An alternate universe: 7 hours with Fox News. Part 2

I watched Fox's entire evening schedule, from 5 pm to 10 pm, plus morning "Fox & Friends." They are all the top rated cable news shows in their time slot. This is what I observed. It was painful.

Last week, I recorded seven hours of Fox News: on Wednesday, April 16, the one-hour evening schedule of “The Five,” “Special Report with Bret Baier, “The Ingraham Angle,” “Jesse Watters Prime Time, “Hannity, and “Gutfeld!” On Thursday morning, I endured two hours of “Fox & Friends.”

In Part 1 yesterday, I shared my general observations of the shows and provided examples of the content from several of them. Today, I pick up the narrative at 8:00 pm, along with a review of the 6:00 pm news hour, and finally, my conclusions from this little exercise. To recap, this is not an exhaustive accounting of every segment of each show. That would be exhausting. Rather, it's a purposive sample to convey the flavor.

Wednesday, April 16. 8:00 pm- Jesse Watters Prime Time

Watters takes the first 20 minutes going over similar territory with Patty Morin clips. His take is that Abrego Garcia is “a real bad dude.” How do we know Abrego Garcia is MS-13? Because Homeland Security says he is a “verified member of MS-13.” That makes him “a gangbanger.” Meanwhile, Senator Van Hollen is going to San Salvador to “rescue him.”

Cut to an interview with Missouri Senator Josh Hawley. Referring to Van Hollen, “I’m watching this in total disbelief. The Democratic Party has hit moral rock bottom. They are so in love with criminal illegals that they would like to escort them into the country one at a time.”

There is a video of disruptions at a Marjorie Taylor Greene town hall, which had also been used in previous shows. Watters calls the perpetrator who started the fire at the governor’s mansion a “pro-Palestinian nutjob.” I wonder if Fox News would be as enthusiastic if he had been a pro-Israel nut job?

There’s another go ‘round on George Clooney—the same CNN clip with Jake Tapper

Watters and the others play long clips from CNN, which seem like an interlude of sanity to me, but they use that for their own spin. Here’s Jake Berman asking Rahm Emanuel about the future of AOC. His response is that there is “tremendous energy among Democrats and they want the election focused on Trump.”

Watters uses that to launch into how Democrats have a problem with radicals in their party, and “they’re not willing to clean house. Someone else will have to step in and clean house for them.” And “the left is gearing up for an insurrection,” followed by that well-known leftist, former Republican representative Adam Kinzinger, who had sent out a video post explaining, “We are in uncharted territory, and honestly, we may have to take the streets or something.”

Winding down, the “Watters Cooler,” segment (get the pun?) brings in morning show news reader Carley Shimkus, They riffed on a podcast in which Michele Obama denied she was getting a divorce and told a story about making her husband “hang up his basketball sneakers” after he cut his lip playing baketball in the White House. Jesse to Carley (in an incredulous voice): “Should your wife be able to tell you, the President of the United States, you’re not playing basketball?” Talking fast, lots of smurks.

There’s a two-minute Wounded Warrior Project solicitation ad.. (Similar, but not the same as this one.) ¹

Wednesday, April 16, 9:00 Hannity

For die-hard Fox News fans, who have been watching since five o’clock (with maybe a dinner break during the six o’clock news), this gets very redundant.

Hannity opens with more Abrego Garcia.

Let me introduce you to the new face of hypocrisy hysteria inside the Democrat Party. That would be Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, When Joe Biden allowed an estimated, what, 12 plus million unvetted illegal immigrants to pour into our country, including known terrorists, murders, cartel members, and Van Hollen did nothing and he said nothing.

He then remnds us about Rachel Morin who was brutally raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant from El Salvador. And of another murder by an immigrant in Maryland, “Van Hollen expressed zero public outrage.” But over Abrego Garcia, he has “found his voice, is outraged” (as Abrego Garcia’s “rap sheet” scrolls over his shoulder.) “Dumbest most pointless political stunt in recent history,” referring to Van Hollen.

