Decoding Fox News

Last week on Fox News the network celebrated the first 100 days of Trump’s second term in office with a live studio audience on “Fox & Friends” that featured surprise appearances by popular Fox News personalities, a mentalist, a comedian and free copies of Dana Perino’s latest advice book. The network buried its recent poll that showed Trump’s approval rating falling with voters on nearly every major issue. Sean Hannity declared with no evidence that every negative poll about Trump was fake news designed to harm his many ambitious plans to make American great again. He also openly thanked his audience for voting for Trump. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Last week as Americans grew increasingly worried about Trump’s chaotic trade deals Fox News distracted its audience with stories about dark woke Democrats, a renegade dog-walking Tesla vandal, the negative qualities of Pope Francis, the short-comings of due process and the never-ending deep state persecution of Pete Hegseth. The segments that got the most airtime on the network focused on problems within the Democratic Party. When Fox can’t promote anything positive about the Trump administration it falls back on one of its favorite topics - Democrats are terrible. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

The United States has reached a constitutional crisis that could damage or destroy our democracy for years to come. Fox News made the choice to cheerlead for the erosion of the rule of law by conflating Ábrego García’s case with a violent rape and murder even though Ábrego García has never been convicted of any crime. Trump even discussed sending “home grown criminals” or U.S. citizens, to the same draconian prison that some have compared to Nazi concentration camps. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Last week on Fox News every talking head was dedicated to distracting its viewers from the catastrophe of Trump’s chaotic tariff policies. Sean Hannity dedicated an entire episode to radical Democrats, Jesse Watters decided that men with office jobs turn into women, Judge Jeanine Pirro was screaming about the lack of Cadillacs in Europe while Jessica Tarlov and occasionally Steve Doocy were sending off distress signals. The same network that claimed Biden’s economy was destroying the country downplayed the threat of a full-blown depression due to a madman’s half-baked ideas on global trade. Fox told its audience that Americans were too dependent on cheap stuff in an economy that is driven by consumer spending. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Last week, as trillions of dollars of value were lost on the stock market and other global trading markets, Fox News hosts promoted the idea of a bipartisan Senate and House investigation into Joe Biden’s cognitive decline during his presidency. They couldn’t have come up with a worse solution for improving investors’ confidence in the U.S. economy than a never-ending inquiry of a former president. Perhaps Rep. James Comey and Rep. Jim Jordan could start a publicly traded company called “Wager the Waste of Time,” where people could place bets on the least damning evidence, the craziest witnesses and the number of nude photos of Hunter Biden displayed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in any given hearing. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Last week Fox News revived its hatred of the network’s favorite Democratic villainess to distract its viewers from Signalgate - the messy and embarrassing scandal involving top military and intelligence government officials discussing an airstrike in Yemen on their personal phones with a reporter privy to their every word. Hillary Clinton - the ultimate liberal, corrupt, establishment, progressive, uppity, corporatist, doormat wife, scheming Machiavellian, crusher of souls, and wannabe dictator was brought up 18 times last week even though she hasn’t held a position in the United States government since 2013. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Last week on Fox several guests and a few hosts openly debunked lies the network was trying to promote. It was a festival of guests and Fox News employees accidentally going rogue as they didn’t follow the Fox News narrative. Something wonky happened in the propaganda matrix. Even Fox News hosts inadvertently undermined their own talking points. Were the astronauts really stranded in space? Was domestic terrorism a serious crime or just a protest that got out of hand? Does a Tesla automobile have more value than a United States Capitol Police officer? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

On Monday Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, published a story about how he was accidentally invited into a group chat on Signal where top defense and intelligence officials planned a military strike on Yemen. Fox tried to ignore the story then had a complete meltdown over it. The Trump administration hit its first iceberg of sorts but luckily this time no one went down with the ship. This podcast covers how the most popular shows on Fox News covered the fiasco on Monday and Tuesday. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Last week as the stock market tanked, the delicate truce between Israel and Hamas faltered, Russian drones pummeled Ukrainian cities, and another commercial airplane burst into flames Fox News wanted its viewers to take pity on the richest man in the world. On Fox Elon Musk was portrayed as a selfless man dedicated to helping his adopted country pull itself out of a death spiral of debt and bloated government waste. Vicious investors were dumping stock of his precious electric vehicle company Tesla while blue-haired transgender activists set fire to EV charging stations and defenseless Cybertrucks. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

