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Right-Wing Media Insist It's "DEI" -- Not Climate Change -- Behind LA Wildfires

Right-Wing Media Insist It's "DEI" -- Not Climate Change -- Behind LA Wildfires

Right-wing media are trying to delegitimize climate change as a real and growing threat to the West Coast, just as that threat becomes most evident. Several unusual January wildfires have been burning in Los Angeles County since January 7. Despite the clear connection between global warming and the increasingly dry conditions that lead to fire hazards, right-wing media are following their familiar playbook and blaming what they call California’s “failed” policies for the ongoing crisis.

  • Californians are struggling to control ongoing fires, as U.S. communities are ill-prepared for year-round extreme weather

    • The two largest fires, Palisades and Eaton, have collectively burned over 164,000 acres of Los Angeles County. Nearly 173,000 people are under evacuation warnings or orders in LA County, at least 25 people have died, and over 17,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed. The Palisades fire was 19% contained and the Eaton fire was at 45% containment as of publication. [Los Angeles Times, 1/14/25; Cal Fire, accessed 1/15/25; ktla.com, 1/14/25; NBC Los Angeles, 1/14/25]
    • Like in many other cities, LA’s municipal water system is not designed to handle multiple massive fires at once. Reports that the hydrants being used to put out the fires were running low spurred misinformation about water shortages due to a lack of reservoirs or related to California’s water policies that divert water from Northern California to Southern California. These rumors proved to be misleading: Even though there is enough water, there isn’t enough pressure to get water to go where firefights need it most. As the LAist has noted in the past, “Fire hydrants have also run dry in the case of other wildfires that spread to urban areas, including the 2017 Tubbs Fire, 2024’s Mountain Fire and 2023’s Maui wildfires.” [Media Matters, 1/10/25; The LAist, 1/9/25, 8/15/23]

    • Forecasters were predicting more of the dry and intense Santa Ana winds that were fueling the fires. The winds, which typically occur during the colder months, are severely impeding efforts to contain the fires. NBC Los Angeles reported that “planes dumping water and retardant on impacted areas have been unable to take to the sky at times since the fires began because of the dangerous conditions presented by the winds.” On January 14 and 15, Los Angeles was expecting winds of up to 65 mph. As of January 14, the National Weather Service had declared red flag warnings, signaling “an increased risk of fire danger,” as well as a “particularly dangerous situation” for parts of the area, which National Weather Service meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld said is “one of the loudest ways that we can shout.” [National Weather Service, accessed 1/14/25, 1/14/25; NBC Los Angeles, 1/13/25; NPR, 1/8/25; Los Angeles Times, 1/13/25]
    • U.S. communities and infrastructure are ill-prepared for the climate-fueled extreme weather events that are now happening year round. On X, CBS national correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti posted, “American homes were built for an environment that no longer exists. This - like all of the disasters this century, from Florida to Hawaii - must be a call to action. This is the second time in one month Malibu was hit by fire.” Chad Hanson, a forest and fire ecologist and the president of the John Muir Project, told the Los Angeles Times, “The fact is that forest management is not stopping weather- and climate-driven fires.” Carlos Martín, an expert on housing adaptation and climate change, told Fast Company that cities are relying on the federal government because “the resources just aren’t there locally, and the damages are way more than anybody ever anticipated.” Martín said climate change mitigation and adaptation will be key in preparing for future disasters. “It’s like taking a pill to prevent the disease versus getting the disease treated afterwards. That’s the way we have to start thinking about these events: What we used to think of as individual crises [are now] chronic things,” he added. [Media Matters, 1/10/25; Twitter/X, 1/8/25; Los Angeles Times, 8/21/21; Fast Company, 1/11/25]

  • There is ample evidence that climate change is creating hazardous conditions that supercharge existing wildfires in the Western US

