An alternate universe: 7 hours with Fox News. Part 1

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.”

I’m here to report what I saw as well as what I felt. I’ll start with some general impressions before delving into the details of each show and closing with some recommendations. 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. Even then, it got so long that I’m dividing it into two parts, with the conclusion tomorrow, if you’re up for it. I can report that, for me, this was excruciating - perhaps the most gut-wrenching research I've ever engaged in.

Fox News is very successful and profitable

Fox News has become a powerhouse. Its news shows have greater viewership than CNN and MSNBC combined, with two-thirds of the evening cable news audience. In the first quarter this year, Gutfeld! at 10 pm was the most viewed late-night television show, including CBS’ Stephen Colbert, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, and NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

To start, full disclosure: my default source of TV news is CNN. I find it attempts to be a bit more balanced than MSNBC.

Observations from across the shows

The observations below exclude the Bret Baier news hour, which I’ll address separately.

• I know MSNBC mostly by reputation. That said, Fox is far more partisan on the political right than MSNBC and especially CNN is toward the left or center. In its opinion shows, CNN, in particular, includes the conservative and Trumpist perspective. It often has articulate partisans, such as Scott Jennings or David Urban, even if more of the commentators are, shall we say, Trump-skeptical. The closest Fox came was on “The Five,” where Harold Ford Jr., a former Democratic congressman, seemed like a deer in the headlights, flustered by Janine Pirro and his Trumpian colleagues on the panel.

• The Fox News commentators seem obsessed with CNN and view it as somewhere between Communist and subversive. At least over my watching period, the various Fox News shows use it as a foil for their own commentary.

• Every one of the shows leads with the Abrego Garcia case. There seemed to be a coordinated approach to tie Abrego Garcia to MS-13, likely as the result of the Justice Department finally releasing some documents that loosely tied him to that organization.

• There was also repeated coverage of the statement of Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, who had been raped and murdered by an illegal immihgrant from El Salvadore. None of those segments mentioned the name of the actual killer, who had recently been found guilty of first-degree murder of Morin’s. Mentioning Abrego Garcia just opposed to the Morin murder repeatedly might lead one to believe that Abrego Garcia was the “heinous murderer” of Morin.

• All the segments on deportations and Abrego Garcia included clips of Senator Chris Van Hollen in El Salvador. Van Hollen is repeatedly heard saying that he is there to bring Abrego Garcia back to Mary. None of the segments or commentary, except two in passing, explained that the issue was one of due process and why that was important. This did not pass anyone’s lips. Rather, the repeated them was that the Democrats were more sympathetic to this MS-13 “gangbanger” than protecting homeland from the vicous gang members.

• Several shows had segments about the Democrats covering up Biden’s declining mental state. One clip that was shown on several was an interview with George Clooney on CNN's “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper, in which Clooney rationalized that it was his “civic duty” to call for Biden to step down after the debate. The message was that the Democrats were trying to hoodwink the country, until the debate made that impossible to hide.

• Many of the women hosts and guests had long, blonde hair and wore crosses that dangled prominently around their necks. I mention this only because I would venture that it is far out of proportion to either attribute in the general population.

• Most of the advertisements during the Fox shows could have been seen on any news network: heavy on prescription drugs (Ask your doctor if Dupixent is right for you). Also, more ads for supplements (“Better Turmeric” and “Relief Factor,” only $19.95 for a 3-month supply). than I notice elsewhere, however, there were some ads I expect are unique to Fox. One was a two-minute “tug-at-the-heartstrings appeal for The Wounded Warrior Project (won’t you give just $19 a month? Operators standing by). And then there was this: The Kids' Guide to Kim Jong Un, President Trump, and, if you act now, the bonus: The Kids' Guide to the Courage of the President. Get yours at FreeTrumpGuide.com.

The shows

Thursday, April 17. 7:00-9:00 am Fox & Friends. Hosts: Ainsley Earhardt, Brian Kilmeade, Lawrence Jones

This is the top-rated morning cable news show. It leads with clips from Patty Morin’s White House Press Room commentsabout how important it is to keep rapists and murders out of the country. Then, the couch chatter about Abrego Garcia quickly segues into a long segment on how bad MS-13 is. Morin, comes on later with a live interview, along with Tammy Nobles, whose daughter was murdered by an immigrant.

An advertisement, “Sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security,” features Kriti Noam. ”Thank you, President Donald J. Trump, for securing our border [photo of barbed wire fencing], for deporting criminal illegal immigrants, and for putting America first…. “ She says that Trump’s message to illegal immigrants is, “Leave now! If you don’t, we will find you and we’ll deport you. You will never return.” The carrot: “If you leave now, you may have an opportunity to return and enjoy our freedom.” It’s hard to know what the ad costs. I’d estimate around $10,000 for each showing, plus the production costs. Maybe she found some loose change from the DOGE cuts at NIH or CDC.

An ad, in black and white: “Medicaid covers 72 million Americans and President Trump wants to protect them.” It asks, “So why are some in Congress still trying to cut Medicaid? The message: “Tell Congress—Don’t cut Medicaid.” Paid for by the Coalition to Strengthen America’s Healthcare, funded largely by hospitals.

A segment with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy covers upgrades to FAA systems. There are frequent references to “efficiency.” Duffy notes that the FAA started these changes three years ago, but progress has been slow because of justice and environmental requirements of the Biden Administration. Now they are removing these “nuisances” so they can get this done.

Duffy is asked about the drones that had been hovering over New Jersey last year. The interviewer claims that the new administration was being more “transparent, but Duffy just talks about how they are testing detection systems in Cape May.

Ainsley introduces a segment with the statistic that 57% of parents say COVID-19 had a negative impact on their kids' learning, and that 35% have enrolled their children in a supplemental learning program. She introduces Anne Huntington Sharma, president of Huntington Learning Center, Ainsley: “What a pleasure. You’re doing so much for our children.” During the segment, the Huntington Learning Center is mentioned nine times and is also displayed on the banner at the bottom of the screen. Ms. Sharma wraps it up, “…we’re the nation’s number one tutoring and test prep…” It has all the elements of a paid advertorial, which Fox offers advertisers. It was not identified as such, and I have no evidence of this. It just checked all the boxes I’m familiar with.

This was my first time seeing the ad “Trump is Saving America” as the introduction for “The Kids Guide to President Trump.”

After a recap of news headlines, in the 8:00 am hour, the hosts address Trump’s threat to withdraw Harvard from foreign student and exchange programs if it doesn’t share information on visa holders. They read from Kristi Noem's letter to Harvard, It is creating a 'hostile learning environment for Jewish students….” There is the obligatory mention of Harvard’s $53 billion endowment.

Kilmeade asks: “Why should Harvard take a foreign student over a domestic student?” “Is Harvard really nonpartisan?” Does it deserve tax-exempt status? As he speaks, they show a video of a demonstration with a student carrying a “River to sea Palestine must be free’ poster. Larence Jones notes that “Schools are indoctrinating our kids and it is a breeding ground for people to hate the country.”

After showing George Clooney’s CNN interview, in which he says it was his “civic duty” to call for Biden to drop out, Lawrence Jones opines that the Democrats are rewriting history. Obama didn’t say anything about Biden's decline before the debate. But they knew. But a Democrat mini-primary wouldn’t have helped. “They were going to lose. They destroyed this country….”

AG Pam Bondi says in a clip, “It is horrible.” Justice is working with local authorities to help investigate fires at the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion...” I hadn’t seen that information elsewhere.

Another ad, from National Interest Action, shows a determined-looking Trump, but says Putin's standing is in the way of a ceasefire. The voice-over intones: ”President Trump..Putting pressure on Russia, because through Strength comes Peace.” I suspect various causes use Fox News to try to directly reach Trump, as he is known to watch the network. The ads flatter him even when, like this one, it isn’t really his position.

Wednesday, April 16-The Five: Janine Piro, Harold Ford, Jr., Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters, Dana Perino

At 5:00, Patty Morin, Rachel Morin’s mother, is still speaking at the White House press briefing. Her daughter was raped and murdered by an illegal migrant, who had reently been conicted of first degree murder. This was not connected to the Brego Garcia case, but is being used by the Trump regime to justify its deportation regime.

Morin is asking, “Why do we have a problem with deporting criminals,” overlooking that there has been no due process in determining whether any or all are criminals. Sobbing mother. “Why are we not protecting our children. And to have a Senator, from Maryland, [Van Hollen] who didn’t even acknowledge—barely acknowledged—my daughter and the cruel death she endured and leaving her five children without a mother…so he could use my taxpayer money so he could fly to El Salvadore to bring back someone who is not even an American citizen.”