Once again, he fails to explain the real reason behind the Abrego Garcia case: a judge’s order said he could not be deported to El Salvador, and ICE was ordered to turn the plane around on which he was. The issue is due process and obeying a court order, not whether the man warrants deportation.

Attorney General Pam Bondi comes on “Everybody in this country should be thanking Donald Trump for making this country safer by getting this guy out of this country. I’m going to call him a terrorist because he has been designated as a member of a terrorist organization.”

Inadvertently, the Trump administration sometimes does show us true transparency. Hannity complimented Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on her “powerful” press briefing. Standing in front of the White House, Leavitt smirks. Hannity: “I love watching the liberal media melt and bubble like Alka Seltzer.” Although press secretaries for other presidents tried to put a positive spin for the boss in briefings, I don't recall any other than Trump’s who viewed their role as putting down or discriminating against journalists who didn’t conform to the “company line.”

Leavitt exits after touting Trump’s tariff gambit and how “everyone wants to trade with us.”

The one segment that was most original was a remote interview with former Washington Post columnist, Taylor Lorenz.. On CNN's MisinfoNation with Donie O'Sullivan, which aired on Sunday, April 13, she talked about the supporters of the alleged CEO assassin, Luigi Magione. She had made comments calling Luigi "handsome," "smart," and “morally good” when describing what his fanbase thinks of him.

Hannity played a clip of that, making it look like Lorenz had personally held those assessments of Magione. Lorenz tried to explain that she was describing what the “fan girls” who have been fawning over him are saying, with Hannity regularly talking over her. Lorenz’s response was that her reaction stemmed from the state of the United States’ healthcare system, which denied claims under "greedy health insurance executives," which has led to the death of many Americans.

After back and forth over this, Hannity asked Lorenz if she agreed that anyone supporting the murder of an innocent man “lacks a conscience, a soul, and a heart?” She couldn’t or wouldn’t answer that, much to Hannity’s (and my) frustration. She kept repeating variations of the point that the real problem is the health care system and the profit made by the insurers— ”the tens of thousands of people who die each year for lack of health insurance. That, to me, is a violence in itself. You need to understand the ideology people have.” She would not condemn “people who call for assassination.” Her response was that she wants to understand people who are violent.

I have a link to that segment above. Watch it. Can you explain (in the Comments) why Lorenz could not agree with Hannity’s question?

As might be expected, there was crowing over the British Supreme Court ruling that there are two genders, determined by sex at birth. Thus, a transwomen can’t be defined as women.

Finally, Vivkek Ramaswamy—running for governor in Ohio — got in his two cents on the Clooney-Tapper interview. He reasonably advised they we should stop looking back at Biden, then added a dig: “Six months from now, I’d like our memory of Joe Biden to be approximately Joe Biden’s memory of much of anything.”

Gutfeld!

10:00 Gutfeld!, with a studio audience

Gutfeld! is billed as a humorous take on the day's news. The hour-long show, described by the network as a multifaceted comedic hour that features insights into current events through parodies, panel discussions, and the host's signature monologues.

Greg Gutfeld opens with a sitting-down stand-up routine. He has a rather flat affect and just seems to read one “joke” after another. You can get a flavor with this short clip.

He shows a photo of Biden at his address in Chicago the previous night. His punch line: “As a result, many Americans now believe in life after death.” Da dump.
“During his speech, he referred to ‘colored kids.’ Which I heard was an improvement over his first draft.” Smurk.

A graphic of the New York Post headline about Latisha James being investigated [context: by the Trump Justice Department] for falsifying records to get a mortgage.] “Isn’t this the same thing she tried to prosecute Trump for? Makes me wonder…what if she banged Stormy Daniels.” A photo of Daniels hits the screen.