    • On MSNBC, UCLA climate scientist and Southern California climate expert Daniel Swain explained that “the level of vegetation and landscape scale dryness” was at “highly anomalous, even record-breaking levels.” Swain continued: “This year, there has been virtually no rainfall at all in the LA region, even as we head towards mid-January. That is extremely unusual.” He added that strong winds typically arrive after the first rainfall of the season. On top of that, “the extreme heatwaves that we saw in the same region this past autumn” set the stage for intense winds to cause extensive damage. [MSNBC, Chris Jansing Reports, 1/8/25]
    • One peer-reviewed 2016 study found that “human-caused climate change caused over half of the documented increases in fuel aridity since the 1970s and doubled the cumulative forest fire area since 1984.” The study found drought as a result of human-caused climate change caused vegetation to become significantly more dry and flammable over the span of about 45 years, leading to more forested areas burning. [The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 10/10/16]
    • Attribution studies have shown that climate change has increased the severity or likelihood of extreme heat, drought, and wildfires on the West Coast. According to Carbon Brief, which covers climate science, “Attribution studies calculate whether, and by how much, climate change affected the intensity, frequency or impact of extremes.” In one such 2023 study, California researchers found that “nearly all of the observed increase in BA [burned area] over the past half-century is attributable to” human-caused climate change. [Carbon Brief, 11/18/24; The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 6/12/23]

  • Right-wing media misleadingly told viewers that climate change had no impact on the fires and has simply been a distraction from more important problems