As the show starts. Jannine Piro plays a clip of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stating that Abrego Garcia was a wife-beater and MS-13 member, sarcastically adding that Van Hollen went to El Salvador to try “fetch” his Maryland constituent that “he claims was illegally abducted.” She referenced a police report from 2019 in which Abrego Garcia was identified as MS-13 and two court orders specifying that Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gang member and needed to be deported. She doesn’t explain that the court orders were based on a single strand of support from the same police report. She complained that Van Hollen never called Rachel Morin’s mother, which is a legitimate failing of Van Hollen.¹

Harold Ford Jr, the token Democrat and former Congressman, says he was “moved by Morin’s words<“ and that “Van Hollen has every right to be there.” He appropriately comments that he tries to separate Morin’s story from Abrego Garcia's, but reiterates how moving Morin’s story was. “So hard to hear.” He could have pointed out that Abrego Garcia was really about due process, but he punted on the opportunity.

Jesse Watters gets his turn: Abrego Garcia is getting a great hearing because his law firm represents notorious gang members. “Somehow, this Maryland dad gets the best gang-affiliated law firm in the country.”

Wednesday, April 16. 7:00 —Ingraham Angle, with Laura Ingraham

The topic of the night was a sarcastic characterization that Democrats are so concerned about illegal aliens, but they need to listen to Patty Mori, and once again, it is played in full from her White House comments. My issue with all this is that while Ms. Morin and the other so-called “Angel mothers” who have been victimized by illegal immigrants certainly deserve heartfelt sympathy, conflating the tragedies they experienced with a crime wave by illegal immigrants is not substantiated by the facts.

Fact check: In 2018, slightly under 85,000 persons were charged in federal courts. Just under 42,000 of those were non-U.S. citizens. However, 86% of the 42,000 were charged with immigration offenses, not crimes against people or property. On the other hand, fewer than one-fourth of federal drug crimes were committed by undocumented immigrants.²

Ingraham asked, “Should the government focus on helping Americans struggling in a globalized economy and helping to keep them safe, or should it do more to focus on the open borders radicals and the ultra wealthy who think we can never have enough migrant labor?”

The Democrats, she says, are going to do whatever is in their power to keep as many illegals as possible. That's a good populist line, though quite paradoxical in that Trump's cabinet (plus the DOGE leader) is likely the greatest assembly of billionaires ever in a government. And, does she not know that it is the far left Democrats who are most sympathetic to keeping down the immigrant population, as reducing the labor supply creates conditions for higher wages and more clout for unions.

Ingraham adds that “the media doesn’t want to tackle the inconvenient fact that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13,” which, once again, ignores that this had never been substantiated in court. She cites J.D. Vance's statement that what “they’re” saying is “they want the vast majority of illegal aliens to stay here permanently.”

When she asks guest, departure czar Tom Homan, looking typically threatening, what is the evidence that Abrego Garcia is involved in human trafficking, Homan pivots to how MS-13 is known for human trafficking, “putting girls on the streets and being financed by that.” He refers to two judges, ICE, and El Salvador, who say Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 member. However, the judge and ICE both base that on the same thin report from some local policemen in 2019. Maybe he is too smart to have been caught in the subsequent six years being a crime boss.

Towards the end of the hour, a “Seen and Unseen” segment had reporter Raymond Arroya taking issue with Gayle King and Katy Perry, taking umbrage that, apparently, in some quarters, they were being taken to task for making more of their 11-minute Blue Origin trip to the edge of space than was warranted. King took umbrage at those who called it "just a ride.” Arroya was dismissive of the Blue Origin rocket trip of the six women. “Were they splitting the atom during the four minutes they were in space?” Gayle King was having a hard time referring to herself as an astronaut because she isn’t one. That would be like calling myself an OB-GYN because I saw my kids being born.”

With that bon mot, I’ll give you some time to refresh and recuperate. Look for Part 2 tomorrow, with “Jesse Watter Prime Time,” “Hannity,” and “Gutfeld"!

1. An online Fox News article referred to Abrego Garcia’s “violent criminal history and alleged gang ties,” although no criminal record has ever been produced. A headline referred to Abrego Garcia as an “alleged gangbanager.”

2. A Google search found a paper on the National Institute of Justice website that found “undocumented immigrants commit crime at lower rates.” NIJ is within the U.S. Department of Justice. When I clicked on that link, I saw this message :