There is the by now de rigueur long riff on immigrants, more photos of Bondi, and the laugh line “all it took to get refugee status [under Biden] was to say ‘I hate tortillas.’” He gets serious: “They” get concerned about deporting illegals, adding in a feigned sympathy voice:

Oh, he has kids, he works so hard. Well, pal, maybe don’t pick a country you’re illegally in to start a family. It sounds harsh. Not when it’s compared to the arroganmt indifference of Democrats when women got raped and murdered by illegals they let in. [Photo of three women whom I didn’t recognize, but based on the snickers, the audience did]. Not to mention the relentless violence in cities they ignored for years because it was under their watch.

He is all for these deportations. “I don’t care. And don’t get me started, (Sort of feminine sarcastic voice): “But isn’t there a process?’ He answers himself: “Yes, there is. It’s called get the f---- out.” Audience laughs and applause.

His regular sidekicks, to whom he asks questions, followed by their presumably scripted rejoinders, are sitting in easy chairs in a semicircle around Gutfeld. They are Joe Machi, Steven Cortes, Brianna Lyman, one of the few women without a religious adornment, and George "Tyrus" Murdoch.

Machi starts by saying that due process is important, but also for the plaintiffs. This launches him into Abrego Garcia: “14 years after entering the country, he’s still here. It reminds me of college.” (I think that's supposed to be humor). “Trump did screw up here. They sent him to the wrong country he couldn’t be deported to. They should send him somewhere worse—like France.” Okay, that could get a chuckle.

Other than in the straight news hour, this is the only reference I’ve heard to the real due process issue.

Gutfeld goes around the group with “concerns” or “questions” about the Abrego Garcia case.

Cortes, “This guy is an absolute scumbag. It wouldn’t matter even if he was [sic] a wonderful person. He still trespassed. He broke into OUR homeland and was here illegally… He has to go.”

There are lots of bleeped f-bombs, particularly from Murdoch. Tyrus:

Funny thing. [Van Hollen] is going to El Salvador to tell them they’re wrong. And then you’re going to have to call the White House to get your jailed ass home. Let me answer the phone that night. [using fingers as phone] Oh, I’ll have to put you on hold.” And he makes a face like “Oh, this is fun.” “That’s the problem with dumb people. No, seriously, they’re dumb. And we know they’re dumb. But the problem is they don’t know they’re dumb because they’re [f-ing bomb] dumb.” Applause.

A second segment had the theme, “Biden’s First Post-Presidency Speech.” Cortes:

It was the 2017 Charlottesville “hoax” that compelled him to get into the race.² It was totally not true. It was the “complete lie” from which all other hoaxes stemmed. “Amazing hubris, and then for him to grandstand in Chicago, of all places, a city the Democrats, his allies, have completely ruined. We lived there for 50 years. We got chased out by the crazies….He is the divider-in-chief. Applause.

The Video of the Day segment opened with a graphic of Fox’s favorite source, a New York Post headline, ”Calling Mission a ‘Ride’ Offends Gayle.”

So, one again, back to Gayle King and her Blue Origin rocket launch. Once again, King was ridiculed for her complaint that “they” are calling it a ride. “If it were men,” moaned King, “they wouldn’t say it was just a ride.”

Leaning into King’s woke lament, Gutfeld had his fun,

So Gayle, what was it, if it wasn’t a ride? Did you touch a single button? Operate a single lever? No, you went straight up and came right back down.” [Video showing lift off and landing.] Lasted only 11 minutes. You were just a passenger along for the ride. Like the time Russia sent a dog into space.” [Picture of comedian Joy Behar photoshopped into a Russian space suit.] Applause

In a second Video of the Day (so it should have been Videos of the Day), has fun with CNN anchor Dana Bash. On one of her appearances on that network, she had pushed back on a throw-away line by Trump in an Oval Office event that CNN hates America. Gutfeld rolls a video of Bash responding, “We do not, it should go without saying.”
Gutfeld’s take: Bash is robotic. She says that without emotion.” He’s actually accurate about that. “It’s fact-checking an opinion. Hilarious.”

Cotes piles on: “If you’re clarifying, you’re losing. It probably means that, yeah, you do hate America.” Cortes worked for CNN. He tries to lend some credibility to Dear Leader’s accusation: “They 100% DO hate America. The crazy you see on the air… It’s actually worse off-air. And I’m not kidding. They are even more radical, even more Trump deranged, even more than they show on air.”

It’s getting late and punchy. Gutfeld asks Cortes, “What does [CNN media analyst] Brian Stelter smell like?” Cortes, “Well, a potato, of course.”

Special Report With Bret Baier

Wednesday, April 16, 6:00 pm

I’ve held out the 6:00 pm news hour from Fox’s red meat and potatoes opinion schedule. The evening news is largely straight news, as close to “fair and balanced” as Fox gets.

The lead story, as might be expected, was Abrego Garcia, Patty Morin’s White House visit, and Van Hollen’s excursion to El Salvador. It includes a report from a correspondent about the documents released by the Justice Department, which “they say prove Abrego Garcia is connected to the MS-13 gang.”

After the top stories, Baier brings on attorney Jonathan Turley and political commentator Brit Hume. Turley doesn’t see the deportation cases as a constitutional crisis, but accurately describes them as “novel questions” that the courts must deal with. Hume opines that the immigration crackdown and the Abrego Garcia case, in particular, are political winners for Trump and a loss for Van Hollen.

Later in the show, Baier brings in a panel featuring Douglass Hey, a former Republican National Committee Communications Director, Josh Kraushaar, a Fox News radio analyst, and Francesca Chambers, a USA Today reporter, to discuss Van Hollen and his trip to El Salvador. For the first—and it will be the only—time in the seven hours, both Heye and Kradshaar note that this is legitimately about due process, not just one individual. Kraushaar says Abrego Garcia’s deportation should have been dealt with in a court of law, not after the fact. However, they agree with Hume that the politics seem favorable to Trump. It was a segment that could have fit readily into CNN.

Conclusion

For almost three decades, a key part of my research agenda has focused on media ownership. In three editions of Who Owns the Media? between 1979 and 2000, I chronicled the players and stakes, the forces and trends of media competition and ownership. In the 1980s, critics of television bemoaned the lack of competition and the dominance of the three networks, both for news and entertainment.

Critics, such as Ben Bagdikian, in the multiple editions of his book "The Media Monopoly" since 1983, lamented the lack of competition. Having more players would mean greater diversity. CNN pioneered 24-hour television news in 1980, when cable was still in its infancy and grew with the industry. It had a monopoly on cable news for over 15 years. Then, in quick succession in 1996, Microsoft and NBC launched MSNBC, followed by Fox News Channel, bankrolled by Rupert Murdoch. This would seem to be the answer to the prayers of all who sought competition and diversity.

As they developed, MSNBC sought to carve out an audience from CNN by adopting a more overtly liberal slant. Murdoch saw an opportunity to cater to a more conservative audience with Fox News. It turned out that Murdoch found —or maybe created—the largest niche.

Ideally, our fellow citizens, if they took to heart the ethos of The Two-Sided Pancake, would dip into two or three of the networks to gain different perspectives. Alas, that seems to go against human nature. A century ago, when most cities had three or more daily newspapers, each tended to affilaite with a political point of view and they developed audences in that silo. That pattern has been repeated with cable news.

My immersion into Fox News was difficult because, as should be apparent, I find its spin disingenuous at best, dishonest at worst. I wish it would make a bit more effort to give its loyal audiences a bit more balance. On the other hand, it has, of course, fulfilled the goal of media critics, dating back to Newton Minow, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission under President Kennedy, who labeled television of the day a “vast wasteland.” Today, we have the diversity so desired. Be careful what you wish for.

1. In the past, I donated to Wounded Warriors.

2. But he’s referring to is a Snopes fact-check that declared it was false to say Trump had called the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who attended the rally “very fine people.” What Trump said was that there are “very fine people on both sides.” However, Trump’s insistence that there had been decent folks within the ranks of the Unite the Right protest—which was organized by Nazis and white supremacists—was an inaccurate assertion. It conveyed a false moral equivalency and, to a degree, acceptance of this hatefest. Trump was essentially saying, “It wasn’t all bad.”