow down.”

Video

Citation

From the January 22, 2025, edition of Fox News' Hannity

Most recently, Trump repeated the false claims while visiting North Carolina (and hours before visiting California):

But much more importantly, in California, just to revert to it for a second, millions of gallons of water are waiting to be poured down through, already, the halfpipes that are already built. … And about 20 years ago they turned off the water. And it is the water that comes from the Pacific Northwest, some of it comes out of Canada. And it flows there and it probably has flowed there for a million years and they turned it off and they route it out to the Pacific. And in the meantime, you don't have water in the hydrants, you don’t have water in the sprinkler systems. … Everyone is trying to figure out, “Why aren't they turning it back” — they say it’s the delta smelt, it’s a fish. But I find that hard to believe.

Moments after Trump’s comments, which aired live on Fox News and CNN, CNN’s Daniel Dale fact-checked the claim that water policy played a role in the LA fires:

The fact is that whatever happened in Los Angeles has nothing to do with a little fish in Northern California, like President Trump keeps saying. He keeps saying or suggesting that there was insufficient water in Los Angeles. You know, those dry hydrants we heard about in Pacific Palisades because the state didn't send enough water down from Northern California to L.A., instead was doing environmental protection like protecting the delta smelt. I've talked to a bunch of experts in California water policy. Complicated stuff. But on this subject, it's not complicated. Those two things have nothing to do with each other. If you look at California water data, it's available online. You'll see that there is no shortage of water in the Los Angeles area.

Trump’s January 22 interview with Hannity and his visit to California on January 24 came just days after the president signed an executive order that directs U.S. agencies to restart work “to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state for use by the people there who desperately need a reliable water supply.” The order reads: “The recent deadly and historically destructive wildfires in Southern California underscore why the State of California needs a reliable water supply and sound vegetation management practices in order to provide water desperately needed there, and why this plan must immediately be reimplemented.”

===

mma

After Trump sets January 6 rioters free, Fox News changes its tune on pardons for violent offenders

During a stretch of Fox programming full of backtracking and excuses for Trump’s pardons, Laura Ingraham hosted two pardoned rioters to rewrite their stories

Written by Alicia Sadowski, Jane Lee, Isabella Corrao & Helena Hind

Published 01/22/25

President Donald Trump has issued pardons or commuted the sentences of all January 6 offenders, violent and nonviolent, flouting the advice of Fox hosts who previously urged him to grant a narrower pardon. With this day one action, Trump has freed over 1,500 offenders, including “violent offenders who went after the police” and “some of the most notorious participants in the attack,” individuals convicted of conspiracy, a rioter who carried a firearm, and a rioter who faced a long list of assault charges.

Fox News hosts maintained for years that violent offenders should not be pardoned

In the immediate aftermath of January 6, Fox News personalities spoke out against the insurrection, with some privately begging the administration to stop the Capitol attack. Even after Trump changed his tune on January 6 offenders and began suggesting pardons for them, Fox News maintained that those who had physically attacked law enforcement should not be among the pardoned.

Even though these Fox hosts argued against pardoning violent offenders from January 6 as recently as December, since Monday, Fox hosts have clearly and at times explicitly supported Trump’s decision to pardon all offenders.

On her Fox News show, Ingraham hosted two people who were issued pardons by Trump and allowed them to rewrite their offenses. During the attack on January 6, Ingraham texted then-Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, imploring him to get Trump to take action, writing: “Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.” Four years later, she’s hosting participants and defending Trump’s blanket pardons.

Video

From the January 21, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle

LARGE STEEL SCREW

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  1. ### Sean Hannity says he would love to see the Panama Canal and Greenland “become part of the United States”

01/06/25 6:59 PM EST

  1. ### Sean Hannity says we can’t “soak the rich” because then they can’t tip their servers

01/06/25 mma

MMA

Sean Hannity boasts he had dinner with drug company executives, RFK Jr., and other Trump staffers

12/17/24

just loathesome

December 12, 2024, edition of Fox News' Hannity

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Checking in with Tim and Gwen Walz, they released this incredibly, kind of cringeworthy video while decorating their Christmas tree. Take a look.

...

My only question is, Rachel, I wonder if they put any feminine hygiene products on the tree, number one. Number two, I wonder if they're burning tires outside their homes so they can get that smell of freedom back that they love so much.

RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY (GUEST): Yeah, this was so cringe, it almost felt like SNL. By the way, notice how they don't call their tree a Christmas tree, it's a "family tree." These guys were such communists. I have to tell you, we really dodged a bullet not just with Kamala but also imagine if this was the vice president and his second lady. I mean, these people are very strange. And it's weird, remember they went around saying JD Vance was weird. This is weird.

HANNITY: Yeah, you probably can't see this, Jason, but he walks on — up in the air, kicking his feet in the air — bowing. I mean, the weirdest guy I've ever seen in my life. But I do wonder, I mean, what did they decorate the tree with? I mean, if they believe so much in feminine hygiene products in boys bathrooms in school, why wouldn't they put it on their Christmas tree?

JASON CHAFFETZ (GUEST): Well, they put a toilet paper roll on top. I mean, they're just -- there are just some things that you're not supposed to share with the whole rest of the world. I mean, this is so embarrassing. The contrast couldn't be bigger. You've got freedom ringing out, you've got people chanting "USA," they're feeling, you know — they're talking about patriotism with Donald Trump. Meanwhile, we go to the Walz basement or wherever they're at, I mean, it's like taking the green casserole from Thanksgiving. You got to take it out of the fridge and at some point you just have to throw it away. And that's what we need to do here.

---

===

looked like he was toast but then

12 24

He’s been called the “least qualified nominee in American history,” and has insisted to reporters that his confirmation battle will not be played out in the press, but Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, after multiple appearances before the cameras, appears to be gaining ground on what some assumed last week was a nomination that was dead in the water.

Hegseth has put to use his decade of experience as a Fox News host and leveraged his ties with his former employer to turn the ship around.

In addition to charges of being “wholly unqualified,” Hegseth is attempting to overcome numerous damning allegations, including tattoos that reflect an affinity for Christian nationalism, alleged “aggressive drunkenness,” possible alcohol intoxication on the job, alleged sexual assault of a woman who attended a Republican conference with her husband and children and says she was trapped by Hegseth in his room, and alleged financial mismanagement of two charities that support veterans.

He is also trying to change the accurate perception that he opposes women in combat roles. Women have been in combat roles in the U.S. Armed Forces since 2015. But Hegseth has long been opposed to women in combat.

READ MORE: ‘USA Is a Threat’: Canadians Slam ‘Bully’ Trump’s ‘Arrogant’ Mockery of ‘Governor Trudeau’

Last month, Hegseth took heat after declaring, “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles,” and that “men in those positions are more capable.”

IFrame Content

“Rather than fight, women are best suited to ‘carry the banner of Christian love’ into war as nurses and support staff members, Hegseth writes,” opinion columnist Carlos Lozada reported at The New York Times last week, citing passages from Hegseth’s book. “Women’s physical shortcomings compared with male warriors — in terms of bone density, muscle mass and lung capacity — would make the U.S. military ‘softer’ and easier to defeat. He also emphasizes that women are naturally ‘life givers,’ so do we really want to train them to become killers? Besides, if men grow accustomed to treating women as equal targets in wartime, he reasons, ‘then you will be hard-pressed to ask them to treat women differently at home.'”

Even top news outlets and political pundits appear to have been hoodwinked after Hegseth’s appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity” Monday night.

Telling Sean Hannity he had a “great” meeting with U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) on Monday, the fast-talking Hegseth launched into apparently pre-scripted remarks (video below):

“I mean, people don’t really know this. I’ve known Senator Ernst for over ten years. I knew her when she was a state senator, running to be the first female combat veteran, and we support her in that effort and have continued to, because, you get, you get into these meetings and and you get, you get to listen to senators as an amazing advise and consent process, and you hear how thoughtful and serious and substantive they are on these key issues that they pertain to our Defense Department, and Joni Ernst is front and center on that, so able to have phone calls and meetings time and time again to talk over the issues is really, really important.”

“And the fact that she’s willing to support me through this process means a lot, and I also want an opportunity here to clarify comments that have been misconstrued that I somehow don’t support women in the military.”

“Some of our greatest warriors, our best warriors out there are women, who who serve raised their right hand to defend this country, and love our nation, want to defend that flag, and they do it every single day around the globe. So I’m not presuming anything, but after President Trump asked me to be his secretary of defense, should I get the opportunity to do that, I look forward to being a secretary for all our warriors, men and women, for the amazing contributions they make in our military.”

