Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
is an American
basic cable
Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. By 1989, 53 million U.S. households received cable television subscriptions, with 60 percent of all U.S. households doing so in 1992. with Data by SNL Kagan shows that about 58 ...
and
satellite television
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...
channel owned by
Fox Corporation
Fox Corporation (stylized in all-caps as FOX Corporation) is a publicly traded American mass media company operated and controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. Incorporated ...
. During its time on the air, it has been the subject of several controversies and allegations.
Fox News has been described by academics, media figures, political figures, and watchdog groups as being biased in favor of the Republican Party in its news coverage, as perpetuating
conservative bias
Media bias is the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of many events and stories that are reported and how they are covered. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening of ...
, and as misleading their audience in relation to science, notably
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
and the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
Allegations of bias
Political figures
Former
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...
chairman
Howard Dean
Howard Brush Dean III (born November 17, 1948) is an American physician, author, lobbyist, and retired politician who served as the 79th governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003 and chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2005 to 200 ...
has referred to Fox News as a "right-wing
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
News, March 9, 2007Obama to Nix Fox Debate
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
's Political Radar, April 9, 2007 In 2007, several major Democratic presidential candidates (
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
,
John Edwards
Johnny Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a U.S. senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 alongside John Kerry, losing to incumbents George ...
,
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
, and
Bill Richardson
William Blaine Richardson III (born November 15, 1947) is an American politician, author, and diplomat who served as the 30th governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. He was also the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Energy Secretary ...
) boycotted or dropped out of Fox News-sponsored or hosted debates.
Similar accusations were levied against Fox News in response to its decision to exclude
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American author, activist, physician and retired politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1976 to 1977 and again from 1979 to 1985, as well ...
and Duncan Hunter from the January 5, 2008, Republican primary debate. In response, many individuals and organizations petitioned Fox News to reconsider its decision. When Fox News refused to change its position and continued to exclude Paul and Hunter, the
New Hampshire Republican Party
The New Hampshire Republican State Committee is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in New Hampshire. Its executive committee is headed by Chairman Stephen Stepanek.
Current elected officials
The New Hampshire Republican Party ho ...
officially announced it would withdraw as a Fox News partner in the forum.
While Fox News has been criticized for its tendency to support the Republican Party and its interests,
David Frum
David Jeffrey Frum (; born June 30, 1960) is a Canadian-American political commentator and a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, who is currently a senior editor at ''The Atlantic'' as well as an MSNBC contributor. In 2003, Frum au ...
, former speechwriter for
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
, has also said, "Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and now we're discovering we work for Fox."
Media figures
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
personality
Larry King
Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021) was an American television and radio host, whose awards included 2 Peabodys
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program ...
said in a January 17, 2007 interview with the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'': "They're a Republican brand. They're an extension of the Republican Party with some exceptions,
ike
Ike or IKE may refer to:
People
* Ike (given name), a list of people with the name or nickname
* Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969), Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II and President of the United States Surname
...
Greta Van Susteren
Greta Conway Van Susteren (born June 11, 1954) is an American commentator, lawyer, and television news anchor for Newsmax TV. She was previously on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. She hosted Fox News's ''On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren'' for 14 y ...
Roger Ailes
Roger Eugene Ailes (May 15, 1940 – May 18, 2017) was an American television executive and media consultant. He was the chairman and CEO of Fox News, Fox Television Stations and 20th Television. Ailes was a media consultant for Republican ...
is an old friend. They've been nice to me. They've said some very nice things about me. Not O'Reilly">illO'Reilly, but I don't watch him."
Writing for the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', Republican and conservative columnist
Jonah Goldberg
Jonah Jacob Goldberg (born March 21, 1969) is an American conservative syndicated columnist, author, political analyst, and commentator. The founding editor of ''National Review Online'', from 1998 until 2019 he was an editor at ''National Revie ...
stated: "Look, I think liberals have reasonable gripes with Fox News. It does lean to the right, primarily in its opinion programming but also in its story selection (which is fine by me) and elsewhere. But it's worth remembering that Fox is less a bastion of ideological conservatism and more a populist, tabloid-like network."
Then-Fox News host Bill O'Reilly stated in 2004, in the context of the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
, that "Fox does tilt right", but that the network does not "actively campaign or try to help Bush-Cheney."
Media watchdogs
Progressive
media watchdog
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
groups such as
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) is a progressive left-leaning media critique organization based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1986 by Jeff Cohen and Martin A. Lee. FAIR monitors American news media for bias, inaccura ...
Media Matters for America
Media Matters for America (MMfA) is a politically left-leaning 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization and media watchdog group. MMfA was founded in 2004 by journalist and political activist David Brock as a counterweight to the conservative Media Res ...
,33 internal FOX editorial memos reviewed by MMFA reveal FOX News Channel's inner workings , Media Matters, July 14, 2004 have argued that Fox News' reporting contains conservative editorializing within news stories. FAIR has asserted that the ratio of conservative to non-conservative guests on Fox News shows strongly favors conservatives. In a study of a nineteen-week period from January 2001 to May 2001 on ''
Special Report with Brit Hume
'' Special Report with Bret Baier'' (formerly ''Special Report with Brit Hume'') is an American television news and political commentary program, hosted by Bret Baier since 2009, that airs on Fox News Channel. It is broadcast live each Monday th ...
'', the ratio was 25:3, and FAIR obtained similar data from other Fox News shows.
The conservative watchdog group
Accuracy in Media
Accuracy in Media (AIM) is an American non-profit conservative news media Watchdog journalism, watchdog founded in 1969 by economist Reed Irvine.
AIM supported the Vietnam War and blamed media bias for the U.S. loss in the war. During the Pres ...
has claimed that there was a
conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 198 ...
's law firm had tackled copyright protection and legislation on the purchase of cable television lineups for
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...
, the then-parent company of Fox News,
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world.
The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...
,
Foxtel
Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...
,
Fox Footy
Fox Footy (stylised as FOX FOOTY) is an Australian rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited, operated out of their Me ...
Fox Television Studios
The second incarnation of Touchstone Television (formerly known as Fox 21 Television Studios) was an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Disney Media Networks' Walt Disney Television owned by The Walt Disney Company. It ...
,
Fox Television Stations
Fox Television Stations, LLC (FTS; alternately Fox Television Stations Group, LLC), is a group of television stations located within the United States, which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Corp ...
,
Foxstar Productions
Foxstar Productions was a television production subsidiary of News Corporation. It was founded in 1993 to make TV movies and mini-series under Steve Bell (the former network production president of 20th Century Fox Television) and producer Kevin ...
,
20th Television
20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Compa ...
,
20th Century Fox Television
20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Compa ...
,
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
,
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Searchlight Pictures, Inc. is an American film production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is part of the Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1994 as Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. for 20th Century Fox (later 20th Century St ...
,
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Studios Home Entertainment (commonly referred to as 20th Home Video, or 20th Home Entertainment, formerly known as 20th Century-Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video, Fox Video, and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) is a home video label of Wa ...
and
DirecTV
DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...
, and suggesting that Fox News might be biased in favor of Giuliani's candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.
Response
Fox News has publicly denied such charges, stating that the reporters in the newsroom provide separate, neutral reporting, while acknowledging their opinion programming is not intended to be neutral.Interview transcript: Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes the
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
, October 6, 2006
Ownership and management
Australian-born media mogul
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
is the chairman of
Fox Corporation
Fox Corporation (stylized in all-caps as FOX Corporation) is a publicly traded American mass media company operated and controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. Incorporated ...
, the News Corp subsidiary which owns Fox News. He has been a subject of controversy and criticism as a result of his extensive interests in print and broadcast media. In the United States, he is the publisher of the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' newspaper and the magazine ''
The Weekly Standard
''The Weekly Standard'' was an American neoconservative political magazine of news, analysis and commentary, published 48 times per year. Originally edited by founders Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes, the ''Standard'' had been described as a "red ...
''. Accusations against him include the "
dumbing down
Dumbing down is the deliberate oversimplification of intellectual content in education, literature, and cinema, news, video games, and culture. Originated in 1933, the term "dumbing down" was movie-business slang, used by screenplay writers, meani ...
" of news and introducing "mindless vulgarity" in place of genuine
journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
, and having his own outlets produce news that serves his own political and financial agendas. According to the
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
website: "To some, he is little less than the devil incarnate, to others, the most progressive mover-and-shaker in the media business."
Then-presidential candidate
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
's cousin, John Prescott Ellis, was Fox News' projection team manager during the 2000 presidential election. After speaking numerous times on election night with his cousins George and Jeb, Ellis, at 2:16 AM, reversed Fox News' call for
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
as a state won by
Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...
. Critics allege this was a premature decision, given the impossibly razor-thin margin (officially 537 of 5.9 million votes), which created the "lasting impression that Bush 'won' the White House – and all the legal wrangling down in Florida is just a case of Democratic 'snippiness'." Others, such as researcher
John Lott
John Richard Lott Jr. (born May 8, 1958) is an American economist, political commentator, and gun rights advocate. Lott was formerly employed at various academic institutions and at the American Enterprise Institute conservative think tank. He ...
, have responded that, by this reasoning, Fox News and the other networks were even more premature in initially calling the state for ''Gore'', a call made while polls were still open, and which may have depressed voter turnout for Bush and actually affected the election, whereas the call for Bush later could not have, as the polls were closed by then.
On January 9, 2010, the son-in-law of Rupert Murdoch and the husband of Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth,
Matthew Freud
Matthew Freud (born 2 November 1963) is head of Freud Communications, an international public relations firm in the United Kingdom.
Early life
Freud is the son of the actress June Flewett and the writer and German-born British politician Sir C ...
, stated he and other members of the media mogul's family are "ashamed and sickened" by the right-leaning tendencies of Fox News in the opening salvo in a bid to displace Roger Ailes, the founder, and CEO of Fox News. In a ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' profile on Ailes, Freud was quoted saying "I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes' horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalist standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to. What you heard was a declaration of war. There are, practically speaking, now two factions inside of News Corp: Ailes and Fox News, and the Murdoch children – with Rupert caught between them." Although Murdoch did not respond to the remark directly, a spokesperson for News Corporation put a statement after a ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' inquiry claiming "Matthew Freud's opinions are his own and in no way reflect the views of Rupert Murdoch, who is proud of Roger Ailes and Fox News." Tim Arango also claims in Murdoch's 2008 biography that he voiced concerns privately to Ailes about his conduct, claiming he was purportedly "embarrassed" by Fox News. Murdoch denied that claim.
In June 2010, News Corporation donated $1 million to the
Republican Governors Association
The Republican Governors Association (RGA) is a Washington, D.C.-based 527 organization founded in 1961, consisting of U.S. state and territorial Republican governors. The Republican Governors Association is dedicated to one primary objective: ele ...
. News Corporation's political action committee had previously split their contributions to Democrats and Republicans by a margin of 54% to 46%, respectively.
On March 20, 2018, Fox News contributor Lt. Col.
Ralph Peters
Ralph Peters (born April 19, 1952) is a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel and author.
In addition to his non-fiction books, he has published eight novels under the pen name Owen Parry of which ''Honor's Kingdom'' received the Hamme ...
left the network. Referencing the
Trump Administration
Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...
, Peters stated that Fox News had become a "propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration" and objected to the network helping "
Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
's agenda by making light of Russian penetration of our elections and the Trump campaign". On March 22, 2019, '' Vox'' interviewed media critic
Tom Rosenstiel
Tom Rosenstiel is an American author, journalist, press critic, researcher and academic. He is the Eleanor Merrill Visiting Professor on the Future of Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. He was fo ...
, who argued Fox News had shifted from a partisan network to a propaganda network in support of
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
.
Reports, polls, surveys and studies
Polls and surveys
A poll conducted by
Rasmussen Reports
Rasmussen Reports is an American polling company founded in 2003. The company engages in political commentary and the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. Rasmussen Reports conducts nightly tracking, ...
during September 2004 found that Fox News was seen as second to
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
as the most politically biased network in the public view. 37% of respondents thought CBS, in the wake of the
Killian documents controversy
The Killian documents controversy (also referred to as Memogate or Rathergate) involved six documents containing false allegations about President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard in 1972–73, allegedly typed in 1973. D ...
, was trying to help elect
Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
, while 34% of respondents said they believed that Fox News' goal was to "help elect
Bush
Bush commonly refers to:
* Shrub, a small or medium woody plant
Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to:
People
* Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name
**Bush family, a prominent American family that includes:
*** ...
". However, a poll by
Public Policy Polling
Public Policy Polling (PPP) is an American polling firm affiliated with the Democratic Party. Founded in 2001 by businessman Dean Debnam, the firm is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Debnam currently serves as president and CEO of PPP, while To ...
in January 2010 found Fox News to be the only U.S. television news network to receive a positive rating by the public for trustworthiness, with results strongly split depending on the political affiliation of the respondents. A survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed "a striking rise in the politicization of cable TV news audiences ... This pattern is most apparent with the fast-growing Fox News Channel." Another Pew survey of news consumption found that Fox News has not suffered a decline in credibility with its audience, with one in four (25%) saying they believe all or most of what they see on the network, virtually unchanged since Fox News was first tested in 2000.
According to the results of a 2006 study by the
Project for Excellence in Journalism
The Project for Excellence in Journalism was a tax-exempt research organization in the United States that used empirical methods to evaluate and study the performance of the press.
The organization's director was Tom Rosenstiel, a professor of j ...
found that Fox News was rarely cited by 547 surveyed journalists as an outlet taking an ideological stance in its coverage, and most identified as advocating conservative political positions. In the 2004 survey, 69% of national journalists cited Fox News as being especially conservative in its coverage of news.
A 2019 Pew survey found that Fox News is the fifth most trusted source in America for political and election news, with 43% of all polled voters (compared with 47% of second-place CNN and 34% of ninth-place
MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
). However, it is also the least trusted with 40% of all polled voters (compared with 32% of second-place CNN and 26% of fourth-place MSNBC).
Studies and reports
The "2011 State of the News Media" Report by the Pew Center on Excellence in Journalism found that in 2010, Fox News had an average daytime audience of 1.2 million and nighttime viewership of 1.1 million, higher than its cable competitors but down 11% and 9% respectively from 2009. Fox News' cumulative audience (unique viewers who watched at least sixty minutes in an average month) was 41.1 million, coming in second to CNN with 41.7 million. For 2010, CNN's digital network continued to lead Fox News' digital network online; CNN with 35.7 million unique visitors per month, compared to Fox News' 15.5 million. For the first time Fox News outspent its competitors, with a total news investment of $686 million. 72% of this investment went to program costs, reflecting their focus on high-profile hosts. They also increased their revenues 17% over 2009 to $1.5 billion, well ahead of second-place CNN at $1.2 billion.
Content analysis studies
The Project on Excellence in Journalism report in 2006 showed that 68 percent of Fox News cable stories contained personal opinions, as compared to MSNBC at 27 percent and CNN at 4 percent. The "content analysis" portion of their 2005 report also concluded that "Fox was measurably more one-sided than the other networks, and Fox News Channel journalists were more opinionated on the air."
A 2006
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, study cited that there was a correlation between the presence of Fox News in cable markets and increases in Republican votes in those markets. A 2010 study found that with respect to coverage of the wars in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
and
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
in 2005, "Fox News was much more sympathetic to the
ush
Uqturpan County, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency or Uchturpan County ( transliterated from ; ), also Wushi County (), is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region under the administration of Aksu Prefecture and shar ...
administration than
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
."
Studies of reporting bias
In a 2006 academic content analysis of election news, Rasmussen Reports showed that the 2004 election coverage from Fox News favored George W. Bush significantly more than John Kerry.Stephen Farnsworth and S. Robert Lichter, The Nightly News Nightmare: How Television Portrays Presidential Elections, Second Edition, Rowman & Littlefield, 2006 In a 2010 study of the news coverage of the 2004 political party conventions, Morris and Francia found that Fox News' reporting was more negative toward the
Democratic convention
The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...
and gave Republicans more opportunity to voice their message than the other networks. The study also found that viewers who relied on Fox News' coverage exhibited attitude change toward both candidates, but particularly a lowering opinion toward Kerry. In contrast the study found that CNN's coverage was more fair and balanced.
A study published in November 2005 by Tim Groseclose, a professor of
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
at
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
, scoring political bias from twenty mainstream news reporting outlets, concluded that all "except Fox News' Special Report and ''
The Washington Times
''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...
'', received scores to the left of the average member of Congress." In particular, ''Special Report with Brit Hume'' had an
Americans for Democratic Action
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) is a liberal American political organization advocating progressive policies. ADA views itself as supporting social and economic justice through lobbying, grassroots organizing, research, and supporting prog ...
(ADA) rating that was right of the political center. Groseclose's model used the number of times a host cited a particular
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
on his or her program and compared it with the number of times a member of
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
cited a think tank, correlating that with the politician's ADA rating.
Geoff Nunberg, a professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley and a National Public Radio (
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
) commentator, criticized the methodology of Groseclose's study and labeled its conclusions invalid. He pointed to what he saw as Groseclose's reliance on interpretations of facts and data that were taken from sources that were not, in his view, credible. Groseclose and Professor Jeff Milyo rebutted, saying Nunberg "shows a gross misunderstanding four statistical method and the actual assumptions upon which it relies." Mark Liberman (a professor of computer science and the director of Linguistic Data Consortium at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
), who helped post Groseclose and Milyo's rebuttal, later posted how the statistical methods used to calculate this bias pose faults. Liberman concluded "that many if not most of the complaints directed against G&M are motivated in part by ideological disagreement — just as much of the praise for their work is motivated by ideological agreement. It would be nice if there were a less politically fraught body of data on which such modeling exercises could be explored."
A December 2007 study by Samuel R. Lichter, of the self-described
nonpartisan
Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party.
While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...
Center for Media and Public Affairs The Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) is a self-described nonpartisan and nonprofit research and educational organization that is affiliated with George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. It was founded in 1985 by political scientists ...
, found that Fox News' evaluations of all of the 2008 Democratic presidential candidates combined was 51% positive and 49% negative, while the network's evaluations of the Republican presidential candidates 51% negative and 49% positive. The study, however, did find that Fox News' coverage was less negative toward Republican candidates than the coverage of broadcast networks.
A study by Media Matters for America found that between August 1 and October 1, 2013, on Fox News, "69 percent of guests and 75 percent of mentions cast doubt on
climate science
Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , '' -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of stud ...
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' ... about 29 percent in the ''Los Angeles Times'', about 17 percent in ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' and about 12 percent in
Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Televi ...
."Max Greenberg, Denise Robbins, and Shauna Theel, Media Sowed Doubt In Coverage Of UN Climate Report , October 10, 2013, Media Matters Fox News' argument against criticism that it disproportionately represents the views of
climate change deniers
Climate change denial, or global warming denial, is denial, dismissal, or doubt that contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its effects on nature and human society, or th ...
was to itself deny the factual figures which indicate that 97% of climate science experts worldwide hold the consensus view of human-caused global warming. A 2012 report by the
Union of Concerned Scientists
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a nonprofit science advocacy organization based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. Anne Kapuscinski, Professor of Environmenta ...
found that, from February 2012 to July 2012, 93% of global warming coverage by Fox News was misleading. The report put the figure significantly lower—81 percent—for ''The Wall Street Journal''. The misleading statements identified in the report included "dismissals of human-caused climate change, disparaging comments about individual scientists, rejections of climate science as a body of knowledge, and
cherry picking
Cherry picking, suppressing evidence, or the fallacy of incomplete evidence is the act of pointing to individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position while ignoring a significant portion of related and similar cases or data th ...
of data." A similar 2013 report, also conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists, found that 28% of global warming coverage by Fox News was accurate, a nine-fold increase from the aforementioned report but still significantly behind CNN and MSNBC respectively (70% and 92%).