As the stock market tumbled and Trump’s approval ratings continued to drop the folks on Fox cherry-picked biased polls, mislead their viewers about tariffs, repeated the president’s lies about immigration and demonized Democrats. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

This video podcast includes additional commentary for audio listeners. I breakdown how Fox News covered Trump's Speech to a Joint Session of Congress from "Fox & Friends" until "Hannity" This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Last week on Fox News the network took a slight shift away from its aggressive promotion of Elon Musk’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) to focus on a favorite topic - incompetent Democrats. The minority party was everything all at once - too old, young, radical, meek, uptight, woke, sleepy, bombastic, corrupt, backward, ineffective, Machiavellian and shifty. On “The Five,” producers featured two or three segments in a row that basically had the same message - Democrats are terrible. The network even returned to trashing former President Joe Biden. Meanwhile the Trump administration was hit with multiple lawsuits surrounding the DOGE task force This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

A rare video podcast that covers how multiple Fox News shows covered Donald J. Trump’s disastrous Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This covers programming before the meeting, the meeting itself and “The Five,” “The Five,” “Special Report with Bret Baier,” “The Ingraham Angle,” “Jesse Watters Primetime,” and “Hannity.” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Last week the folks on Fox continued to elevate Elon Musk as a wildly popular champion of the American people while they pretended proposed $5000 DOGE dividend checks issued to every adult American would not cause inflation. Crime, the economy, transgender athletes, DEI programs, the woke mind virus, border crossings and mass deportations all took a backseat as the network became a DOGE infomercial. Meanwhile in town halls across the country organized by Republican members of congress angry constituents complained bitterly about the reckless unelected billionaire who was destroying jobs and slashing important government programs. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Last week the folks on Fox created fables about Elon Musk the selfless tech warrior who was lowering tax bills for everyday Americans. The network promoted the idea that DOGE was only destroying wasteful woke programs meant to push deranged ideology. Tom Homan basically openly admitted Trump made a deal with Eric Adams to keep him out of prison. It was a celebration of corruption and grift on Fox News. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Last week the folks at Fox twisted themselves into knots to defend the actions of a maniacal corrupt billionaire hellbent on destroying entire government agencies without congressional oversight. They would never admit that their glorious leader, Donald J. Trump, was just a puppet for Elon Musk, a South African immigrant with extremist political leanings. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

The folks at Fox were quick to repeat and amplify the deranged tirades of our malignant narcissist president who blamed diversity, equity and inclusion programs for the recent catastrophic fatal crash of a military helicopter and commercial airline over the Potomac. When grieving families and shocked Americans needed words of sympathy and reassurance Trump was more than happy to terrify and provoke. At the time of President Trump’s hateful statements authorities didn’t know the identities of anyone involved in the disaster. Trump assumed with no evidence that the crash was the result of a degradation of hiring standards. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Last week the folks at Fox News treated Donald J. Trump as if he were a supernatural being who came down from heaven on the wings of a bald eagle to vanquish the woke, transgender, cultural Marxist enemies of the United States and lift the nation up to a mythical state of its former glory when robber barons swam through the Panama Canal. There was one topic no one wanted to talk about - Trump’s pardon of January 6th rioters. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

I watched roughly six hours of inauguration coverage on Fox News along with six hours on the PBS News Hour. I pulled quotes from both to show how a garbage propaganda network (Fox News) compared to a high quality nonpartisan news source. Stephanie Sy, of PBS, shares some great insight on Trump supporters. Brit Hume of Fox News created his own reality. PBS included experts and academics while Fox News trotted out its own employees. Fox News looked even more ridiculous than usual. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Last week the folks on Fox were angrier than ever that Joe Biden lasted until the end of his term and that Vice President Kamala Harris declared it was not in her nature to go “quietly into the night.” Fox News personalities claimed that Trump negotiated the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Sean Hannity and others declared that the FDA’s decision to ban a food dye. The network also bolstered Melania Trump’s false claim that the Obama administration impeded her move into the White House during her husband’s first term even though Mrs. Trump lived in Manhattan for the first five months of her husband’s presidency. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe