Category Archives: Fox News

Crime coverage on Fox News halved once US midterms were over

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Just a week after elections, number of weekly segments focused on crime slashed in half on Rupert Murdoch’s flagship network

In the weeks leading up to the US midterm elections, the message from Fox News was clear: violent crime is surging, cities are dangerous hellscapes and Democrats are responsible.

With the vote over, however, the rightwing news channel appeared to decide things weren’t that bad after all, and decreased its coverage of violent crime by 50% compared with the pre-election average.

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Rightwing media’s coverage of Trump’s presidential bid shows it just can’t turn away

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The evening was full of contradictory messages supporting and slighting the former president

All the signs in the past week have been that the Rupert Murdoch-owned US media was ready to ditch Donald Trump en masse. The New York Post mocked Trump as Humpty Dumpty, the Wall Street Journal declared him to be “the Republican party’s biggest loser” and even Fox News offered scant defense of Trump’s miserable midterm elections.

Watching Fox News on Tuesday night, however, as Trump announced he was running for president yet again in 2024, it seemed that not everyone was ready to let Trump go.

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Murdoch press turns on Donald Trump in favour of ‘DeFuture’ Ron DeSantis

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Rightwing media empire looks for new Republican protege after poor showing in midterm elections

Rupert Murdoch has reportedly warned Donald Trump his media empire will not back any attempt to return to the White House, as former supporters turn to the youthful Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

After the Republican party’s disappointing performance in the US midterm elections, in particular the poor showing by candidates backed by Trump, Murdoch’s rightwing media empire appears to be seeking a clean break from the former president’s damaged reputation and perceived waning political power.

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Unaired Kanye West-Tucker Carlson material contains more racist conspiracy theories

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Rapper deals in antisemitic tropes in interview after he wore ‘white lives matter’ T-shirt

Unaired segments of an interview between Kanye West and the Fox News host Tucker Carlson document the American rapper airing a series of comments based on racist conspiracy theories, adding to the growing controversy over the interview.

In the segments, first reported by the tech news outlet Motherboard, West, who has changed his legal name to Ye, detailed his belief in an unfounded and antisemitic conspiracy theory that Planned Parenthood was founded “to control the Jew population”.

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Fox News’ Tucker Carlson speaks at Hells Angels president’s funeral

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Host speaks at funeral of Ralph ‘Sonny’ Barger, leader of the group considered by the DoJ to be linked to organised crime

The rightwing Fox News host Tucker Carlson spoke at the funeral of Ralph “Sonny” Barger, the longtime president of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, in Stockton, California, on Saturday.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) considers the Hells Angels to be linked to organised crime.

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Fox News anchor Bret Baier wanted Arizona ‘put back’ in Trump’s column, book says

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News of ‘stunning’ attempt to rescind dramatic election night call contained in The Divider, by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser

Fox News anchor Bret Baier wanted the network to withdraw its famous call of Arizona for Joe Biden on election night in 2020, citing pressure from Donald Trump’s campaign and saying the swing state should be “put back in his column”, a new book says.

News of Baier’s email is contained in The Divider: Trump in the White House 2017-2021, published in the US on Tuesday.

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Former Fox News politics editor says network stoked ‘paranoia and hatred’

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Chris Stirewalter, who was forced out after Donald Trump’s electoral defeat, says Fox failed its viewers with 2020 election coverage

A former Fox News politics editor who was forced out of the conservative television network shortly after its opinions hosts’ preferred candidate Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential race has said that the channel failed its viewers with its election coverage.

In his upcoming memoir, Chris Stirewalt says Fox News resigned its duty to prepare Trump followers for the possibility that he would lose, instead stoking the “black-helicopter-level paranoia and hatred” which fuels white supremacist groups but translates into big ratings.

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Jared Kushner: I stopped Trump attacking Murdoch in 2015

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In forthcoming memoir, obtained by the Guardian, former adviser claims to have made hugely consequential intervention

In a forthcoming memoir, Jared Kushner says he personally intervened to stop Donald Trump attacking Rupert Murdoch in response to the media mogul’s criticism, at the outset of Trump’s move into politics in 2015.

In the book, Breaking History, Kushner writes: “Trump called me. He’d clearly had enough. ‘This guy’s no good. And I’m going to tweet it.’

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Newsom airs Florida ad urging people to fight for freedom – or move to California

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‘Freedom is under attack in your state,’ California governor says in ad paid for by his re-election campaign that aired on Fox News

Governor Gavin Newsom of California has aired a commercial in Florida over the Fourth of July holiday weekend urging residents there to fight for freedom, or move to his state in order to find it.

The ad – which pits blue state California against currently red state Florida – exemplified the growing divides in the US as Republican-led state legislatures have pursued rightwing policies on a slew of issues from banning abortion to attacking LGBTQ+ rights and voting issues.

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Fox News will air January 6 hearings, reflecting split between news and hosts

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Anchor Bret Baier said Trump looked ‘really bad’ last week as hosts continue to call the proceedings a sham

Last week, Fox News was the only major outlet not to air the primetime hearing hosted by the House committee investigating the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. But for the committee’s daytime session on Monday, Fox plans to join the rest of the pack.

Fox officials are apparently justifying the switch by saying that the network’s hosts set the agenda for prime time, and they rejected live coverage of Thursday evening’s hearing, CNN reported. Daytime, however, is for news, opening the door for Fox to televise Monday’s session live at 10am ET.

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As America watched Capitol attack testimony, Fox News gave an alternate reality

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Tucker Carlson leads January 6 counter-programming, petulantly refusing to show the hearing: ‘We’re not playing along’

The millions of people who tuned into America’s main television channels on Thursday heard how the January 6 insurrection was “the culmination of an attempted coup”, a “siege” where violent Trump supporters mercilessly attacked police, causing politicians and staffers to run for their lives.

On the Fox News channel, however, there was a different take on the historic congressional hearings exploring the attack on the Capitol in Washington DC.

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Tucker Carlson tried to use Hunter Biden to get his son into Georgetown

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Emails reveal the ‘extent’ which Carlson was willing to turn on Biden’s son since the 2020 election, Washington Post says

As Tucker Carlson asked Hunter Biden for help getting his son into an elite Washington university in 2014, the Fox News host’s wife, Susie, reportedly wrote in an email: “Tucker and I have the greatest respect and admiration for you. Always!”

Since the 2020 election, however, Carlson has fueled rightwing attacks on Joe Biden’s son, particularly over business affairs in which he allegedly benefited from his father’s position.

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Lara Logan, who compared Fauci to Mengele, says Fox News pushed her out

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Logan says network ‘does not want independent thinkers’ as Fox stays quiet on reports it dropped her after November remark

The former CBS reporter Lara Logan, who compared Dr Anthony Fauci to the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, has claimed she was “pushed out” at Fox News because the conservative network does not want “independent thinkers”.

“I was definitely pushed out,” Logan told Eric Metaxas, a conservative radio host, this week. “I mean, there is no doubt about that. They don’t want independent thinkers. They don’t want people who follow the facts regardless of the politics.”

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Chris Wallace: working at Fox News became ‘unsustainable’ after election

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Journalist’s new show begins on archrival CNN’s streaming service after nearly 20 years with the right-leaning cable channel

Chris Wallace has said working at Fox News became “increasingly unsustainable” before he jumped ship to CNN last December after almost 20 years with the right-leaning cable channel.

His departure dealt a blow to Fox’s news operation at a time when its opinion side had become preeminent. The veteran journalist’s new show begins on archrival CNN’s streaming service this week and the 74-year-old spoke to the New York Times.

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Fox News cameraman and producer killed in Ukraine

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Irish cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian producer Oleksandra Kuvshynova killed in attack outside Kyiv

Two Fox News journalists – producer Oleksandra Kuvshynova and cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski – were killed in the attack outside Kyiv which injured correspondent Benjamin Hall, the US network and its journalists confirmed on Tuesday.

Fox News in a statement only announced the death of Zakrzewski, an Irish citizen. Ukrainian officials and Fox News reporters confirmed that Kuvshynova was also killed in the attack.

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Fox News journalist injured outside Kyiv, network says

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Foreign affairs correspondent, Benjamin Hall, injured ‘while newsgathering’ and is hospitalized, says network

A Fox News journalist has been injured outside Kyiv, the network reported on Monday.

In a statement sent to its employees on Monday afternoon, Fox News said that its foreign affairs correspondent, Benjamin Hall, “was injured while newsgathering outside of Kyiv in Ukraine. We have a minimal level of details right now, but Ben is hospitalized and our teams on the ground are working to gather additional information as the situation quickly unfolds.”

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AOC calls Tucker Carlson ‘trash’ for saying she is not a woman of colour

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‘You’re a creep, bro,’ says New York congresswoman after Carlson attacked Ocasio-Cortez in Fox News segment

The Fox News host Tucker Carlson attacked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Friday night, claiming the US congresswoman was not a woman of colour.

“She’s a rich entitled white lady,” he said.

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Joe Biden appears to mock Fox News reporter in hot mic moment – video

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Joe Biden has been caught on a hot mic apparently referring to a Fox News reporter as a 'stupid son of a bitch'. As journalists left a meeting, the Fox News White House reporter Peter Doocy asked whether Biden thought inflation was a political liability ahead of the midterms. 'No, it’s a great asset – more inflation,' Biden appeared to respond sarcastically over a din of reporters shouting questions, apparently not realizing his microphone was still on. 'What a stupid son of a bitch,' he added

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Joe Biden appears to insult Fox News reporter over inflation question

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President caught on mic seemingly swearing at Peter Doocy as journalists left a news conference

Joe Biden was caught on a hot mic appearing to insult the Fox News journalist Peter Doocy, seemingly calling him a “stupid son of a bitch” after Doocy posed a question about US inflation.

“Do you think inflation is a political liability in the midterms?” the reporter asked the president as journalists were leaving the room at the end of an event at the White House on Monday.

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‘Weakness and surrender’: Ted Cruz seeks to move on from Tucker Carlson mauling

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The Republican senator was widely mocked after being forced to walk back his description of 5 January as a ‘violent terrorist attack’

Ted Cruz used Twitter on Friday to accuse Joe Biden of signaling “weakness and surrender to Putin” over Ukraine – but the Texas senator could not escape a crisis of his own, stoked by widespread accusations of weakness and surrender in the face of the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, over remarks about the deadly Capitol attack.

On Wednesday, a day before the first anniversary of the attack by supporters of Donald Trump attempting to overturn the election, Cruz described “a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol, where we saw the men and women of law enforcement demonstrate incredible courage”.

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