Croft concluded that Fox News coverage glorified the Iraq War and its reporting framed the discussion in such a way as to drown out critics. He quotes
Christiane Amanpour
Christiane Maria Heideh AmanpourStated on ''Finding Your Roots'', 22 January 2019 (; fa, کریستیان امانپور, Kristiane Amānpur; born 12 January 1958) is a British-Iranian journalist and television host. Amanpour is the Chief ...
as stating that there was a culture of self-censorship created by "the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News".
A May 2017 study conducted by
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy examined coverage of President Trump's first 100 days in office by all major mainstream media outlets and broadcast networks including CNN, HLN, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC,
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
and CBS. It found that, altogether, Trump received 80% negative coverage from the media, and that he received the least negative coverage on Fox News – 52% negative and 48% positive.
Tests of knowledge of Fox News viewers
A study by the
Program on International Policy Attitudes The Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) is an institution devoted to research on the public opinion of international politics. It is jointly run by the Center on Policy Attitudes and the Center for International and Security Studies at ...
(PIPA) at the
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
School of Public Affairs, as published in the Winter 03–04 issue of the ''
Political Science Quarterly
''Political Science Quarterly'' is an American double blind peer-reviewed academic journal covering government, politics, and policy, published since 1886 by the Academy of Political Science. Its editor-in-chief is Robert Y. Shapiro (Columbia Uni ...
'', reported that poll-based findings indicated that viewers of Fox News Channel, the
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
broadcast network and local Fox affiliates, including in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, were more likely than viewers of other news networks to hold three misperceptions:
* 67% of Fox News Channel viewers erroneously believed that the "U.S. has found clear evidence in Iraq that
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
).
* The erroneous belief that "The U.S. has found Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq" was held by 33% of Fox News Channel viewers and only 23% of CBS viewers, 19% for ABC, 20% for NBC, 20% for CNN and 11% for NPR/PBS.
* 35% of Fox News Channel viewers erroneously believed that "the majority of people
n the world
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
favor the U.S. having gone to war" with Iraq (compared with 28% for CBS, 27% for ABC, 24% for CNN/HLN, 20% for NBC, 5% for NPR/PBS).
In response, conservative columnist
Ann Coulter
Ann Hart Coulter (; born December 8, 1961) is an American conservative media pundit, author, syndicated columnist, and lawyer. She became known as a media pundit in the late 1990s, appearing in print and on cable news as an outspoken critic of ...
, a frequent guest on Fox News, characterized the PIPA findings as "misperceptions of pointless liberal factoids" and called it a "hoax poll". Bill O'Reilly called the study "absolute crap". Roger Ailes referred to the study as "an old push poll".
James Taranto
James Taranto (born January 6, 1966) is an American journalist. He is editorial features editor for ''The Wall Street Journal'', in charge of the newspaper's op-ed pages, both print and digital.causality is not necessary to prove correlation.
PIPA also conducted a statistical study on purported misinformation evidenced by registered voters before the 2010 midterm election. According to the results of the study, "... false or misleading information is widespread in the general information environment ..." but viewers of Fox News were more likely to be misinformed on specific issues when compared to viewers of comparable media, that this likelihood also increased proportionally to the frequency of viewing Fox News and that these findings showed
statistical significance
In statistical hypothesis testing, a result has statistical significance when it is very unlikely to have occurred given the null hypothesis (simply by chance alone). More precisely, a study's defined significance level, denoted by \alpha, is the p ...
.
A 2007 Pew Research Center poll of general political knowledge ("Who is the governor of your state?", "Who is the President of Russia?") indicated that Fox News viewers scored 35% in the high-knowledge area, the same as the national average. This was not significantly different than local news, network news, and morning news, and was slightly lower than CNN (41%). Viewers of ''
The O'Reilly Factor
''The O'Reilly Factor'' (originally titled ''The O'Reilly Report'' and also known as ''The Factor'') is an American cable television news and talk show. ''The O'Reilly Factor'' first aired in the United States on Fox News Channel on October 7 ...
'' (51%) scored in the high category along with
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of '' The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM r ...
(50%), NPR (51%), major newspapers (54%), ''
Newshour with Jim Lehrer
''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of issues and current events.
Anchored by Judy Woodruff, the progr ...
'' (53%) ''
The Daily Show
''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form from ...
'' (54%) and ''
The Colbert Report
''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show focuse ...
'' (54%).
A 2010
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
survey found "more exposure to Fox News was associated with more rejection of many mainstream scientists' claims about global warming, ndwith less trust in scientists". A 2011
Kaiser Family Foundation
KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation), also known as The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, is an American non-profit organization, headquartered in San Francisco, California. It prefers KFF since its legal name can cause confusion as it is no longer a ...
survey on U.S. misperceptions about
health care reform
Health care reform is for the most part governmental policy that affects health care delivery in a given place. Health care reform typically attempts to:
* Broaden the population that receives health care coverage through either public sector insur ...
found that Fox News viewers had a poorer understanding of the new laws and were more likely to believe in falsehoods about the
Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
study of public misperceptions about the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque", officially named
Park51
Park51 (originally named Cordoba House) is a development originally envisioned as a 13-story Islamic community center and mosque in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The developers hoped to promote an interfaith dialogue within the greater comm ...
, found that viewers who relied on Fox News were 66% more likely to believe incorrect rumors than those with a "low reliance" on Fox News.
In 2011, a study by
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university with its main campuses in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Founded in 1942, Fairleigh Dickinson University currently offers more than 100 degree programs to its students. In addition to its tw ...
found that Fox News viewers living in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
were less well-informed than people who did not watch any news at all. The study employed objective questions, such as whether
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011.
Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in t ...
was still in power in Egypt.
Internal memos and e-mail
Daily memos
Fox News executives exert a degree of editorial control over the content of the network's daily reporting. The channel's vice president of news, John Moody, controls content by writing memos to the news department staff. In the documentary ''
Outfoxed
''Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism'' is a 2004 documentary film by filmmaker Robert Greenwald about Fox News Channel's and its owner's, Rupert Murdoch, promotion of conservative views. The film says this bias belies the channel's mott ...
'', former Fox News employees talk about the inner workings of the channel. In memos from the documentary, Moody instructs employees on how to approach particular stories and on what stories to approach. Critics of Fox News claim that the instructions on many of the memos indicate a conservative bias. ''The Washington Post'' quoted
Larry C. Johnson
Larry C. Johnson is an American blogger and former analyst at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. He is the co-owner and CEO of BERG Associates, LLC (Business Exposure Reduction Group).
Background
Johnson worked at the CIA for four years as an ...
, a former Fox News contributor, describing the Moody memos as "talking points instructing us what the themes are supposed to be, and God help you if you stray."
Photocopied memos from Moody instructed Fox News' on-air anchors and reporters to use positive language when discussing
anti-abortion
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...
viewpoints, the Iraq War, and
tax cut
A tax cut represents a decrease in the amount of money taken from taxpayers to go towards government revenue. Tax cuts decrease the revenue of the government and increase the disposable income of taxpayers. Tax cuts usually refer to reductions in ...
s, as well as requesting that the
Abu Ghraib
Abu Ghraib (; ar, أبو غريب, ''Abū Ghurayb'') is a city in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq, located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000 (2003). The old road t ...
prisoner abuse scandal be put in context with the other violence in the area. Such memos were reproduced for the film ''Outfoxed'', which included Moody quotes such as, "The soldiers een on Fox News in Iraqin the foreground should be identified as '
sharpshooters
A sharpshooter is one who is highly proficient at firing firearms or other projectile weapons accurately. Military units composed of sharpshooters were important factors in 19th-century combat. Along with "marksman" and "expert", "sharpshooter" i ...
,' not '
sniper
A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...
s,' which carries a negative
connotation
A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation.
A connotation is frequently described as either positive o ...
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' reported that its news department had acquired a copy of a leaked internal memo from Moody that recommended the following: "... t's be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled congress." Within hours of the memo's publication, Fox News anchor
Martha McCallum
Martha Bowes MacCallum (born January 31, 1964) is an American news host for Fox News. She is the host of ''The Story with Martha MacCallum'', broadcast from Manhattan. MacCallum joined the network in 2004. Her interviews with President Barack Ob ...
went on-air on the program '' The Live Desk'' with reports of Iraqi insurgents cheering the firing of
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under Presi ...
and the results of the election.
Bill Sammon e-mail
In December 2010, Media Matters for America released a leaked October 2009 e-mail between Fox News Washington managing editor
Bill Sammon
Bill Sammon is a former managing editor and vice president for Fox News, as well as an author and newspaper columnist. He had previously worked as White House correspondent for ''The Washington Times'' and the ''Washington Examiner'' before joini ...
and the network's senior producers, which seemed to issue directives slanting network's coverage of President Barack Obama's
health care reform
Health care reform is for the most part governmental policy that affects health care delivery in a given place. Health care reform typically attempts to:
* Broaden the population that receives health care coverage through either public sector insur ...
efforts. In the e-mail, Sammon instructed producers to not use the phrase "
public option
The public health insurance option, also known as the public insurance option or the public option, is a proposal to create a government-run health insurance agency that would compete with other private health insurance companies within the United ...
" when discussing a key measure of President Obama's reform bill, and instead use the terms "government option" or "government-run health insurance noting negative connotations; Sammon also suggested that the qualifier "so-called" be used before any proper mention of the public option. Another e-mail by Fox News senior vice president
Michael Clemente Michael Clemente (August 29, 1908 – December 1987), (also known as Mike Costello or Big Mike), was a New York mobster in the Genovese crime family who became a major force in controlling the East River waterfront of Manhattan from the 1940s to 197 ...
accepted Sammon's conditions. Critics claimed that Sammon took advice from Republican pollster
Frank Luntz
Frank Ian Luntz (born February 23, 1962) is an American political and communications consultant and pollster, best known for developing talking points and other messaging for
Republican causes. His work has included assistance with messagin ...
, who appeared on ''
Hannity
''Hannity'' is an American conservative television political talk program on Fox News hosted by Sean Hannity. Episodes air live at 9:00 p.m. from Monday through Thursday, while episodes that air on Fridays are pre-recorded, with a repeat ...
'' shortly before the e-mail was written and made the same suggestions in identifying the public option. Critics also noticed that reporters and panelists on ''Special Report with Bret Baier'' used the term "public option" before the e-mail was sent, but used the term "government option" immediately afterward. Sammon, in an interview with
Howard Kurtz
Howard Alan Kurtz (; born August 1, 1953) is an American journalist and author best known for his coverage of the media.
Kurtz is the host of Fox News's ''Media Buzz'' program, the successor to ''Fox News Watch''. He is the former media writer fo ...
for ''
The Daily Beast
''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008.
It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...
'', defended the directive and denied he was trying to skew Fox News' coverage.
Later that month, Media Matters released an e-mail by Sammon from December 2009, in which he pressured Fox News reporters to assert that "theories are based upon data that critics have called into question" in light of the
Climatic Research Unit email controversy
The Climatic Research Unit email controversy (also known as "Climategate") began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) by an external attacker, copying thousa ...
.
English Wikipedia edits
In August 2007, a new utility,
WikiScanner
WikiScanner (also known as Wikipedia Scanner) was a publicly searchable database that linked anonymous edits on Wikipedia to the organizations where those edits apparently originated. It did this by cross-referencing the edits with data on the ow ...
, revealed that
English Wikipedia
The English Wikipedia is, along with the Simple English Wikipedia, one of two English-language editions of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. It was founded on January 15, 2001, as Wikipedia's first edition, and, as of
, has the most arti ...
articles relating to Fox News had been edited from
IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
es owned by Fox News, though it was not possible to determine exactly who the editors were. The tool showed that the article for
Shepard Smith
David Shepard Smith Jr. (born January 14, 1964) is an American broadcast journalist. He served as chief general news anchor and host of ''The News with Shepard Smith'' on CNBC, a daily evening newscast launched in late September 2020; but his p ...
was edited from Fox News computers, removing mention of an arrest.
Photo manipulation
2008
On the July 2, 2008, edition of ''
Fox & Friends
''Fox & Friends'' is an American daily morning news and talk program that airs on Fox News. It premiered on February 1, 1998, and is currently hosted by Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade on weekdays. Will Cain, Rachel Campos-Du ...
'', co-hosts
Brian Kilmeade
Brian Kilmeade (born May 7, 1964) is an American television and radio presenter and political commentator for Fox News. On weekdays he co-hosts the morning show, ''Fox & Friends'', and he hosts the Fox News Radio program ''The Brian Kilmeade Sho ...
and
Steve Doocy
''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen
Notable people with the name include:
steve jops
* Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people
* Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people
* Steve ...
aired photos of ''New York Times'' reporter
Jacques Steinberg
''The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College'' is a 2002 nonfiction book, written by education reporter Jacques Steinberg, that examines the inner workings of the admissions committee at Wesleyan University. The book exp ...
and ''Times'' television editor Steven Reddicliffe that appeared to have been crudely doctored and photoshopped, apparently in order to portray the journalists unflatteringly. This occurred during a discussion of a June 28 piece in the ''Times'', which pointed out what Steinberg called "ominous trends" in Fox News' ratings.Strupp and Mitchell
According to Media Matters, the photos depict Steinberg with yellowed teeth, "his nose and chin widened, and his ears made to protrude further." The other image, of Reddicliffe, had similar yellow teeth, as well as "dark circles ... under his eyes, and his hairline has been moved back." During the discussion, Doocy called the ''Times'' report, written by Steinberg, a "hit piece" ordered up by Reddicliffe. The broadcast then showed an image of Steinberg's face superimposed over a picture of a
poodle
, nickname =
, stock =
, country = Germany or France (see history)
, height =
, maleheight =
, femaleheight =
, weight =
, maleweight =
, femaleweight =
, coat ...
, while Reddicliffe's face was superimposed over the man holding the poodle's leash.
''Times'' culture editor
Sam Sifton
Sam Sifton (born June 5, 1966) is an American journalist and food editor at ''The New York Times.'' He was previously the paper's national editor. Sifton has also worked as deputy dining editor (2001); dining editor (2001–04); deputy culture edi ...
called Fox News photos "disgusting", and the criticism of the paper's reporting a "specious and meritless claim" while denying that it was a "hit piece".
2020
In June 2020, Fox News' website published digitally altered photographs of
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
's
Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone
The Capitol Hill Occupied Protest or the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), originally Free Capitol Hill and later the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), was an Occupation (protest), occupation protest and self-declared permanent autonomo ...
to include a man armed with an assault rifle from earlier Seattle protests; also added to the photographs were smashed windows from other parts of Seattle. In a separate incident, the Fox News website ran articles about protests in Seattle, with accompanying photos of a burning city actually being from
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississip ...
, the previous month. Although the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone was peacefully occupied, "Fox's coverage contributed to the appearance of armed unrest", stated ''The Washington Post''. The manipulated and wrongly used images were removed, with Fox News stating that it "regrets these errors".
In July 2020, Fox News aired a photo that edited out then-president
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
from a photo where he was seen posing with
Melania Trump
Melania Trump ( ; born Melanija Knavs , Germanized as Melania Knauss ; born April 26, 1970) is a Slovene-American former model and businesswoman who served as First Lady of the United States from 2017 to 2021 as the wife of 45th president Do ...
,
Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American sex offender and financier. Epstein, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, began his professional life by teaching at the Dalton School in Manhattan, des ...
, and
Ghislaine Maxwell
Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell ( ; born 25 December 1961) is a British convicted sex offender and former socialite. In 2021, she was found guilty of child sex trafficking and other offences in connection with the financier and convicted sex o ...
at Mar-a-Lago which was shown during a segment about Maxwell's arrest at the time. Fox News later apologized for the edit, claiming it was a mistake.
September 2009 newspaper ad
On September 18, 2009, Fox News took out full-page ads in ''The Washington Post'', the ''New York Post'', and ''The Wall Street Journal'' with a prominent caption reading, "How did ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN miss this story?" with pictures of a Tea Party movement protest on the
U.S. Capitol
The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the Seat of government, seat of the Legislature, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is form ...
lawn from September 12. A still picture in the ad was in fact taken from a CNN broadcast covering the event. The veracity of the ad was called into question on the air by then-CNN commentator
Rick Sanchez
Rick Sanchez is one of the two eponymous characters from the Adult Swim animated television series ''Rick and Morty'' and resulting franchise. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon and voiced by the former, Sanchez is a misanthropic alcoh ...
, along with others pointing to various coverage of the event. It had been covered live by CNN, NBC News, CBS News, MSNBC, and
ABC News Radio
ABC News Radio is the news radio service of ABC Audio, a division of ABC News in the United States. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Skyview Networks, five minute newscasts on the hour and news briefs at half-pas ...
.
Fox News' vice president of marketing, Michael Tammaro, attempted to explain the ad by stating: "Generally speaking, it's fair to say that from the tea party movement ... to
ACORN
The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'' and '' Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally
two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne ...
... to the march on 9/12, the networks either ignored the story, marginalized it or misrepresented the significance of it altogether."
Obama administration conflict with Fox News
In September 2009, the
Obama administration
Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...
engaged in a verbal conflict with Fox News. On September 20, President Obama appeared on all the major news networks except Fox News, a snub partially in response to remarks about the president by commentators
Glenn Beck
Glenn Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American conservative political commentator, radio host, entrepreneur, and television producer. He is the CEO, founder, and owner of Mercury Radio Arts, the parent company of his television and rad ...
and
Sean Hannity
Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American talk show host, conservative political commentator, and author. He is the host of ''The Sean Hannity Show'', a nationally syndicated talk radio show, and has also hosted a commentar ...
and general coverage by Fox News with regard to Obama's health care proposal. ''
Fox News Sunday
''Fox News Sunday'' is a Sunday morning talk show that has aired on the broadcast Fox network since 1996, as a presentation of Fox News Channel. It is the only regularly scheduled Fox News program carried on the main Fox broadcast network. Host ...
'' host
Chris Wallace
Christopher Wallace (born October 12, 1947) is an American broadcast journalist. He is known for his tough and wide-ranging interviews, for which he is often compared to his father, ''60 Minutes'' journalist Mike Wallace. Over his 50-year care ...
called White House administration officials "crybabies" in response. Following this, a senior Obama adviser told ''
U.S. News
''U.S. News & World Report'' (USNWR) is an American media company that publishes news, consumer advice, rankings, and analysis. It was launched in 1948 as the merger of domestic-focused weekly newspaper ''U.S. News'' and international-focused ...
'' that the White House would never get a fair shake from Fox News.
In late September 2009, Obama senior advisor David Axelrod and Fox News founder Roger Ailes met in secret to try to smooth out tensions between the two camps without much success. Two weeks later, White House officials referred to Fox as "not a news network". Communications director
Anita Dunn
Anita Dunn ( Babbitt; born January 8, 1958) is an American political strategist serving as a senior advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden, having originally held the post from January 20, 2021 to August 12, 2021, and returning May 5, 2022.
Previo ...
claimed that, "Fox News often operates as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party." President Obama followed with, "If media is operating basically as a
talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...
format, then that's one thing, and if it's operating as a news outlet, then that's another," and then-White House chief of staff
Rahm Emanuel
Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician and diplomat who is the current United States Ambassador to Japan. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served two terms as the 55th Mayor of Chicago from 2011 ...
stated that it was important "to not have the CNNs and the others in the world basically be led in following FNC."
Within days it was reported that Fox News had been excluded from an interview with administration official
Ken Feinberg
Kenneth Roy Feinberg (born October 23, 1945) is an American attorney specializing in mediation and alternative dispute resolution. He served as the Chief of Staff to Senator Ted Kennedy, Special Master of the U.S. government's September 11th Vi ...
, with bureau chiefs from the White House
press pool
A press pool, media pool or news pool is an arrangement wherein a group of news gathering organizations combine their resources in the collection of news. A pool feed is then distributed to members of the broadcast pool who are free to edit it ...
(ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN) coming to the defense of Fox News. One of the major bureau chiefs stated, "If any member had been excluded it would have been the same thing, it has nothing to do with Fox or the White House or the substance of the issues." Shortly after this story broke the White House admitted to a low-level mistake, but said that Fox News had not made a specific request to interview Feinberg. Then-Fox News White House correspondent
Major Garrett
Major Elliott Garrett (born August 24, 1962) is an American journalist who is chief Washington correspondent for CBS News. Garrett is the host of ''The Takeout'' podcast and was a correspondent for ''National Journal''. Prior to joining ''Nation ...
responded by stating that he had not made a specific request, but that he had a "standing request from me as senior White House correspondent on Fox to interview any newsmaker at the
Treasury
A treasury is either
*A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry.
*A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...
at any given time news is being made."
On November 8, 2009, the ''Los Angeles Times'' reported that an unnamed Democratic consultant was warned by the White House not to appear on Fox News again. According to the article, Anita Dunn claimed in an e-mail to have checked with colleagues who "deal with TV issues" and had been told that nobody had been instructed to avoid Fox News (for 24-hour news) except for the Fox Broadcasting Company (for special report coverage).
Patrick Caddell
Patrick Hayward Caddell (May 19, 1950 – February 16, 2019) was an American public opinion pollster and a political film consultant who served in the Carter administration. He worked for Democratic presidential candidates George McGovern ...
, a Fox News contributor and former pollster for
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
, said he had spoken with other Democratic consultants who had received similar warnings from the White House.
Video footage manipulation
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz; November 28, 1962) is an American comedian, political commentator, and television host. He hosted ''The Daily Show'', a satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2015 and now hosts ''Th ...
reported on his November 11, 2009, broadcast of ''The Daily Show'' that Fox News host Sean Hannity misrepresented video footage purportedly showing large crowds on a health care protest orchestrated by Rep.
Michele Bachmann
Michele Marie Bachmann (; née Amble; born April 6, 1956) is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for from 2007 until 2015. A member of the Republican Party, she was a candidate for President of the United States in the 20 ...
. Stewart showed inconsistencies in alternating shots according to the color of the sky and tree leaves, showing that footage from Glenn Beck's much larger 9/12 rally, which had occurred two months earlier, had been spliced in with the other shots. Hannity estimated 20,000 protesters were in attendance, the ''Washington Post'' estimated 10,000, and
Luke Russert
Lucas Russert (born August 22, 1985), best known as Luke Russert, is an American broadcast news correspondent, who worked for NBC News from 2008 to 2016. His reporting was seen on ''NBC Nightly News'', ''Today (U.S. TV program), TODAY'', NBCNews. ...
reported that three
Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...
police officers guessed "about 4,000". Sean Hannity apologized to his viewers for the error during his November 11, 2009, broadcast. Stewart periodically accused Fox News of playing video footage out of context, such as when Hannity played footage of Obama stating the
DREAM Act
The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the DREAM Act, is a United States legislative proposal to grant temporary conditional residency, with the right to work, to illegal immigrants who entered the United States ...
could not be passed by executive order, to make the president seem
hypocritical
Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. In moral psychology, it is th ...
although when the footage is continued Obama goes on to clarify that he does have the authority to halt deportations.
On November 18, 2009, ''
Happening Now
''Happening Now'' was an American news- talk television program that aired on Fox News Channel from November 5, 2007 to June 8, 2018. It was hosted by Fox News anchor Jon Scott for its entire run, with the co-anchors being Jane Skinner and Jenna ...
'' anchor
Gregg Jarrett
Gregory Walter Jarrett (born April 7, 1955) is an American conservative news commentator, author and attorney. He joined Fox News in November 2002, after working at local NBC and ABC TV stations for over ten years, as well as national networks ...
told viewers that a
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, author, and reality television personality who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 R ...
book signing in
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
, had a massive turnout while showing footage of Palin with a large crowd. Jarrett noted that the former Republican vice-presidential candidate is "continuing to draw huge crowds while she's promoting her brand-new book", adding that the images being shown were "some of the pictures just coming in to us ... The lines earlier had formed this morning." The video was actually taken from a John McCain 2008 presidential campaign, 2008 McCain-Palin campaign rally. Fox News senior vice-president of news Michael Clemente issued an initial statement saying, "This was a production error in which the copy editor changed a script and didn't alert the control room to update the video." Fox offered an on-air apology the following day during the same ''Happening Now'' segment, citing regrets for what they described as a "video error" with no intent to mislead.
On November 12, 2021, Fox News edited a video of President Joe Biden to remove context from remarks that some could judge as racially insensitive, which was shown on ''Fox & Friends''. In his comments, Biden said he had "adopted the attitude of the great Negro, at the time pitcher in the Negro league baseball, Negro Leagues, went on to become a great pitcher in the pros in Major League baseball after Jackie Robinson, his name was Satchel Paige." The video was edited so Biden was heard saying he had "adopted the attitude of the great Negro at the time, pitcher, name was Satchel Paige."
ISIL video
After Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh was burned to death by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL in February 2015, Fox News included the full ISIL video on its website. The network said it had chosen to do so, after careful consideration, in order that readers of their website could "see for themselves the barbarity of ISIS." Malcolm Nance, executive director of the
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
Terror Asymmetrics Project on Strategy, Tactics and Radical Ideology (TAPSTRI), said that Fox News was "literally — ''literally'' — working for Al-Qaeda, al-Qaida and ISIS's media arm ... They might as well start sending them royalty checks."
Sexism
Sexual harassment allegations
On July 6, 2016, former ''Fox & Friends'' co-host Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes in the Superior Court of New Jersey. In her complaint, Carlson alleged that she was fired from her program for refusing Ailes' sexual advances. After Carlson came forward, six more women spoke to Gabriel Sherman of ''New York (magazine), New York'' magazine, alleging that Ailes had sexually harassed them and that Ailes had "spoke[n] openly of expecting women to perform sexual favors in exchange for job opportunities." ''New York'' reported that Megyn Kelly told investigators Ailes made "unwanted sexual advances toward her" at the start of her career. The magazine also reported that the Murdochs had given Ailes an ultimatum: resign by August 1 or be fired.
Facing overwhelming public criticism, Ailes resigned on July 21, 2016. On September 6, 21st Century Fox (then-parent company of
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
,
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Searchlight Pictures, Inc. is an American film production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is part of the Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1994 as Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. for 20th Century Fox (later 20th Century St ...
,
20th Century Fox Television
20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Compa ...
,
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Studios Home Entertainment (commonly referred to as 20th Home Video, or 20th Home Entertainment, formerly known as 20th Century-Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video, Fox Video, and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) is a home video label of Wa ...
, the
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
network, FX Networks, Fox News and
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world.
The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...
) announced that it had settled the lawsuit with Carlson. The settlement was reportedly $20 million. As part of the settlement, 21st Century Fox apologized to Carlson, saying "We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve."Josh Koblin & Michael M. Grynbaum Fox Settles With Gretchen Carlson Over Roger Ailes Sex Harassment Claims ''New York Times'' (September 6, 2016).
In August 2016, Andrea Tantaros, who had been pulled from the network in April with reported "contract issues", claimed that she approached Fox News executives about inappropriate behavior towards her by Ailes in 2015. Tantaros said her allegations resulted first in her being demoted from ''The Five (talk show), The Five'' to ''Outnumbered (American TV program), Outnumbered'', and then in her being taken off the air. Tantaros filed a lawsuit against Fox News for sexual harassment, also claiming that Bill O'Reilly, actor Dean Cain, and Scott Brown (politician), Scott Brown made inappropriate comments to her, and that Brown and Cain touched her without her consent.
In April 2017, ''The New York Times'' reported that O'Reilly and Fox News had Bill O'Reilly (political commentator)#April 2017, settled five lawsuits against the former dating back to 2002, in addition to publicly acknowledged settlements to Andrea Mackris in 2004 and Juliet Huddy in 2017; the ''Times'' reported that Fox News hosts Rebecca Diamond and Laurie Dhue settled sexual harassment lawsuits in 2011 and 2016 respectively, and junior producer Rachel Witlieb Bernstein settled with Fox News in 2002 after accusing O'Reilly of verbal abuse. The amount paid to the women filing the complaints was estimated at $13 million. The ''Times'' also reported a claim by former ''O'Reilly Factor'' guest Wendy Walsh, who declined an offer from O'Reilly to go to his hotel suite and was subsequently denied a job as a Fox News contributor. 21st Century Fox hired the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to conduct an investigation into Walsh's allegation; that firm also conducted an investigation into the allegations against Ailes.
After the five settlements were reported, ''The O'Reilly Factor'' lost more than half its advertisers within a week; almost sixty companies withdrew their television advertising from the show amid a growing backlash against O'Reilly. On April 11, 2017, O'Reilly announced he would take a two-week vacation and return to the program on April 24. However, on April 19, it was reported that O'Reilly would not return to the network. Co-president Bill Shine (television executive), Bill Shine, who had been accused of covering up sexual harassment allegations, resigned on May 1.
In July 2017, Fox Business Network suspended Charles Payne (journalist), Charles Payne pending an investigation after a former network guest, Scottie Nell Hughes, accused him of sexual harassment. Payne denied the harassment charge but acknowledged having had a three-year-long "romantic relationship" with Hughes before the accusation was made. Hughes, who kept an apartment near 21st Century Fox's Manhattan headquarters for the duration of the affair, claimed she believed it would help her obtain a permanent position at the network. Hughes' appearances were drastically reduced after she ended the affair in 2015 and reported Payne to Fox News.
In August 2017, ''The Huffington Post'' reported that Eric Bolling sent lewd text messages to two women at Fox News and one at Fox Business. He was suspended pending investigation. Caroline Heldman, a former Fox News guest, alleged that Bolling made numerous unwanted sexual advances towards her. Bolling was suspended and eventually left the network, moving to a syndicated show produced by Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Women's health care
In 2013, ''Fox & Friends'' featured a segment in which contributor Dr. David B. Samadi made an appearance to discuss the cost of women's health care. On the program, Samadi argued that insurance costs more for women due to their more frequent use of health services, as opposed to men: "I just think that the whole system is not working well. I mean this is one of the examples, where men and women are totally different, there is a sex difference when it comes to the health care use, but I really think that if you pay for it, you are going to negotiate, finding out where is the best doctor, where you're going to get a better deal on all these X-rays, etc., that's how you're gonna save money." Following this segment, Fox News received criticism from several online outlets.
Sean Hannity and Michael Cohen
On April 9, 2018, federal agents from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) served a search warrant on the office and residence of Michael Cohen (lawyer), Michael Cohen, President Trump's personal attorney. On the air, Hannity defended Cohen and criticized the federal action, calling it "highly questionable" and "an unprecedented abuse of power".
On April 16, Cohen's lawyers told a federal judge that Cohen had ten clients in 2017–2018 but did "traditional legal tasks" for only three: Trump, Elliott Broidy, and a "prominent person" who did not wish to be named for fear of being "embarrassed". The federal judge ordered the revelation of the third client, whom Cohen's lawyers named as Hannity. Although Hannity has covered Cohen on his show, he did not disclose that he had consulted with Cohen.
Fox News released a statement on April 16, 2018, attributed to Hannity: "Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter. I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid legal fees. I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which I wanted his input and perspective. I assumed those conversations were confidential, but to be absolutely clear they never involved any matter between me and a third party." NBC News quoted Hannity as saying: "We definitely had attorney–client privilege because I asked him for that", while Hannity said on his radio show that he "might have handed him ten bucks" for the attorney–client privilege. Lastly, Hannity tweeted that his discussions with Cohen were "almost exclusively" about real estate.
The following day, news reports revealed that Hannity had shared another lawyer with Trump: Jay Sekulow. Sekulow had written a cease-and-desist letter to KTSB (AM), KFAQ on Hannity's behalf in May 2017, and later represented Trump in connection with the Special Counsel investigation (2017–present), Mueller investigation.
Coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic
Fox News' coverage of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
has been criticized due to pundits and guests having initially dismissed the severity of Coronavirus disease 2019, the disease's COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, transmission in the United States (following the lead of the Trump administration), accused critics of exaggerating its impact to attack President Trump, and perpetuating COVID-19 misinformation about how to mitigate or treat the virus.
Tucker Carlson promoted the COVID-19 lab leak theory and in a February 24 commentary argued that "wokeness" and diversity had eased its spread. At the same time, Carlson did become more critical of the Trump administration's response on occasion, opining on March 9 that "people you trust—people you probably voted for—have spent weeks minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem." Media Matters for America criticized Carlson in particular, as well as other Fox News personalities, for using Sinophobic language such as "Racial views of Donald Trump#"Chinese Virus" and "Kung Flu", Chinese coronavirus", "Wuhan virus", "kung flu", or variations thereof to refer to COVID-19 on-air.
Sean Hannity argued on his March 9 program that Democrats and the news media were trying to use COVID-19 to "bludgeon Trump". On March 5, Trump made an appearance on the program by phone, where he claimed that a projected mortality rate of 3.4% announced earlier that day by the World Health Organization was a "false number" and predicted that it would actually be under 1%. On his March 10 episode (one day before the WHO declared a pandemic), Hannity argued that the Flu season, seasonal flu was still making a larger "impact" than COVID-19 (with 34 million cases against roughly 1,200 at the time), only the elderly and Immunodeficiency, immunocompromised were at the greatest risk, and argued that there was not an equivalent "widespread hysteria" over Crime in Chicago, routine violent crimes in Chicago.
Also on March 10, Laura Ingraham referred to "panic pushers" in the media, suggesting that "the facts are actually pretty reassuring, but you'd never know it watching all this stuff", and implicated that only those at high risk needed to practice social distancing (contrasting recommendations by officials that all people should practice social distancing). Two days later, ''Fox & Friends'' co-host Ainsley Earhardt suggested that it was the "safest time to fly" since "[the] Airport terminal, terminals are pretty much dead", and the program aired an interview with Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr., where he claimed that the "overreaction" to COVID-19 was "their next attempt to get Trump" and that COVID-19 misinformation#Chinese biological weapon, COVID-19 was a biological weapon developed by China or North Korea to attack the United States.
Concurrent with Trump's own changes in tone and attitude surrounding the pandemic, some Fox News pundits began to openly acknowledge its severity on-air, including Hannity, Ingraham, and Earhardt. ''Vanity Fair (magazines), Vanity Fair'' observed this shift in tone as an inversion of the "feedback loop" that had emerged between Trump and Fox News (resulting from Trump's discussion of stories seen on the network, particularly during ''Fox & Friends'', on social media), but noted that the network's personalities were more often "showering praise on the president rather than offering their own take on things", and that Ingraham had accused other media outlets of using the pandemic to celebrate "Trump's downfall".
On March 24, after Trump began to endorse off-label use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 symptoms based on anecdotal evidence, Hannity and Ingraham similarly promoted the drug during their respective programs. During a White House Coronavirus Task Force, Coronavirus Task Force briefing on April 13, 2020, Trump screened a montage of footage taken directly from an episode of ''Hannity'', of news anchors and guests downplaying the early threat of COVID-19, as part of a video presentation that glorified his initial response to the pandemic.
Fox News faced criticism for featuring celebrity doctors such as Phil McGraw and Mehmet Oz as guests, with both of them downplaying the impact that a premature lifting of mitigation measures and "reopening" of the country (as was being proposed by Trump) would have. Fox News also faced backlash for providing undue praise of Protests over responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, protests against stay-at-home orders in multiple states (such as Lansing, Michigan's "2020 Lansing, Michigan protest, Operation Gridlock"), including interviews with participants and organizers, and pundits praising the event and making comments critical of Governor of Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer (such as Carlson calling her actions "mindless and authoritarian", and ''Fox & Friends'' co-host Brian Kilmeade predicting a larger movement against "ridiculous" stay-at-home orders). Trump made posts on Twitter in support of the protests on April 17, reading "LIBERATE COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan, MICHIGAN", "LIBERATE COVID-19 pandemic in Virginia, VIRGINIA" and "LIBERATE COVID-19 pandemic in Minnesota, MINNESOTA" respectively; the timing of the tweets corresponded with a segment on ''America's Newsroom'' that had covered them.
Fox News pundits showed inconsistent views towards the Face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, wearing of face masks to lessen spread of infected droplets by the wearer. Hannity and ''Fox & Friends'' host Steve Doocy have supported the practice, as did Carlson and Ingraham in late-March; on his March 30 episode, Carlson stated that "Of course masks work. Everyone knows that. Dozens of research papers have proved it", and cited that they were "key" to controlling the pandemic in East Asia, and criticized the government's early guidance against using them for protection of the wearer. However, as masks became a partisan political issue over the months that followed, Carlson and Ingraham began to perpetuate opposition towards the practice, on a later episode, Carlson claimed that masking and social distancing had no basis in science. On April 26, 2021, Carlson claimed that making children wear masks was child abuse, and that people who spot parents making their children wear masks should call police and child protective services.
Despite having made some efforts to promote the COVID-19 vaccination in the United States, vaccination program, via public service announcements, promotion of the federal Vaccines.gov website, and selected hosts making statements in support of vaccination, Media Matters for America found that from June 28 to August 8, at least 60% of Fox News segments discussing COVID-19 vaccines "included claims undermining or downplaying [them]", such as political arguments, disputes and conspiracy theories regarding their safety, and arguments that they were a "cynical political ploy by Democrats". The amount of such content was shown to have intensified during the week of July 26, while Tucker Carlson, Brian Kilmeade, and frequent guest Marty Makary were identified as having discussed such content most often during the period. More than 90% of Fox Corporation's full-time employees had been fully vaccinated by September 2021.
Other Fox News Media properties have also faced criticism and controversies over their coverage of the pandemic. In March 2020, Fox Business anchor Trish Regan left the network amid criticism of a March 7 segment on her program, where she accused Democrats of politicizing the pandemic so they could blame Donald Trump for it, and seek a Second impeachment of Donald Trump, second impeachment. One month later, Fox Nation severed its ties with conservative vloggers Diamond and Silk after they repeatedly promoted various COVID-19 conspiracy theories. On December 23, 2020, Fox Business program ''Mornings with Maria'' was duped by the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere, airing an interview with an activist posing as Smithfield Foods' CEO Dennis Organ to discuss its response to the pandemic. He suggested that "the conditions inside of our of farms can sometimes be petri dishes for new diseases", and that the meat packing industry could "effectively [bring] on the next pandemic." The program's anchor Maria Bartiromo issued an apology at the end of the show, saying that they had been “punked”.
Reactions
An academic study conducted by economists at the University of Chicago, Harvard University, and other institutions, found a correlation between viewership of ''Hannity'' and a greater number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, relative to viewership of ''Tucker Carlson Tonight'' on the same channel.
In April 2020, the Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics (WASHLITE) sued Fox News under the state's Consumer Protection Act for allegedly "falsely and deceptively disseminating 'news'" that coronavirus was "not a danger to public health and safety." In response, Fox News maintained that its "political commentary" amounts to "constitutionally protected opinions" and that hosts Sean Hannity and Trish Regan participated in an "intense public debate" over the predicted severity of the threat. On May 27, King County, Washington, King County Superior Court Judge Brian McDonald decided Fox News was within their First Amendment to the United States Constitution, First Amendment rights. Washlite appealed the case, and on August 30, 2021, the appeal was rejected on the grounds that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution bars WASHLITE's action.
Fox fired Regan, who had claimed that the concern over coronavirus was "another attempt to impeach the president” on her show on March 9; her last appearance was on March 13.