READ MORE: ‘I Love His Charisma’: Republican Lauds ‘Man of Integrity’ Hegseth Who Will ‘Get Rid of DEI’

What Hegseth did was change the framing of the controversy.

Hegseth isn’t under fire for saying he doesn’t want women in the military, he is under fire for saying he does not believe women are capable of serving in combat—even after nearly a decade of them doing so.

And yet, that’s exactly what he said on Monday, when he conflated “warriors” with combat soldiers, saying, “I also want an opportunity here to clarify comments that have been misconstrued that I somehow don’t support women in the military.”

And he’s getting help from the media.

Here’s CBS News on Tuesday morning, almost using his words as their own reporting: “now clarifying comments he made that women should not serve in military combat roles.”

His “clarification” did not state he now believes women should serve in combat roles.

IFrame Content

NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday published a report on YouTube titled, Pete Hegseth appears to reverse views on women in combat.”

David Axelrod successfully served as Barack Obama’s chief strategist for both of his presidential campaigns, and as a White House Senior Advisor to the President. Now a CNN senior political analyst, here’s what he wrote on Tuesday:

“Watching Hegseth proclaim his appreciation for women in combat, months after denouncing the idea of women in combat, is reminiscent of the SCOTUS nominees who told skeptical senators that Roe v. Wade was ‘settled law.'”

And while he is correct about the justices, the only woman he proclaimed his appreciation for being in combat was Senator Ernst, who largely holds the key to his confirmation.

Watch Hegseth’s “Hannity” interview and the other videos above, or all at this link.

===

mma Sean Hannity calls sentences of convicted January 6 rioters “excessive”

12/05/24

===

mma

John Kelly warned that Trump is a fascist. Right-wing media absurdly claim by citing him that Kamala Harris is inspiring “assassins.”

PJ Media: “If you keep calling someone Hitler, eventually, someone will feel morally obligated to take action”

Written by Charis Hoard

Published 10/25/24 mma

This week, retired Gen. John Kelly -- former chief of staff to former President Donald Trump -- asserted in interviews with The New York Times that he believed Trump “falls into the general definition of fascist” and that he has previously praised Adolf Hitler.

Vice President Kamala Harris echoed the sentiments during her town hall on Wednesday night when asked about Kelly’s comments, sending right-wing media into an uproar.

In a desperate attempt to spin the serious remarks about Trump into a negative story about Harris, right-wing media figures attacked the Democratic nominee, calling her hypocritical, claiming that she was repeating unsubstantiated claims, and suggesting she’s inciting violence against Trump by agreeing with Kelly’s comments.

PJ Media posted a piece titled “Kamala Harris Is Trying to Get Trump Shot at Again.” }:The piece noted, “If you keep calling someone Hitler, eventually, someone will feel morally obligated to take action. This isn’t just innocent hyperbole: it’s a calculated narrative meant to provoke. For years, Democrats and media figures have portrayed Trump not as a political adversary but as an existential threat. That’s how we’ve ended up with two assassination attempts within just nine weeks.” PJ Media, [10/24/24]|

The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway}: posted that Harris’ closing argument is: “We need Trump's cholesterol numbers and he has secretly told John Kelly evil things he's never told anyone else.” Hemingway: “Trump closing argument: ‘I'll fight for you and do for you what I did before on the economy, foreign policy, border, etc.’ Harris: ‘We need Trump's cholesterol numbers and he has secretly told John Kelly evil things he's never told anyone else.’” Twitter/X, [10/23/24]|

Fox host Sean Hannity linked Harris’ comment to past assassination attempts against Trump, seemingly suggesting that Harris is encouraging violence against Trump by echoing Kelly’s comments. }:Hannity: “Kamala Harris said ‘Donald Trump wants generals like Hitler’ tonight and apparently said earlier, you know, that he’s a fascist. The man now — we had two would-be assassins. … This rhetoric is getting so over the top, and it seems like that’s all they’re doubling down and tripling down on. And I would expect we’re probably gonna have an October surprise, maybe five a day, every day, for the next 13 days.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [10/23/24]|

Former GOP presidential candidate and Fox Nation host Vivek Ramaswamy called on Harris to “step up and apologize” for “stoking this culture of political violence that was shameful.”Fox News, *Hannity*:(style="background-color:#ffff00"):}:, [10/23/24]|

* America Reports' John Roberts claimed that Harris’ closing argument for her campaign is improperly focused on Trump. Roberts: “We are seeing Kamala Harris' closing argument for the last 13 days is ‘Trump is a fascist, he embraces Hitler and wants to have his generals.’ She's not saying to young Black men across the country: ‘Here's what I'm going to do for you economically.’” Media Matters, [10/23/24]

===

KIRK WRONG RALLY XIAN bS

Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly give embarrassing defense of Donald Trump's reported praise for Hitler's military generals

10/23/24 MMA

hosted pa town hall 9 24

mma

How a lie about immigrants and FEMA disaster aid spread across Fox News

Fox’s Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity spread the lie on 5 and 6 straight broadcasts, respectively. Many shows on the network joined in to push similar claims at least once since October 3.

Written by Helena Hind & Alicia Sadowski

Published 10/11/24 mma

Amid the right-wing media onslaught of hurricane-related misinformation, Fox News has latched onto the false claim that the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s relief funds for hurricane victims have been drained by aid to undocumented immigrants. In reality, the funding is separate and unrelated.

Top-rated hosts Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity led the charge in repeating the false claim; Watters’ prime-time show repeated the lie in 5 consecutive broadcasts starting October 3, and Hannity managed 6.

Even though a Fox reporter obtained evidence debunking the lie, the narrative spread to the majority of the network’s opinion and “straight news” programs.

FEMA’s disaster relief fund has nothing to do with immigrant aid — and Fox knows it

Watters doubled down the next Monday, October 7: “FEMA’s broke. … Where’d the money go? More than a billion dollars went to welcoming Biden's migrants.” Watters also said that White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre “lied” after she debunked the claim on October 4. Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/7/24]

* As Hurricane Milton made landfall on October 9, Watters doubled down again: “Mayorkas said FEMA was going to run out of money for hurricane season. And FEMA admitted they wasted a billion on migrants. Now, I'm not great at math… but if you spend too much money on one thing and don't have enough money for another thing, that means you messed up.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/9/24]

* ### Sean Hannity repeated the lie in 6 consecutive broadcasts of his Fox News show

Outnumbered* co-host Kayleigh McEnany falsely claimed that the “reason why” FEMA was facing a budget shortfall was because the agency spent “almost a billion dollars” on “illegal immigrants in migrant shelters.” Emily Compagno reiterated the sentiment by alleging that the “federal government wasted the taxpayer money that these Americans invested” and that Americans were entitled to the money over undocumented immigrants. “FEMA's funds are their funds that they paid into, that they are now being withheld from to pay for illegal migrants,” she complained. Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [10/4/24]

* Laura Ingraham stated that “Democrats are prioritizing the needs of noncitizens … ahead of the people that our leaders are supposed to be serving.” Ingraham called the allocation of money for undocumented immigrant aid “disgraceful” and claimed it resulted in Americans facing inflation and debt to “give gobs of money to liberal special interests.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [10/3/24]

Fox anchor John Roberts}: asked why the federal government did not use the $66 billion FEMA spent “taking care of the illegal immigration problem” to pay for hurricane relief. Fox News, *America Reports*, [10/3/24]|

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mma 9 24

Fox News is helping Republicans spin fracking as a major election issue

The network mentioned fracking 544 times in the lead-up to Kamala Harris’ CNN interview

Special ProgramsClimate & Energy

Written by Allison Fisher

Research contributions from Ilana Berger

Published 09/05/24

Fox News is helping the right elevate fracking as a supposedly major election issue by continuing to litigate Kamala Harris’ position even after she and her campaign have stated that she no longer supports a ban on the natural gas extraction procedure. By keeping the focus on Harris’ position, Fox is distracting from important context about the controversial technique and its relevance to voters.

According to Axios, shortly after Harris announced her bid for the presidency, Republicans started “circulating Harris' endorsement of a fracking ban during her short-lived 2019 White House run — even though she walked it back after becoming President Biden's running mate.”

Then, during the August 29 joint CNN interview with Harris and running mate Tim Walz, one of the first questions from Dana Bash was about her position on fracking, with the CNN anchor describing it as “a pretty big issue, particularly in your must-win state of Pennsylvania.”

An analysis by Media Matters found that from July 27, when Kamala Harris’ campaign stated that she does not support a ban on fracking, to the August 29 interview, Fox News mentioned fracking 544 times, compared to CNN’s 201 mentions and MSNBC’s 30.

Because Fox is driving the discussion around fracking, it has often focused on whether Harris supports the practice and how her position would affect her electability in Pennsylvania.

News networks would better serve their audiences by explaining the climate impacts or local environmental threats associated with fossil fuel extraction, how local voters actually feel about fracking, how energy both clean and fossil fuel-based has fared under the Biden-Harris administration, and even whether a presidential candidate could actually ban fracking.

On the August 15 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Ainsley Earhardt said, “She wanted to ban fracking, her entire career. Now all of a sudden she’s saying I’m not gonna ban fracking. … She wants to get into the White House on January 20 … and then not change anything. She wants to go so liberal. So just don’t get caught up in her flip-flops, because she does not believe this in her heart. She is — look at her voting record.”

On The Ingraham Angle, Fox host Jeanine Pirro suggested that Harris has not changed her fracking position from 2019, saying: “That was just five years ago. Kamala's agenda was clear as day. Radical and progressive. But suddenly she doesn't believe in any of that anymore,” listing positions including fracking. “Will the real Kamala Harris please stand up? … How can the Trump campaign ensure that voters see the real Harris?”

Pirro’s guest, former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy added: “So it doesn’t matter if she changes her words. We know what her actions are.”

After Fox & Friends aired a clip of Harris talking about fracking, guest Andre Beliveau of the Commonwealth Foundation said, “She can backtrack or flip-flop all she wants. The record of the Biden-Harris administration the last four years is quite clear and that record has included — I mean, it's been Green New Deal-ism. It has been a pause on LNG exports.”

After Harris’ CNN interview, some Fox News figures said her position on fracking can’t be trusted.

While the interview was still airing, Pirro and Fox contributor Joe Concha attacked the vice president’s response on Hannity, with Concha claiming that “she's lying” about her position on fracking. The following day,Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones questioned whether she was just going along with Biden’s position and would ultimately revert back to her 2019 stance.

The network also helped spread misinformation aboutBiden’s position on fracking in 2020, and it dominated the conversation then too.

During the week leading up to that election, the network also pushed the false narrative that Pennsylvania would likely be won or lost depending on how voters interpreted the candidates’ stance on fracking. And during the 2022 midterms elections, Fox attacked Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman for his stance on fracking,conflating his previous support for a fracking moratorium — a temporary prohibition — with an outright, permanent ban.

Even though the playbook has been exposed, Fox News continues to use it to shape the national media coverage of the issue.

* Presidents cannot ban fracking on private and state land, where the vast majority – 90% – of fracked-gas production is done. “While there are several ways Harris, if elected president, could halt fracking on federal lands using executive power, she wouldn’t be able to unilaterally ban it on private land,” Bloomberg explains. “Under a 2005 law, the Environmental Protection Agency has almost no regulatory power over fracking. Changing that would require an act of Congress.” Bloomberg, [7/27/24; PolitiFact, 9/1/20]

Under the Biden-Harris administration, U.S. oil and gas production is at an all-time high – including in Pennsylvania — and its policies are supporting major energy projects in the state. As reported by Axios, the state is “part of the multibillion-dollar hydrogen ‘hubs’ program under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law,” and the “EPA announced nearly $400 million in grants for climate projects there under the Inflation Reduction Act.” Reuters, [3/28/24; U.S. Energy Information Administration, accessed 8/2/24; Axios, 7/23/24]

Public support for fracking in Pennsylvania is not a given. After Harris’ recent CNN interview Pennsylvania-based journalist Nick Field wrote, “I can not emphasize enough that - unless they happen to work in the fracking industry - Pennsylvanians don't care about fracking.” A 2020 survey conducted by YouGov found support for fracking in the state was evenly split, though Pennsylvanians who live in rural areas or identify as Republican were more likely to back it. Twitter/X, [8/29/24; YouGov, 10/19/20]

Real issues with fracking are almost entirely ignored in election horse race coverage. In the final week of the 2020 election cycle, cable news coverage failed to meaningfully cover the well-documented environmental and climate issues associated with fracking. This cycle, the media can add to the list of issues the fact that the industry has not delivered the wealth promised to many communities burdened with fracking wells. Media Matters, [11/19/20; Environmental Health News, 2/12/21]

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mma 8 24

August 15, 2024, edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): You know, if you look at, you know, just economics or Bidenomics and Harrisnomics, it's a disaster.

You know, I will tell you this now, Kamala Harris has a new plan. She's going to call for a federal ban tomorrow, we keep reading, on price gouging. She said, I'm going after big corporations.

Okay. Well, what does that mean? How do we deal with that? Well,

Well, here's the other thing that might happen. If they're going to empower and weaponize the Justice Department to go after small business, big business, and to go after manufacturers, what do you think these manufacturers are going to do? They're going to have to lawyer up. And that means they're not going to hire a local yokel attorney that costs, you know, $100 an hour. They're going to go to the big law firms if they're a big manufacturer. Let's say they go after Kellogg's, for crying out loud. 'Oh, cereal's too expensive.' It's -- they they price supply and demand crisscrossing dictates the price. That's basic economics 101.

ingr also BS on hostage release

  1. ### Sean Hannity downplays hostage exchange with Russia, claims it will encourage more hostage taking

08/01/24

:

mma 7 24

During the June 27 CNN presidential election debate between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, Trump made false and misleading claims about immigration and migrants seemingly drawn straight from the right-wing media echo chambers.

Trump falsely claimed that Biden “wants open borders” and “wants our country to … be destroyed,” as migrants are supposedly violent criminals stealing American jobs. He also pushed the “great replacement” theory, saying Biden wants to import migrants to vote Democratic.

Below are some of Trump’s debate claims and recent instances of right-wing media making the same points.

Claim: Migrants are stealing jobs from Americans

In the debate, Trump claimed that migrants “are taking Black jobs and they’re taking Hispanic jobs. And you haven’t seen it yet.” The New York Times, [6/27/24]|}:

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an ah may

Democratic incumbent President Joe Biden and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have agreed to two debates: the first hosted by CNN in Atlanta on June 27, the second by ABC News on September 10.

June 27 is early for a presidential debate, as the Republican National Convention won't be held until July 15-18 in Milwaukee — and its Democratic counterpart isn't until August 19-22 in Chicago. Biden's supporters view the June 27 debate as a golden opportunity for the president, as it will give him a chance to hammer Trump issue by issue and, they hope, improve his poll numbers. Many polls released in May have showed Biden narrowly trailing Trump by single digits in key swing states.

But some far-right pundits at Fox News are furious about the debates, including Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters.

READ MORE:**Biden 'heavily' investing in these 3 states that are 'key to the whole election': analysis**

Ingraham complained that Biden needs a "game changer" performance and is hoping to get it "with the help of" CNN hosts Dana Bash and Jake Tapper.

Watters sarcastically commented, "Both moderators say Trump's Hitler, so the debate will be fair and balanced. Is Tapper going to cut the cameras away from Trump to fact-check him? We'll have to see."

Watters also attacked ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, saying that he "praised the deep state and said Trump's a threat to democracy" and adding, "I’m sure they'll be calling balls and strikes.”

READ MORE:[Biden campaign hammers Trump over infamous COVID comment

Hannity slammed Tapper as a "radical left-wing partisan talk show host" who is "masquerading as a journalist" and claimed that CNN "is filled with left-wing hacks who we know hate" Trump.

The Daily Beast's William Vaillancourt observes, "It didn’t take long at all for some of Fox News' most-watched hosts to frame next month's debate between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, which was announced Wednesday morning, as unfair to the presumptive GOP nominee."

Although Fox News hosts have been attacking CNN and ABC News as too biased to be hosting the debates, they haven't had a lot to say about the controversy that surrounded the right-wing cable news channel's coverage of the last U.S. presidential election.

Fox News was sued by Dominion Voting Systems and its competitor Smartmatic after promoting the false, thoroughly debunked claim that their equipment was used to help Biden steal the 2020 presidential election from Trump. In 2023, Fox News agreed to a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion, although Smartmatic's $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News is ongoing.

READ MORE:[How Fox News' Trump trial coverage became an exercise in 'unintended hilarity': columnist

In an op-ed published on May 16, the Daily Beast's David Rothkopf doesn't agree with far-right claims that CNN and ABC News are too biased to be hosting the presidential debates. But he does argue that the debates could be a golden opportunity for Biden, as Trump is "out of practice" when it comes to debating as well as "bad at it."