False claims about the 2020 election
After Trump's defeat in the 2020 United States presidential election, 2020 presidential election, Fox News promoted baseless allegations that voting machine company Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems had conspired to rig the election for Joe Biden. Hosts Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo promoted the allegations on their programs on sister network Fox Business. In December 2020, Smartmatic sent a letter to Fox News demanding retractions and threatening legal action. However, Pirro, Dobbs, and Bartiromo refused to issue retractions as they played a three-minute video segment consisting of an interview with an election technology expert who refuted the allegations promoted by the hosts, responding to questions from an unseen and unidentified man. In February 2021, Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit against the network and the three hosts. On March 26, 2021, Dominion filed a $1.6 billion defamation suit against the network. On May 18, 2021, Fox News filed a motion to dismiss the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit, asserting a First Amendment right "to inform the public about newsworthy allegations of paramount public concern." A Dominion lawyer said that Fox News dismissal of the lawsuit would give them "blank check" to lie. On November 8, 2021, Dominion sued its parent companies,
Fox Corporation
Fox Corporation (stylized in all-caps as FOX Corporation) is a publicly traded American mass media company operated and controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. Incorporated ...
and Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Broadcasting, for defamation and for failing to preserve documents relating to the role Murdoch played in spreading false claims about Dominion.
Fox News did not simulcast the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, January 6th hearings despite competitor channels airing it at virtually the same time. For the duration of the first hearing, Fox News simulcast it with no audio and cut footage.
Human rights violations
In mid-2021, Fox News agreed to pay a $1 million settlement to New York City after its Commission on Human Rights cited "a pattern of violating the New York City Human Rights Law, NYC Human Rights Law". A Fox News spokesperson claimed that "FOX News Media has already been in full compliance across the board, but [settled] to continue enacting extensive preventive measures against all forms of discrimination and harassment."
Criticism of pundits
Notable pundits
*
Glenn Beck
Glenn Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American conservative political commentator, radio host, entrepreneur, and television producer. He is the CEO, founder, and owner of Mercury Radio Arts, the parent company of his television and rad ...
, the host of an eponymous afternoon commentary show, stated in 2009 that he believed President Obama is "a racist" and has "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture." These remarks drew criticism, and resulted in a boycott promulgated by Color of Change. The boycott resulted in eighty advertisers requesting their ads be Glenn Beck (TV program)#Advertiser boycott, removed from his programming to avoid associating their brands with content that could be considered offensive by potential customers. Beck later apologized for the remarks, stating on ''Fox News Sunday'' that he has a "big fat mouth" and miscast as racism what is actually, as he theorizes, Obama's belief in black theology. Beck left Fox News in June 2011 after twenty-nine months with the network.
* Neil Cavuto, who is also Fox News' vice president of business news and a current member of the network's executive committee, was described as a "Bush apologist" by critics after conducting an allegedly deferential interview with President George W. Bush. Democratic strategists and politicians boycotted Cavuto's show in 2004 after he claimed, on air, that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was rooting for Bush's campaign opponent, Senator John Kerry. Cavuto has also received criticism for gratuitous footage and photos of scantily clad supermodels and Pornographic film actor, adult film stars on his program.
* Alan Colmes, who from 1996 to 2009 was co-host of the political debate program ''Hannity & Colmes'', was touted by Fox News as "a hard-hitting Liberalism in the United States, liberal" who was used to counter the opinions of his co-host, conservative talk radio personality Sean Hannity. However, while speaking to ''USA Today'', Colmes described himself as "quite moderate". He was characterized by several newspapers as being Hannity's "sidekick"."An Aggressive Conservative vs. a "Liberal to be Determined" by Steve Rendall, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, November/December 2003 Liberal commentator and future Minnesota Senator Al Franken lambasted Colmes in his book, ''Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them''. Throughout the book, Colmes' name is printed in smaller type than all other words to emphasize Franken's belief that Colmes' role was to feebly defend liberal positions, allowing him to be bulldozed by Hannity. Franken accuses Colmes of refusing to ask tough questions during debates and neglecting to challenge erroneous claims made by Hannity or his guests.
* John Gibson (media host), John Gibson, the former host of an afternoon program called ''The Big Story (2000 TV series), The Big Story'', was cited as an example of Fox News blurring the lines between objective reporting and opinion programming. Gibson caused a general uproar among listeners immediately after the Florida election recount, 2000 presidential election controversy when, during the opinion segment of his show, Gibson asked: "Is this a case where knowing the facts actually would be worse than not knowing? I mean, should we burn these ballots, preserve them in amber, or shred them?" and, "George Bush is going to be president. And who needs to know that he's not a legitimate president?" In an opinion piece on the Hutton Inquiry decision, Gibson said the BBC had "a frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Americanism that was obsessive, irrational and dishonest" and that the BBC reporter, Andrew Gilligan, "insisted on air that the Iraqi Army was heroically repulsing an incompetent United States Armed Forces, American military." In reviewing viewer complaints, Ofcom (the United Kingdom's statutory broadcasting regulator) ruled that Fox News had breached the program code in three areas: "respect for truth", "opportunity to take part", and "personal opinions expressed (in an opinion slot) must not rest upon false evidence." Fox News admitted that Gilligan had not actually said the words that Gibson appeared to attribute to him; Ofcom rejected the claim that it was intended to be a paraphrase. Gibson also called Joseph C. Wilson, Joe Wilson a "liar", claimed that "the Far-left politics, far left" is working for al-Qaeda and stated that he wished that Paris had been host to the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012 Olympic Games, because it would have subjected the city to the threat of terrorism instead of London.
* Steven Milloy, a commentator for FoxNews.com, has been critical of the science behind global warming and secondhand smoke as a carcinogen. In a February 6, 2006, article in ''The New Republic'', Paul D. Thacker revealed that ExxonMobil had donated $90,000 to two non-profit organizations run out of Milloy's house."Smoked Out: Pundit for Hire." Paul D. Thacker. ''The New Republic'', February 6, 2006. In addition, Milloy received almost $100,000 a year from Philip Morris USA during the time he was arguing that secondhand smoke was not carcinogenic.Philip Morris budget for "Strategy and Social Responsibility", detailing $180,000 in "fees and expenses" paid to Steven Milloy Accessed October 5, 2006. Milloy's website, junkscience.com, was reviewed and revised by a public relations firm hired by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, RJR Tobacco.Activity Report, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., December 1996, describing R.J.R. Tobacco's input into Milloy's junkscience website From th Legacy Tobacco Documents Library at the University of California, San Francisco. Accessed October 5, 2006. In response to Thacker's disclosure of this
conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
, Paul Schur, director of media relations for Fox News, stated that "... Fox News was unaware of Milloy's connection with Philip Morris. Any affiliation he had should have been disclosed."
* E.D. Hill introduced an upcoming discussion before a commercial break about a fist bump between Barack and Michelle Obama after the 2008 Democratic primaries by stating that the gesture was either "A fist bump? A pound? [or] A terrorist fist jab?", but never explained the term when the segment continued after the break. The incident was considered controversial among bloggers and political commentators. Hill apologized for her comments the next day.
* Dick Morris appeared several times on Fox News, including one appearance on ''Fox & Friends'' two days before the 2012 United States presidential election, 2012 presidential election, predicting that Mitt Romney would win the election in a Landslide victory, landslide. Morris was the least accurate major pundit in predicting the 2012 election. After the election, Morris did not appear on Fox News for almost three months. Finally on February 5, 2013, Fox News announced that it would not renew Morris' contract.
* Karl Rove protested Fox News' calling of the 2012 election for Barack Obama on November 7, 2012. Megyn Kelly then brought a camera crew to ask the off-air analysts team if they stood by their decision. After Rove continued to refuse Fox News's decision, Kelly responded by asking him, "Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better? Or is this real?"
* Megyn Kelly drew controversy after making remarks in December 2013 reacting to a ''Slate (magazine), Slate'' article that postulated that "Santa Claus should not be a white man anymore". On her Fox News program, ''The Kelly File'', Kelly quipped that, "For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white, but this person is just arguing that maybe we should also have a black Santa," adding, "But Santa is what he is, and just so you know, we're just debating this because someone wrote about it." Kelly also stated that Jesus was white later in the segment. Soon after, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Rachel Maddow, and others satirized her remarks. A few days later, Kelly made additional on-air statements and characterized her original comments as "tongue-in-cheek".
Discredited military and counterterrorism editor
* ''The New York Times'' ran an article entitled, "At Fox News, the Colonel Who Wasn't" by Jim Rutenberg, revealing that Joseph A. Cafasso, whom Fox had employed for four months as a Military and Counterterrorism Editor, had bogus military credentials.
Other criticisms
Criticism of media coverage
* ''
Outfoxed
''Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism'' is a 2004 documentary film by filmmaker Robert Greenwald about Fox News Channel's and its owner's, Rupert Murdoch, promotion of conservative views. The film says this bias belies the channel's mott ...
'', a documentary film on Fox News by activist Robert Greenwald, made assertions of bias in Fox News by interviewing a number of former employees who discuss the network's practices. For example, Frank O'Donnell, identified as a Fox News producer, says: "We were stunned, because up until that point, we were allowed to do legitimate news. Suddenly, we were ordered from the top to carry ... Republican, Right-wing politics, right-wing propaganda including being told what to say about Ronald Reagan. The network made an official responseFOX News Channel Statement on 'Outfoxed' FoxNews.com, July 13, 2004 and claimed that four of the individuals identified as employees of Fox News either were not employees (O'Donnell, e.g., worked for an affiliate over which Fox News claims to have no editorial authority) or had their titles inflated.
* ''Fox Attacks'' was a 2007–08 viral video campaign designed to expose Fox News' alleged right-wing bias. It was produced by Greenwald and Brave New Films after the production of ''Outfoxed''. Greenwald continued his anti-Fox campaign with more than twenty-five short videos on YouTube concerning Fox News' negative treatment of Barack Obama during the 2008 election cycle. As part of the ''Fox Attacks'' campaign, Brave New Films also released "open letters" to other media outlets, and circulated anti-Fox petitions which garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures.
* CNN founder Ted Turner accused Fox News of being "dumbed down" and "propaganda" and equated the network's popularity to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Nazi Germany during a speech to the National Association of Television Program Executives. In response, a Fox News spokesperson said, "Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network, and now his mind. We wish him well." The Anti-Defamation League, to whom Turner had apologized in the past for a similar comparison, said Turner is "a Recidivism, recidivist who hasn't learned from his past mistakes."