Moreover, Rothkopf argues, the debates give Biden a chance to hammer Trump on issue after issue.

"In the view of those close to Biden," Rothkopf writes, "Trump's got a serious problem on the issues. He's on the wrong side of the American public on many of the policy questions most important to them. For example, Trump keeps proclaiming he is the one responsible for the repeal of Roe v. Wade. "

Rothkopf adds, "Almost two-thirds of all women and over six out of ten men support legal abortion according to a recent Pew report.… (Trump) loves Vladimir Putin, for example. In a Pew poll last year, 91 percent of Americans indicated they have an unfavorable view of Russia, with 62 percent having views that are very unfavorable."

READ MORE:**Mary Trump: Here's why Ivanka and Don Jr. haven't show up to their father’s 'tawdry' trial**

Trump still knows how to fire up his hardcore supporters at MAGA rallies. But Rothkopf stresses that the debate format is problematic for Trump given his lack of self-discipline.

"Trump's defective character is so clear, and the danger he presents is so great, that the current president will have a hard time looking worse in comparison," Rothkopf writes. "The contrasts between the two men and their beliefs could not be starker."

*Read the Daily Beast's full Fox News coverage at this link and David Rothkoph's Daily Beast op-ed here (subscription required).

READ MORE: Fox News suggests Trump 'force' court to throw him in jail — by quoting him

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mjr cheerleader on biden impeach

Sean Hannity is the GOP’s impeachment hype man, Tony Bobulinski edition | Media Matters for America

an 6 24

Hannity suggests Hunter Biden is connected to Chinese spy balloon

06/12/24

Fox News buried Paul Ryan denouncing Donald Trump as “unfit for office”

06/13/24 11:47 AM EDT

  1. ### Fox News misinterprets results of study to blame millions of “excess deaths” on the COVID-19 vaccine

06/13/24 9:21 AM EDT

  1. ### On MSNBC, Alex Wagner explains how Fox News fabricates panic about crime waves

06/12/24

Kristi Noem explains to Sean Hannity why she shot a puppy and left it in a gravel pit | Media Matters for America

an 3 24

right-wing Fox News host Dana Perrino recently expressed her frustration with House Republicans' dysfunctional campaign to impeach President Joe Biden.

Perrino, who served as White House press secretary in the George W. Bush Administration, told her colleague Bill Hemmer that "it just feels like" House Republicans "keep doing the same hearing over and over again" — adding, "And people are starting to wonder: At some point, do you fish or cut bait and do something about a vote or not, and move on to the general election?"

But Perrino's comments are a major departure from all the Fox News segments that have been hyping a possible Biden impeachment and promoting the investigations of House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

READ MORE:Fox News host rips House Republicans for holding same impeachment hearing 'over and over again'

In a biting op-ed published by MSNBC on March 22, Media Matters' Matt Gertz calls out the Fox News hosts who have encouraged an impeachment campaign that went nowhere — especially Sean Hannity.

"It’s time to call it: The House GOP's shambolic inquiry into the impeachment of President Joe Biden expired on Wednesday night at 9:01 p.m.," Gertz argues. "That’s when Sean Hannity opened his Fox News show by promising 'highlights' from the day's 'explosive' hearing with Hunter Biden's former business partners — and then immediately pivoted to a monologue not about its revelations, but about the president's poll numbers."

Gertz adds, "Hannity did more than perhaps any other single figure to will the impeachment probe into existence. Since 2018, he has led a Fox propaganda campaign aimed at using lies about the younger Biden's foreign business interests to damage his father's political standing."

For months, Comer and Jordan — with Fox News' blessing — hyped former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov as the impeachment star witness who would bring down Biden's presidency. But their impeachment campaign suffered a major blow when Smirnov was arrested for allegedly lying to the FBI — and yet another blow over reporting that Smirnov was getting bogus "information" from Russian government intelligence.

READ MORE:Why was GOP’s star witness re-arrested? He may have been trying to flee the country: report

Gertz notes that House Republicans' baseless impeachment probe "has utterly failed to produce evidence of wrongdoing by the president that would convince anyone other than the network's most fervent fans."

"If even Hannity can no longer feign enthusiasm about the impeachment effort," the Media Matters senior fellow writes, "it is truly toast — and Fox itself deserves a big share of the blame for leading Republicans into this debacle."

READ MORE:'Maybe the guy did lie': Jordan admits indicted FBI informant’s Biden claims not credible

*Matt Gertz's full MSNBC op-ed is available at this link.

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mma 2 24

CHRIS HAYES (HOST): In his show, Fox host Sean Hannity alone promoted the claim of the single FBI informant no less than 85 times last year, 28 of those segments were monologues, very long monologues, in addition to all the breathless so-called reporting. And this was across all the right-wing media. Hannity had House Oversight Committee Chairman and chief Biden crime family investigator James Comer on as a guest 43 times in 2023. Today, James Comer and Sean Hannity's favorite informant, the smoking gun for their investigation, was arrested at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. He was indicted on two counts of feeding the FBI false information about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

...

The New York Post, also owned by Rupert Murdoch, like Fox, "Biden: $10 million bribe file, Burisma chief said he was coerced to pay Joe, 'stupid' Hunter in bombshell allegations. Joe Biden allegedly paid $5 million by Burisma executive as part of a bribery scheme, according to FBI document." Now, here's where it gets interesting. That FBI document was that this confidential informant wrote a form, making his bribery allegation, in fact, it's part of what he's being indicted for, since it was a fabrication.

But then, in this kind of alleyoop play, right? The Republicans on the Hill know this document exists and they shake it loose to the public. This is Chuck Grassley in July of 2023, "For the better part of a year I've been pushing the Justice Department, FBI, to provide details on its handling very significant allegations from a trusted FBI informant, implicating then Vice President Biden in a criminal bribery scheme." So they know about it, they brow beat the DOJ to shake it loose, as if they're covering up, and now it turns out the man's being indicted for fabricating it.

Sean Hannity falsely claims Republicans aren’t “taking away anybody’s rights to an abortion” after Dobbs | Media Matters for America

Sean Hannity says he instructed House Republicans not to expel George Santos from Congress | Media Matters for America

--> more shuck and jive

Now that Joe Biden is president, Sean Hannity doesn’t find a record high stock market all that impressive | Media Matters for America

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Alex Jones: Fox's Sean Hannity "is CIA" and "clearly gets a CIA script" | Media Matters for America

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Citing standard revisions, Sean Hannity claims Biden is "cooking the books" on positive jobs reports | Media Matters for America

==

12 23 // debate hannitize softball dictator only day 1 border drill baby

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Sean Hannity defends Donald Trump’s promise for “retribution” | Media Matters for America

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Sean Hannity’s response to Trump’s Chinese bribes shows staggering contempt for his audience | Media Matters for America

Sean Hannity in January 2023: "There've never been any accusations that Donald Trump got paid by China or his children made deals with China" | Media Matters for America

  1. ### Sean Hannity calls reports that Donald Trump got millions of dollars from China while president “lies”

01/04/24 9:49 PM EST

  1. ### Donald Trump to Sean Hannity in 2023: A president receiving money from China would be “compromised”

01/04/24 8:14 PM EST

  1. ### Donald Trump to Sean Hannity in 2023: “Could you imagine” if my family had received money from China

01/04/24 7:09 PM EST

  1. ### Sean Hannity in January 2023: “There've never been any accusations that Donald Trump got paid by China or his children made deals with China”

01/04/24 4:14 PM EST

  1. ### Donald Trump Jr. in 2019: If I took even a dollar from China it would be a scandal

01/04/24 4:04 PM EST

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mma mg 1 24

After years of convoluted attempts by Republicans and right-wing media to somehow prove that China had compromised President Joe Biden via his son Hunter Biden’s business interests, Democrats revealed on Wednesday that China directed millions of dollars straight to Donald Trump’s businesses while he was serving as president.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee detailed the transactions in an extensive new report titled “White House for Sale: How Princes, Prime Ministers, and Premiers Paid Off President Trump.” Based on records obtained through litigation, the report finds that the government of China and two state-owned entities spent at least $5,572,548 at Trump Tower in New York City and the Trump International Hotels in Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas, Nevada.

The report also finds that “the ability of Trump family businesses to secure trademarks in China improved markedly and rapidly after Trump entered office,” describes these payments and similar ones to Trump-owned businesses from other countries as unconstitutional “foreign emoluments,” and links the payments to how “Mr. Trump inexplicably took positions favorable to specific Chinese interests” as president.

As The New York Times noted in its writeup, “the transactions … offer concrete evidence that the former president engaged in the kind of conduct that House Republicans have labored, so far unsuccessfully, to prove that President Biden did as they work to build an impeachment case against him.”

Indeed, the right has tried to damage Biden’s political standing by suggesting that he had been compromised by foreign payments to his son’s businesses since at least 2018, when conservative activist Peter Schweizer tried to repeat his success in damaging Hillary Clinton’s campaign. While such claims have collapsed time and time again, they’ve nonetheless become the heart of Republicans’ ludicrous push to impeach Joe Biden.

They’ve also led right-wing media figures to offer comments that seem comically detached from reality given the direct payments detailed in the Democratic report. Commentators have cited payments to Hunter Biden’s businesses as evidence of “the real Biden crimes, potentially treasonous corruption charges after years of selling Joe Biden's power all over the world, including places like China,” said that “we have to know why and where is the president compromised” given that “more money is flowing into the Bidens' bank accounts from China than all the other countries,” and argued that if Joe Biden “can be compromised by the likes of China,” that would make “Watergate look like a smash-and-grab.”

The right’s inept efforts to paint Joe Biden as compromised by China

The insinuations in Schweizer’s book spawned major lines of attack from Rudy Giuliani, John Solomon, Sean Hannity, and other Trumpists that revolved around the bogus conspiracy theory that Joe Biden had taken corrupt action in Ukraine when he was vice president due to his son’s position with a Ukrainian company. Trump’s obsession with this falsehood led him to try to leverage U.S. military aid to Ukraine to get that country’s president to announce an investigation into the Bidens, yielding Trump’s first impeachment for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in 2019.

The attacks took on new urgency and refocused on Hunter Biden’s business interests in China in the waning days of the 2020 presidential campaign, when Trump and Fox tried to turn disgruntled former Hunter Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski into a household name. Bobulinski had alleged that Joe Biden had met with him in 2017 as part of a joint business venture involving Bobulinski, Hunter Biden, and Chinese oil company CEFC China Energy Co.

Right-wing outlets desperately trumpeted the Bobulinski story even as less credulous reporting revealed that the venture reportedly “never received proposed funds from the Chinese company or completed any deals” and corporate records “show no role for Joe Biden,” who denied any role in the business and was in any case neither in public office nor running for one at the time. And Bobulinski himself acknowledged that when they met, Joe Biden did not ask about the proposed deal.

The right’s Hunter Biden push failed to lift Trump to victory in 2020. But they responded with more of the same, spending the first years of Joe Biden’s administration trying to damage his political standing with similar attacks. And when Republicans won the House in 2022, they pledged to follow through with investigations into what Trumpists like Hannity termed the “Biden Crime Family.”

The House Republican investigations produced a series of reports detailing tangential issues to smear Joe Biden that soared on right-wing media outlets and crashed everywhere else.

In one particularly farcical case, House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer alleged that a Hunter Biden business entity “made direct monthly payments to Joe Biden” after it “received payments from Chinese-state linked companies & other shady entities,” which purportedly proved that “Joe Biden knew & benefitted from his family's business schemes."

Fox host Jesse Watters, over onscreen text that read “China Paid Hunter’s Company, Who Then Paid Joe,” said this showed that “China, after being threatened by Hunter, wired millions of dollars to him, and then Hunter started sending his dad payments.” For Hannity, Comer had revealed that “not only did Joe Biden discuss his son's business ventures, but he also received direct payments from one of Hunter's corporations.”

In reality, Joe Biden took over many of his son’s expenses during a period when Hunter was in the depths of drug addiction and Joe Biden was out of office. That included buying his son a truck to use. Hunter Biden made three payments, each for $1,380, to repay his father for the initial payments on the truck before taking over future payments directly.

This was happening at the same time the Chinese government was trying to curry favor with Trump — the sitting president — by making payments directly to the companies he owned and that his sons oversaw. And those revelations from the House Democratic report are the tip of the iceberg as far as corruption during Trump’s presidency is concerned.

While Fox shills like Watters have been contorting the facts to declare Joe Biden “a money laundering operation for foreign nationals,” they’ve curiously missed the massive influence peddling that happened right before their eyes. I wouldn’t hold my breath for that to change — as of posting, Fox had not mentioned the Democratic report.

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Sean Hannity: People would be furious if Trump and the Trump organization were making millions from China | Media Matters for America

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): To be very honest, I think we're making a big mistake if we don't get to the bottom of this. I cannot, for the life of me, you know, imagine what the media and how the country and the left in this country would be reacting if Donald Trump and the Trump Organization or the Trump family were making tens of millions of dollars from our top geopolitical foes like China and Russia. I can't imagine the left in this country not going insane, but lo and behold, here we are.

Meanwhile:

Donald J. Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments during his presidency, according to new documents released by House Democrats on Thursday that show how much he received from overseas transactions while he was in the White House, most of it from China.

...

Using documents produced through a court fight, the report describes how foreign governments and their controlled entities, including a top U.S. adversary, interacted with Trump businesses while he was president. They paid millions to the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.; Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas; Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York; and Trump World Tower at 845 United Nations Plaza in New York.

...

“By elevating his personal financial interests and the policy priorities of corrupt foreign powers over the American public interest, former President Trump violated both the clear commands of the Constitution and the careful precedent set and observed by every previous commander in chief,” Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, wrote in a foreword to the report.

Among the countries patronizing Mr. Trump’s properties, China made the largest total payment — $5.5 million — to his business interests, the report found. Those payments included millions of dollars from China’s Embassy in the United States, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Hainan Airlines Holding Company.

---

accusations are confession/ projection:

an 1 24

Trump took millions from China, Saudi Arabia, other foreign governments as POTUS: report - Alternet.org

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mma 12 23

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): It really has nothing to do with the environment when you hear "Green New Deal," does it?

MARC MORANO (GUEST): No, absolutely nothing. And as you mentioned, they freely admit that, whether it's AOC's architect or even the UN. They've actually said, they said, "You thought climate treaties had something to do with environmental policy? This is about redistribution of wealth. This is about empowering the bureaucrats." What they're trying to do, it's all about power. It's about making fewer and fewer decisions by fewer and fewer individuals -- more decisions by fewer individuals.

...

All of this is happening so that you can have a regulatory state that we've never experienced in America -- in our American history -- as they take over more and more swaths. This is the intentional collapse of energy, food, transportation, and as a bonus, our free speech, because remember, the UN last year announced, "We own the science on climate change, and that's why we partnered with Google to make sure only UN-approved results on climate science are returned."

This is a frightening world in which we're entering now. And, you know, we really need to push back hard because they are crushing the middle class, and they are literally doing everything they can with 15 minute cities to keep us locked in, the banning of gas-powered cars -- which, by the way, no one's ever voted to ban.

Fox News platforms climate denial and the Great Reset conspiracy theory during COP27

:{:{11/14/22}:

  1. ### Fox brings on climate denier to downplay landmark IPCC climate report

:{:{08/09/21}:

  1. ### Merchant Of Doubt Marc Morano Concerned Google Won't Promote His Website's Climate Change Denial

:{:{03/06/15}:

===

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Sean Hannity instructs Republicans to shut down the government if they can't get spending cuts | Media Matters for America

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BlazeTV host Steve Deace says Sean Hannity's show should be canceled for being "so banal" and "team GOP" | Media Matters for America

Sean Hannity hosted an on-air pep rally for House Republicans | Media Matters for America

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[Here’s what right-wing radio listeners are hearing about the Israel-Hamas war | Media Matters for AmericaHere’s what right-wing radio listeners are hearing about the Israel-Hamas war | Media Matters for America](https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/heres-what-right-wing-radio-listeners-are-hearing-about-israel-hamas-war)https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/heres-what-right-wing-radio-listeners-are-hearing-about-israel-hamas-war

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Sean Hannity cites his training in “mixed martial arts” as a defense against mass shooters | Media Matters for America

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Donalds has appeared on weekday Fox News programs 193 times since August 2017. He’s been interviewed nearly four times as frequently as Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), the speaker candidate with the second-most Fox appearances, and nearly nine times as frequently as Emmer, who has the third-most.

The disparities are all the more startling given Donalds’ recent entry to national politics — both Emmer and Johnson are members of the House Republican Caucus leadership and entered Congress in 2015 and 2017, respectively.