* Fox News, while covering a car chase, inadvertently broadcast the suspect shooting himself and quickly apologized as being a mistake. Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute, stipulated by e-mail; "There is simply no excuse for this. It is sensationalism to carry it in the first place."FOX broadcasts live suicide as car chase ends in suspect shooting himself Poynter.org September 28, 2012 3:57, by Julie Moos
* Fox News apologized for fabricated quotes attributed to John Kerry in an article on its website during the 2004 US presidential campaign, 2004 presidential campaign, stating that the piece was a joke which accidentally appeared on the website.
* Fox News aired a segment celebrating a 14-year-old Transgender youth, transgender girl in California. Several conservative commentators criticized Fox News for airing the segment.
Criticism of individuals
* Media Matters for America, which has since announced a campaign of "guerrilla warfare and sabotage" against Fox News, contends that the network specializes in "political sabotage" by putting up moderate-to-conservative "Democrats" as token liberals against more staunchly conservative Republicans. It cites the following people as examples of this:
** Pat Caddell – called the Democratic Party a "confederacy of gangsters" and defended conservative writer Ann Coulter when she said she could not talk about former senator and presidential candidate
John Edwards
Johnny Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a U.S. senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 alongside John Kerry, losing to incumbents George ...
if a homophobic epithet she used was off-limits.
** Susan Estrich – known for her support for the defunct Democratic Leadership Council and once told Sean Hannity that she was his "biggest liberal friend".
* Another allegation of Fox's critics is that it sometimes ridicules protesters, especially ones for liberal causes. For example, during the 2004 Republican National Convention, Bill O'Reilly referred to some of the protesters as "terrorists" (though he added, "most protesters are peaceful"). Fox News online columnist Mike Straka referred to Anti-war movement, anti-war protesters at the September 24, 2005, march in Washington, D.C., as "jobless, anti-American, clueless, smelly, stupid traitors" and "protesters from hell".'
* Swedish Iranians, Iranian-Swedish newspaper commentator, author and legal professional Behrang Kianzad wrote in the ''Expressen'' newspaper that "there are lies, damned lies and Fox News",Expressen: Räven går i Rosengård Behrang Kianzad in response to a Fox News story about allegedly Muslim violence in the city of Malmö. The report focused on the borough of Rosengård where two out of 1,000 school students were ethnic Swedes.Harrigan, Stev Swedes Reach Muslim Breaking Point Fox News, November 26, 2004 Kianzad wrote that rock-throwing against police, firefighters and ambulance personnel happened not just in Rosengård and not as a Muslim custom. He also pointed out that the Fox News segment had false facts, namely that Malmö has about 7% immigrants from Muslim countries and not 25%. Furthermore, Kianzad pointed out the rhetoric used by Fox News to imply that Malmö had reached some sort of breaking point due to Muslim immigrants and that these immigrants were potential terrorists."
* In August 2006, two Jordanian-Arab freelancers who were working for Fox News as producers resigned from the network, citing its coverage that month of Israel's 2006 Lebanon War, conflict with the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Their resignation letter read in part: "We can no longer work with a news organization that claims to be fair and balanced when you are so far from that ... Not only are you Fox News an instrument of the Bush White House, and Israeli propaganda, you are warmongers with no sense of decency, nor professionalism."
* On January 19, 2007, a segment on ''Fox & Friends'' featured an anonymously sourced article in the conservative web magazine ''Insight (magazine), Insight'' that claimed that associates of Democratic Senator
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
had discovered that Senator Barack Obama had attended a "Muslim seminary" as a child in Indonesia. The term "Muslim seminary" refers to a specifically religious form of madrassa (school). It was determined within days that Obama had instead, as he had said in his memoirs, attended first a Catholic and then a modern public elementary school. The latter was, as Obama had written, "predominantly Muslim" (as Indonesia is predominantly Muslim), and not a seminary of any kind. On January 31, 2007, ''The Washington Post'' suggested that because of Fox News' reporting of the ''Insight'' article, Obama had "frozen out" the network's reporters and producers while giving interviews to every other major network. After the incident, John Moody, a vice president at Fox, wrote to staff: "For the record: seeing an item on a website does not mean it is right. Nor does it mean it is ready for air on FNC. The urgent queue is our way of communicating information that is air-worthy. Please adhere to this."
* In March 2007, the Nevada Democratic Party pulled out of a planned debate to be hosted by Fox News. Its spokesmen cited a joke by Roger Ailes, which hinged on President George W. Bush confusing the names of Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden, as evidence that Fox News is biased against the party. Fox News chairman David Rhodes responded to the cancellation by saying that the Democratic Party is "owned by MoveOn.org" (which had created a petition against the debate).
* On May 25, 2008, Fox News political contributor Liz Trotta stated on the air, while talking about the presidential election, "And now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama, uh Obama. Well, both, if we could"; she then laughed. She apologized for the remark on-air on Fox News the next day, saying, "I am so sorry about what happened yesterday and the lame attempt at humor." Trotta and Fox News were criticized for the remark by ''The New York Times'' editorial board and others.
* In June 2007, when Democratic Congressman William J. Jefferson of Louisiana was indicted on corruption, racketeering, and bribery charges, Fox News ran a video of Michigan Democratic Congressman John Conyers, also black. Conyers criticized the network for "a history of inappropriate on-air mistakes" and the network's "lackluster" apology (which did not name him), and a second, more specific apology was issued. In November 2006 Fox News had aired footage of then-Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (also black) while talking about Senator Barack Obama.
* On September 5, 2011, Fox News criticized a speech by James P. Hoffa in Detroit calling for an "army of voters" to "take the SOBs out" and "give America back to Americans". However, Fox News edited out the mention of voters to make the speech sound like a call for violence.
* On January 11, 2015, Fox News commentator Steven Emerson, who had been criticized for inaccuracies in the past, reported that Birmingham, a city of over 1 million people in the United Kingdom, is a Muslim-only city: "In Britain, it's not just no-go area, no-go zones, there are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim where non-Muslims just simply don't go in". Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, UK Prime Minister David Cameron commented, "When I heard this, frankly, I choked on my porridge and I thought it must be April Fools' Day. This guy's clearly a complete idiot." Emerson, said to be an expert of Islamic terrorism, later apologized for what he called a "terrible", "inexcusable", "reckless" and "irresponsible" error, and made a donation of £500 to the Birmingham Children's Hospital.
* On November 2, 2022, Fox News commentator Jesse Watters mocked a Starbucks employee—who is a part of Starbucks Workers United—lamenting oppressive working conditions while calling for labor union, unionization, stating that "hard work" got him to his position. The video clip was edited, however, so that the employee appeared to just be complaining about an eight hour work day.
Fox News Channel responses to criticism
In June 2004, CEO Roger Ailes responded to some of the criticism with a rebuttal in an online ''Wall Street Journal'' editorial, saying that Fox News' critics intentionally confuse opinion shows such as ''The O'Reilly Factor'' with regular news coverage. Ailes stated that Fox News has broken stories harmful to Republicans, offering, "Fox News is the network that broke George W. Bush's Driving under the influence, DUI four days before the election" as an example, referring to Bush's DUI charge in 1976 that had not yet been made public. The DUI story was broken by then-Fox affiliate WPXT in Portland, Maine, Portland, Maine, although Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron also contributed to the report and, in the words of National Public Radio ombudsman Alicia Shepard, Fox News "sent the story ping-ponging around the nation" by broadcasting WPXT's coverage. WPXT News Director Kevin Kelly said that he "called Fox News in New York City to see if we were flogging a dead horse" before running the story, and that Fox News confirmed the arrest with the campaign and ran the story shortly after 6 p.m.
Upon the release of ''Outfoxed'', Fox News issued a statement denouncing MoveOn.org, Greenwald and ''The New York Times'' for copyright infringement. Fox News dismissed their judgments of former employees featured in the documentary as the partisan views of disgruntled workers who never vocalized concern over any alleged bias while they were employed at the network. Ailes also shrugged off criticisms of the former Fox News employees by noting that they worked in Fox affiliates and not at the actual channel itself. Fox News also challenged any news organization that sought to portray Fox News as a "problem" with the following proposition: "If they put out 100 percent of their editorial directions and internal memos, Fox News Channel will publish 100 percent of our editorial directions and internal memos, and let the public decide who is fair. This includes any legitimate cable news network, broadcast network, ''The New York Times'', ''Los Angeles Times'', and ''The Washington Post''."
Former Fox News personality Eric Burns has suggested in an interview that Fox News "probably gives voice to more conservatives than the other networks. But not at the expense of liberals." Burns justifies a higher exposure of conservatives by saying that other media often ignore conservatives.
Fox News personalities have also taken part in back and forth disagreements with media personalities such as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
See also
* ''The Fox Effect''
* Al Jazeera controversies and criticism
* BBC controversies
* CBS News controversies and criticism
* CNN controversies
* MSNBC controversies
* Media bias in the United States
* Military–industrial–media complex, Military industrial complex
* Press TV controversies
* Sensitive urban zone#January 2015 controversy, Sensitive urban zone – January 2015 controversy
* The New York Times controversies
Special report: Fox – the naked truth (October 5, 2004), Zoe Williams, ''The Guardian''
The Fifth Estate: Sticks and Stones (March 2005), an Investigation of Fox News for the ''Canadian Broadcasting Corporation'', 45 minutes
An analysis of the socio-economic and political impact of Fox News Robert W. McChesney, ''Monthly Review'', Volume 66, Issue 02 (June 2014)
Fox's Sex Appeal Problem Linda Chavez, ''Townhall'', April 21, 2017
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox News Channel Controversies
Criticisms of companies
Fox News criticisms and controversies
Journalism controversies by media organ
Mass media-related controversies in the United States
Media bias controversies
Political controversies in television
Television controversies in the United States
Sexual harassment journalism
Climate change denial
COVID-19 misinformation