Donalds has the fifth-most weekday Fox appearances of all elected officials since January 2021, when he began his first term in office. Only Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Jordan, Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL), and Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) received more interviews on the network during this time.

Donalds is a particular favorite of Fox’s prime-time hosts, who serve as influential kingmakers within the GOP. He has appeared in Fox weekday prime time at least 67 times, including 38 interviews on The Ingraham Angle and 25 interviews on Hannity. The only other speaker candidates who have appeared in prime time are Johnson (14 times) and Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) (once).

Donalds has promoted those Fox appearances to solicit funds from donors, telling supporters that “the next time I go on Hannity, I want to show Sean a list of all the grassroots patriots who stood with me in my hour of need.”

Sean Hannity, the Fox prime-time host and GOP operative who functioned as Jordan’s biggest booster, has floated Donalds for speaker.

---

note no evidence, just gov't is bad

no lnx mma 8 23

fox’s antivax propagandists come out swinging against a new COVID-19 shot

WRITTEN BY MATT GERTZ

PUBLISHED 08/29/23

Tucker Carlson may be gone from Fox News, but his former colleagues are still carrying on his war against the COVID-19 vaccines that have prevented millions of American deaths since they became widely available in 2021.

Fox’s propagandists responded to President Joe Biden’s Friday call for new funding for an updated vaccine booster that will be recommended for all Americans when it becomes available this fall by warning that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous and ineffective. Some even directly exhorted their viewers — generally seniors who are most vulnerable from COVID-19 — not to take the new booster.

“There's another shot that he's going to recommend all Americans take?” Jesse Watters, Carlson’s 8 p.m. replacement, asked Monday on Fox’s panel show, The Five. “This is another huge scamand no one is going to go along with another shot, especially if it's mandated.”

Several pharmaceutical companies are currently developing updated COVID-19 vaccines that are expected to provide increased protection from Eris, the variant currently dominant in the United States.

With COVID-19 cases on the upswing, Biden said Friday that he plans to ask Congress “for additional funding for a new vaccine” he would “tentatively” recommend “that everybody get.” The updated vaccine is expected in mid-September, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during her Monday briefing.

Fox hosts responded with ridicule and fury. Notably, several suggested that because the initial vaccines provided limited protection from infection from newer variants (even as they continued to provide strong protection from death or serious illness), people should be skeptical of the effectiveness of an updated shot specifically targeted to current strains. That’s a recipe for Fox’s viewers to once again put their health in danger by declining the shots.

:{:{}:

}:

Sean Hannity once garnered unearned credit from mainstream reporters over a tepid snippet about the vaccines. But since coming under fire from right-wing rivals and walking back even those remarks, he’s rarely missed an opportunity to demonstrate his vaccine skepticism. 

“Straight ahead, COVID madness coming back,” he said, teasing a Monday night segment. “More draconian measures and a new vaccine that I'm sure they're going to tell you is absolutely safe. Like the last one? Straight ahead.”

Video

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CitationFrom the August 28, 2023, edition of Fox News' Hannity.

After the break, he introduced Biden’s comments by saying, “Here we go again,” then asked Fox contributor Tomi Lahren, “Isn't this the same Joe Biden, same government that said that if you got the vaccine, that you'd never get COVID, you'd never transmit COVID and that were proven dead wrong? Isn't that the same government?”

Lahren replied that “if the Biden administration and leftists everywhere were that concerned about a new COVID strain, a new COVID variant, that southern border would be closed,” adding, “If the American people are ever dumb enough to fall for this again, we deserved to fail as a country. But I don't believe we are dumb enough to fall for it again. Not this time.”

Hannity went on to say that while he was not giving “medical advice,” he was “not listening to them” about the vaccines because “I don't believe a word they say. They've been proven wrong again and again and again.”

Likewise, while guest-hosting Fox’s prime-time “comedy” show Gutfeld!, Jimmy Faila argued that Biden’s call for a new shot was unnecessary because “unlike the Clintons, the virus wasn’t nearly as dangerous as we were told.”

“Now, I'll admit it's nice to see this White House making news for a drug besides cocaine,” Faila said. “But there's no need to discuss any drugs because the vaccines didn't stop transmission.”

Faila went on to express confusion about why politicians would say COVID-19 “would have been way worse” if they hadn’t been vaccinated, adding, “Like, you're saying it didn't work, OK? The government was wrong about every single thing they pushed on us during COVID, especially mask mandates, lockdowns, and vaccines.”

Fox could have responded to the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines, which were developed under then-President Donald Trump and are remarkably effective in preventing serious COVID-19 cases (with rare side effects), by urging viewers to get the shots. But the network instead ran a multiyear campaign against the vaccines while relentlessly hyping ineffective drugs popular among right-wing influencers. Any moral responsibility its hosts felt for their audience was apparently overrun by their reflexive opposition to Biden and their recognition that antivax commentary was “great for ratings.” 

These attacks on the vaccination campaign had deadly consequences. Polls routinely show the network’s viewers were less likely to say they were, or planned to get, vaccinated than people who get their news from other sources.One recent study found that “excess mortality was significantly higher for Republican voters than Democratic voters after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults, but not before."

But Fox is undeterred by the destructive impact of its vaccine coverage. The network is doing its best to inflame viewers as its extremist competitors baselessly fearmonger over the prospect of “new lockdowns” ahead of the 2024 election. And that means more of them are going to die.

THE LATEST

After being found liable for defaming Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, Rudy Giuliani goes on the radio to continue his attacks

08/30/23 4:29 PM EDT

Rumble promotes a video suggesting the Jacksonville shooting was a false flag among its selected “editor picks”

08/30/23 3:57 PM EDT

Jesse Watters hosts oil industry-funded scientist to buttress his climate denial and attack green energy

08/30/23 3:08 PM EDT

Right-wing pundits rally behind indicted former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis and fundraise for her legal fees

08/30/23 3:05 PM EDT

The right's latest attempt to prove Biden is senile is breathtakingly cynical

08/30/23

Pagination

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Fox has pushed COVID propaganda for two years. The cost has been staggering.

03/01/22 8:30 AM EST

Fox’s antivax programming is a moral abomination, but at least it’s “great for ratings”

09/28/21 10:27 AM EDT

I went on parental leave. Three months later, Fox is still killing its viewers.

01/25/22 12:50 PM EST

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no lnx mma 8 23

Sean Hannity attacks the bottom 50 percent of income earners for taking from the rich

Hannity: “That's redistribution. It's that simple”

WRITTEN BY MEDIA MATTERS STAFF

PUBLISHED 08/08/23 7:15 PM EDT

Sean Hannity attacks the bottom 50 percent of income earners for taking from the rich

AUGUST 8, 2023

still image of Sean Hannity

Audio CitationFrom the August 8, 2023, edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Top 10 percent pay almost the entire tax bill. 80 percent of the taxes. Bottom 50 percent pay next to 0. That's redistribution. It's that simple -- really don't need. It's not that complicated. The thing is is they now want a wealth tax, a confiscation of wealth.

You know, they want a second, a third, a fourth, bite at the apple. You risk your money, you invest it, then you're going to get hit with a capital gains tax. That's money you already paid taxes on.

You make money, you're successful, you know, and I guess you get to write it off if you lose, but all of this taken in into context is we have redistribution, but it's not even that. They want it all.

And that's why you see this accelerated mass migration out of high tax states and states with burdensome regulation into these you know, states like Florida and Texas and Tennessee. Tennessee, Florida have no income tax at all.

THE LATEST

Fox News prime-time ratings continue to crater as Lachlan Murdoch downplays collapse to stakeholders

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Sean Hannity says the government is trying to rig Donald Trump’s trial on January 6 charges by holding the proceedings in D.C.

08/03/23 5:36 PM EDT

Media Matters weekly newsletter, August 4

08/04/23 10:53 AM EDT

Sean Hannity says indictments of Donald Trump signal “the shredding of our Constitution”

08/01/23

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https://www.mediamatters.org/five/fox-news-**jesse-watters-gives-passionate-defense-donald-trumps-fake-electors-scheme

https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/:(style="background-color:#ffffffff"):}::{sean-hannity-says-government-trying-rig-donald-trumps-trial-january-6-charges-holding in DC

https://www.mediamatters.org/cnn/cnn-announces-they-wont-carry-trumps-comments-following-arraignment-live

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McCarthy tells Hannity Biden family’s business is 'rising to the level of impeachment inquiry'

https://www.alternet.org/Bank/hunter-biden-2662361445/

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mma 6 23

after former President Donald Trump was indicted for his alleged mishandling of highly classified documents, right-wing media has gone into a tailspin to defend Trump from the charges while accusing Democrats of committing similar offenses.

With this indictment, Trump has become “the most high-profile person to ever face criminal charges under the Espionage Act.” The post-World War 1 legislation makes the mishandling of sensitive government documents that concern national defense illegal, and has been used to prosecute whistleblowers such as Reality Winner and Daniel Ellsberg since its passing.

Special Counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump under the section of the law that prohibits unauthorized possession of top-secret national defense information and makes it a crime to “wilfully [retain]” that information or fail to “deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it.”

The former president’s allies have attempted to divert attention from the severity of his charges by comparing alleged violations of the Espionage Act by Democrats, including former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and President Joe Biden.

The FBI, however, determined that by using her private email, Clinton did not intend to break the law and therefore did not act with “wilful retention or obstruction.”

After another investigation into classified documents at Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, residence, the FBI found that “no evidence has emerged to suggest that anyone intentionally moved classified documents or tried to impede the FBI from recovering them.” Although there are many fair criticisms of the Espionage Act and its constitutionality, Trump was not acting as a reporter or whistleblower by allegedly showing top-secret documents to civilians like Kid Rock.

In the days since his indictment was released, right-wing media have attempted to cast doubt on what charges Trump should face, citing the Presidential Records Act as a more applicable framework and claiming that the suit against the former president should therefore be a civil one.

Following his presidential defeat, Trump took 15 boxes of documents that fell under the Presidential Records Act and belonged to the national archivist with him to Mar-a-Lago. The 1978 act states that “any records created or received by the President as part of his constitutional, statutory, or ceremonial duties are the property of the United States government and will be managed by NARA at the end of the administration.” However, Trump also had 11 tranches of documents with varying classification markings, and did not return all these records, thus raising concerns related to the Espionage Act and prompting the search of Mar-a-Lago.

In a Reuters article about the indictment, lawyer Bradley Moss was cited arguing that the Presidential Records Act argument does not hold water because “the question of whether the documents were personal or presidential records is beside the point." Moss was also quoted pointing out that “the records at issue in this indictment still have classification markings and contain information relating to the national defense” and are therefore being rightfully examined under the framework of the Espionage Act.

Right-wing figures argue that the Espionage Act is the wrong framework under which to charge Trump, suggest the Presidential Records Act instead:

Right-wing figures allege that Democrats have committed comparable offenses without being criminally prosecuted:

Several right-wing personalities claimed ill intent or misguided thinking motivated Trump’s indictment:

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/response-wildfire-smoke-choking-new-york-city-fox-news-trots-out-tired-climate-denial

June 7, as smoke from hundreds of wildfires raging across Canada turned New York City into a dystopian climate change movie, MSNBC host Chris Hayes tweeted: “I always thought there would be *some* kind of climate reckoning when it got bad enough but Covid has taught me that, no, people will just step on the gas and happily mow people down so they never have to admit taking a wrong turn."

Too little TV news coverage connected the code red air quality in New York and other impacted U.S. cities to climate change, but Fox News and other right-wing media figures retreated even further from a reckoning, stepping on the climate denial pedal by dismissing the link between global warming and wildfires, attacking those that did, and insisting on alternative explanations for why Canada is having its worst-ever wildfire season.

In fact, at 2 hours and 41 minutes of coverage, Fox News covered the wildfire story more than either CNN (2 hours and 19 minutes) or MSNBC (41 minutes) on June 7 and mentioned climate change (to deny it) more times in its coverage than its counterparts.

Fox News dismisses the link between wildfires and climate change, mocks those that do make the connection

Scientists say wildfires are becoming more severe as “forests around the world increasingly dry out amid the warming climate”, a fact even observed by Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal. Experts further note that Canada’s wildfire season is a “harbinger of our climate future” with the United Nations warning that by 2090, “global wildfires are expected to increase in intensity by up to 57% thanks to climate change.”  But no amount of evidence, either experiential or academic, changes the tone of the reporting at Fox News when it comes to extreme weather and climate-fueled events.

Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade mocks AOC, climate change czar John Kerry, and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for connecting the dangerous air quality to climate change: “Every time it’s real hot, climate change. Every time it’s real cold, climate change. When it rains a lot it’s because of climate change. And you guessed it, Canada, with burning forests, 400 separate fires, it’s because of climate change. AOC said it. Of course climate change czar John Kerry said it, and [Karine Jean-Pierre] KJP has one note, listen.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [6/8/23]

Fox News host Laura Ingraham suggests that coverage of the event is overblown and mocks those reporting the air quality from a climate angle: “Is this really a novel occurrence for our country or is it getting the coverage of the type it’s getting because it's happening along the East Coast where all the elites live?” Ingraham continued: “The apocalyptic coverage in the New York Times today was just absolutely knee-slappingly hilarious. … CNN's Bill Weir, no stranger to hyperbole himself, used the event to call for action to electrify every car in the United States for humanity’s sake." Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [6/7/23]

Fox News host Sean Hannity accuses Democrats, including AOC, of politicizing the crisis to push their climate agenda: “Tonight, smoke from the Canadian wildfires, they blanketed the entire East Coast of the U.S. creating a scary martian-like scene in New York City especially. And as usual, Democrats, they wasted no time. They went right to politicizing the crisis, AOC using the wildfire and heat wave in Puerto Rico to once again push her radical Green New Deal or the climate alarmist religious cult agenda:{.” Fox News, Hannity, :(style="background-color:#ffffffff"):}:[6/7/23:{]}:

On Jesse Watters Primetime, climate denier and frequent Fox guest Mark Morano dismissed climate change and accused those making the connection of weaponizing the weather while smoking a cigar:“This is exactly what you would expect to happen. This is Canadian natural disaster mismanagement and now they are trying to blame global warming which makes it, what? Our fault. It's our SUVs. It's our gas stoves which, by the way, didn't New York ban them? Shouldn't we have -- shouldn't wildfires be a thing of the past? I thought they were banning them.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [6/7/23]

On The Five, Jeanine Pirro accuses AOC and Democrats of “pumping up climate hysteria”: “While Americans choke on the smoke, the far left smells an opportunity. AOC thinks this is a great time to push her Green New Deal. She says that we must, ”Adapt our food systems, energy grids, infrastructure and healthcare to prepare for what's to come". Other Democrats are pumping up climate hysteria and bringing back, you guessed it, mask insanity.” Fox News, The Five, [6/7/23]

On Outnumbered,the panel mocks AOC for connecting the crisis to climate change while Fox contributor Kennedy suggests that because wildfires existed before “we started talking about the climate crisis” then the science is not settled: “There are a lot of reasons for wildfires. Wildfires have been happening for a long time. Before we started talking about the climate crisis. So, I want to make sure that the science is settled before we completely turf our economy and flush any innovation we have down the toilet because of a tweet from AOC.” Fox News, Outnumbered, [6/7/23]

Fox turns to its go-to explanation for catastrophic wildfires: It’s poor forest management. And it’s environmentalists’ fault.

Forest management has played some role in the unprecedented wildfire season in Canada — while the role of climate change is also evident and clear. But from watching Fox’s coverage of the fires, you would probably come away with the idea that it’s been Canada’s forest management policies alone driving the worsening fires.

Fox’s jump to shift blame to poor forest management as a tactic to downplay climate change goes back to at least 2018 when Trump first blamed California’s forestry policies while touring the aftermath of the deadly Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise. Fox revived the tactic in full force during California’s apocalyptic 2020 wildfires.

Helping drive the swift move to blame forest management and environmentalists this time around is News Corps darling, Fox News contributor, and New York Post columnist Miranda Devine who wrote a June 7 column, “Smoky New York isn’t climate change — it’s bad forest management,” which has been cited by Fox News personalities and amplified by right-wing media figures online.

Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy on Outnumbered: “The real blame is on the climate cult. … They are an anti-human group and they want to shut our forests and close them off to humans and to industry who know how to manage it. And that's what's happening right now.” Fox News, Outnumbered, [6/8/23]

On the Faulkner Focus, Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz insists that poor forest management is liberals' fault: I hate to tell it you folks but there have been big forest fires for eons probably since the beginning of time. It's ironic to me because the same people who claim they want the Green New Deal, they fight us every single time on the mitigation efforts to manage the forests, clear out the underbrush, clear out the dead trees and clear out the fuel that makes these things so ignite in such big fashion. They will not do that as Democrats and these left-leaning liberals. Fox News, Faulkner Focus, [6/8/23]

Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy dismissed climate change and redirected the blame to “bad forest management”: “Climate change does not start a fire. It can create dry conditions, and they have really bad dry conditions up in Canada right now. In Canada they are blaming bad forest management because of a very dry winter and they did not get a lot of snow. … Apparently behind the scenes they have not been doing the controlled burns that they should have been doing. And back in 2024 environmentalists wrote a paper and said not enough is being done to fund this kind of forest management and there is going to be hell to pay.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [6/8/23]

Sean Hannity also suggested that forest management is the main culprit:{: “Here's what nobody talks about. There is a science. You can get an advanced college degree in forestry. There's something called the controlled burns that climate alarmist cult members are all dead set against. And you see, if you have a controlled burn that prevents the bigger fires like the one they're experiencing in little Justin's neighborhood in Canada that's now making it smoke all the way down here.” Fox News, Hannity, :(style="background-color:#ffffffff"):}:[6/7/23:{]}:

Host Jesse Watters claims that there are fewer wildfires now than 100 years ago to dismiss the role of climate change and prop up the forest management argument:  “You might be surprised to find out over the last 100 years, there have been less wildfires, not more. The Wall Street Journal says in the early 1900s about 4% of land worldwide burned every year by 2021 that was down to 2.5%. So instead of obsessing over climate change they should take a look at forest management.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [6/7/23]

On The Five co-host Dana Perino blames wildfires on forest management and liberal policies: “Canada is experiencing really bad wildfires on their public lands. We have a similar problem, and it has to do with forest management. The Biden administration has policies that are in direct conflict with one another. … Wildfires can occur naturally of course, but if you are actively managing your forest, then you can prevent some of these things. The left has never wanted to do that.”  Fox News, The Five, [6/7/23]

Pirro suggests that since only half of Americans believe in climate change that Democrats shouldn’t be linking it to wildfires: Agreeing that poor forest management is the main cause of severe wildfires, Pirro questions why climate change is even part of the discussion: “We’re at a point when I think 49% of Americans believe climate change is caused mostly by human actions, the lowest reported apparently in many years.So why are Democrats, why do they keep pushing climate change over something that could’ve been prevented?" Fox News, The Five, [6/7/23] HUH?!

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-anchor-disregards-foxs-own-debunks-gop-claim-fbi-document-shows-biden-was-paid

https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/fox-news-runs-ads-mike-huckabees-climate-denial-book-targeted-children

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/fox-news-responds-federal-trump-indictment-unhinged-demagoguery

former President Donald Trump has been indicted — again — and Fox News personalities are once more rallying behind him. In the hours after news broke that Trump is facing seven federal criminal charges over his mishandling of federal documents, his loyal propagandists denounced the indictment as a “dark day in America” and an attack on American democracy and the rule of law.

Trump wrote on social media Thursday evening that he had been indicted over his mishandling of classified documents. The New York Times later reported that Trump “was charged with a total of seven counts, including willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements and an obstruction of justice conspiracy, according to people familiar with the matter.”

Trump had taken government documents with him when he left office and refused to return them, leading to an August search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in which the FBI uncovered a trove of documents bearing classification markings, some at the “top secret” level. Special counsel Jack Smith has been investigating the former president’s conduct for months.

Trump is the first former president ever to face federal criminal charges and is expected to surrender in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday. The charges were not a surprise — even Trump’s own former attorney general Bill Barr had repeatedly acknowledged that the former president’s own conduct put him in serious legal jeopardy.

But on Fox, host Jesse Watters announced the news by saying that “the president, former, calls it the boxes hoax” and suggesting that the indictment was an attempt to distract attention from the House GOP’s investigations of President Joe Biden.

The situation rapidly devolved from there. Over the following hours, Fox’s hosts and the menagerie of Trump cronies and sycophants the network put on the air unleashed unhinged demagoguery.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba called it evidence that we live in a “sick world” with “a two-tier system of justice,” citing the lack of legal punishment for Biden, his son Hunter, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton.

Former Trump aide Stephen Millerclaimed that “history will record today as the day that we ceased to be a democratic republic and we became a people ruled by an unelected government bureaucracy.”

Former Trump acting Attorney General Matt Whitakercalled it “a really sad day for our country” and “the stuff of banana republics.”

For right-wing activist Ned Ryun, it was “late-stage republic behavior. When you use the legal system as a weapon against political opponents, you’ve abandoned the rule of law.”

“What’s going on here is a disgusting disgrace. It is war on Trump, it is war on the Republican Party, and it is a war on the republic,” Fox host Mark Levin screamed. “You have crossed the Rubicon twice, which has never been done, and we will never forgive you — never, ever, and that’s the bottom line,” he added.

“It is a dark day in America,” concluded longtime Trump adviser and Fox hostSean Hannity.“There is no equal justice. There is no equal application of our laws.” He added, “Our system of justice has now been weaponized beyond belief and this country is in serious trouble."

Fox’s furious denunciations may have taken the issue off the table for Trump’s would-be presidential rivals. When Fox’s Harris Faulkner brought on Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who is theoretically running for president against Trump, to discuss the indictment, she asked him, “The bottom line is, you’re a Republican, this was a Republican president, and look at what has happened. Your reaction?” Scott took the hint and issued a rambling response that avoided directly criticizing Trump.

Fox’s over-the-top response is familiar. While some have suggested that the network and its Murdoch owners have turned on the former president, Fox always rises to Trump’s defense at his moments of legal peril.

The network’s stars were similarly furious in March, when Trump was indicted on 34 charges of falsifying business records in a New York state court in connection with the $130,000 hush money payment made to an adult film actress in the closing days of the 2016 presidential campaign. They urged viewers to treat the charges as an attack on the U.S. Constitution, American democracy, the rule of law, and themselves, while denouncing the prosecutor and his purported “witch hunt.”

Likewise, when news first broke of the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, the Trumpists at Fox denounced it as “the worst attack on this republic in modern history” and part of a “preemptive coup” to prevent Trump’s reelection, among other incendiary claims, with hosts urging viewers to believe that “the real target of this investigation is you.”

The throughline is that any legal attack on Trump is inherently corrupt and a signal that America has been lost — and that, if Trump is brought down, Fox’s viewers may be next.

Trump needs the powerful propaganda apparatus of Fox to keep his supporters in line and his primary opponents at bay, and the network’s hosts and executives are happy to oblige. But we’ve seen the disastrous consequences that can come from Fox’s overheated rhetoric in the former president’s service.

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As NYC is inundated with wildfire smoke, Rupert Murdoch’s WSJ calmly shows link to climate crisis, while Murdoch's Fox News mocks it

WRITTEN BY JOHN WHITEHOUSE

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM SAGE HODIL

PUBLISHED 06/07/23

New York City is currently inundated with a hazardous level of wildfire smoke, making the skies appear yellowish-orange.

The smoke is from wildfires in Canada, which scientists say are “becoming bigger and more frequent” due to climate change, as reliably explained by Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal:

Wildfires like those ravaging Canada are becoming bigger and more frequent as forests around the world increasingly dry out amid the warming climate, many scientists say.

Some of the biggest fires are breaking out in the boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere such as most of the ones in Canada. That is because the Arctic region has warmed nearly four times faster than the rest of the world, said Carly Phillips, a Boston-based research scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

In the boreal areas—mostly conifer forests with long winters and short summers—of Canada and Alaska, she said the annual area burned has nearly doubled in the past 60 years, along with an increase in the frequency of large fires. Russia’s vast Siberian forests have been consumed by giant fires too. Phillips said this year’s outbreak, while unprecedented in size, is just following the trend.

“I don’t know if it’s a tipping point, but what this underscores is that the climate crisis is here and now,” Phillips said.

The link is so obvious and uncontroversial that Journal staff members have no problems tweeting it.

And yet, over at Murdoch’s Fox News Channel, this is just another reason for hosts to punch left, this time at frequent target Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who dared to point out that the country has work to do to adapt to the climate crisis.

Video file

Video CitationFrom the June 7, 2023, edition of of Fox News' Outnumbered

None of this is novel. Fox News (and the Journal’s right-wing editorial board) have for years pushed climate denial on the body politic. Now that the effects of the climate crisis are impossible to miss, the network is still refusing to recalibrate.

Like the Dominion case shows, it’s not clear if Fox’s audience — or whatever is left of it — will allow the network to speak the truth.

Either way, I’d recommend that people working at Fox News headquarters in Manhattan buy some high-quality masks. They might even still have some sitting around.

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