    • In reaction to a CNN segment that questioned why more people aren’t searching for the term “climate change” on Google as the fires make headlines, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles falsely claimed, “That’s happening because there is no connection between the wildfires and climate change.” He continued: “They’re not drawing the connection between those two things because those things are unrelated.” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 1/14/25]
    • On Fox Business, anchor Cheryl Casone highlighted the Wall Street Journal editorial board’s attack on meteorologists for pointing out concerning weather patterns that lead to wildfires because “California has had those types of seasons” and “ a hundred years ago … nobody was talking about carbon emissions.” Calling it a “scathing, scathing attack on Gavin Newsom and the state’s failed policies,” Casone emphasized a part of the editorial that says to “look out for the word — the phrase ‘hydroclimate whiplash.’ They’re going to start blaming the seasons. The Journal points, you know, it was wet, it was wet winter, and then it was a dry summer. Well guess what? The Journal says, you know what, California also had those types of seasons in the 1910s and the 1920s.” [Fox Business, Mornings With Maria, 1/14/25]
    • On Fox News, OutKick’s Clay Travis misleadingly claimed that because wildfires in California were also widespread in the 1800s, “this isn’t climate change.” According to the University of California, Davis, an estimated 4.5 million areas burned annually in California before the gold rush, but this included widespread controlled burns carried out by Native Americans. In 2020, the New York Times reported “more than five million acres charred in Oregon, California and Washington State.” The Times did not mention controlled burns, and the paper called the fires an “inescapable crisis.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/13/25; University of California, Davis, 10/1/20; The Mercury News, 8/24/20; The New York Times, 9/15/20]
    • On the podcast Elijahstreams, which claims to host “prophets” and “prophetic guests,” host Steve Shultz and Christian podcast host Johnny Enlow attacked those who are speaking about climate change in connection with the fire, claiming that they’re on “the opposite side of righteousness.” Shultz, a conspiracy theorist who has pushed conspiracy theories, attacked Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for voicing these concerns, saying: “So he’s saying this is global warming, I mean, not global warming — they use, this is climate change. … Isn’t it true that when you hear someone shout out that’s what this is, isn’t that almost proof that they're on the opposite side of righteousness?” Enlow also said, “The voice of ‘this is global warming,’ … that’s the big lie. If you want to know the one clear lie of every lie that’s out there is that this has to do with global warming.” [Rumble, Elijahstreams, 1/13/25; Politico, 2/18/21; Media Matters, 10/18/24]
    • On Fox Business, Casone said, “I’m sorry, but this has been going on for centuries.” She continued: “The Santa Ana winds have been there for centuries. This isn’t climate change; this is the weather.” [Fox Business, Mornings With Maria, 1/13/25]
  • Daily Wire host Andrew Klavan called the idea of climate change impacts in California “nonsense” because John Steinbeck described drought conditions in his 1952 novel East of Eden. “If you read the great American novel East of Eden, it starts out describing the weather in California,” he said. “The weather in California has not changed. There’s seven years of drought, there’s seven years where it doesn't have drought.” He also claimed that scientists say “climate change has moved the storms to Alaska so we're not getting as many storms. Nonsense. Read the book. It was written a long time ago and yet it describes the weather just as it is.” [The Daily Wire, The Andrew Klavan Show, 1/10/25]
  • Daily Wire host Matt Walsh claimed that politicians mentioned climate change as one cause of the fires only because “the climate change narrative gives them an excuse to do nothing.” He continued: “It allows them to sit back and do nothing. That’s why they always want to view every problem as some kind of, you know, huge, all-encompassing systemic issue.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 1/10/25]
  • Fox host Laura Ingraham claimed there was “zero proof that man-made carbon dioxide caused these fires” and that they would be used to justify “rezon[ing] certain residential neighborhoods.” She continued: “But, perhaps, this reimagining cities will work to achieve this epic dream of theirs for more high-density housing, putting single family homes out of reach for victims and everyone but really the super rich. All to protect us — it’s for your own good from the ravages of climate change.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/10/25]
  • Fox host Greg Gutfeld complained about Democrats “offering platitudes” about climate change in response to the fires, and right-wing comedian Adam Carolla joked that sea levels are “not rising fast enough to put out the fires.” Carolla said, “They’ve been talking about the ocean sea levels rising for 50 years along with climate change, but the sea isn’t rising fast enough to put out the fires that they started through mismanagement.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 1/9/25]
  • Newsmax host Rob Finnerty said of the fires: “This is actually the opposite of climate change. This is the climate staying the same.” [Newsmax, Finnerty, 1/9/25]
  • In a radio interview with Fox host Sean Hannity, former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich used climate change denial to try to legitimize his critique of environmental policy in California. Brnovich called the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change “the arrogance of human beings to think that somehow we are radically, you know, changing the environment.” He claimed that “neo-marxist socialists have latched on” to climate change “because they understand this is how you can emotionally control people” and convince them that “we need a bigger federal government, or we need less trees. We need to save snails instead of desalinizing water in Southern California.” [Premiere Radio Network, The Sean Hannity Show, 1/9/25]
  • Conservative website PJ Media featured an article titled “People Who Blame All Natural Disasters on Climate Change Should Be Clubbed Like Baby Seals.” [PJ Media, 1/9/25]
  • On Fox News at Night, climate denier Steve Milloy said the situation in California happened because Californians don’t prioritize “real life versus all these environmentalist fantasies, the delta smelt being in danger, then climate change.” Milloy blamed the fires on “a lack of reservoirs” because of “environmentalists and the cost, which is because of environmentalists as well. … The whole thing is just a cluster and until Californians start prioritizing real life versus all these environmentalist fantasies, the delta smelt being in danger, then climate change, I'm afraid we're just going to see more of this.” [Fox News, Fox News at Night, 1/8/25; Media Matters, 10/31/21]
  • Finnerty said, “These are not once-in-a-generation wildfires. This is not climate change. This is death by DEI.” [Media Matters, 1/9/25]
  • Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro said on his show, “When you hear Democrats shout from the rooftops that it’s climate change, understand: That is a misdirect.” He continued: “Even were that true, it would not alleviate their responsibility to mitigate the effects.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 1/9/25]
  • Knowles said, “Obviously the sun monster is not to blame for the fires in California. Climate change is the leftist version of ‘the dog ate my homework.’” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 1/9/25]
  • Newsmax host Chris Plante said, “The explanation for the fires in California is not climate change and global warming.” He continued: “It's Democrats and their policies, not grooming and cleaning forests. They groom children but not forests.” [Newsmax, Chris Plante The Right Squad, 1/8/25]
  • Newsmax host Greg Kelly said that after the fires in LA, he thinks climate change is “all a scam.” Reacting to a video of California Gov. Gavin Newsom discussing how climate change impacts the state, Kelly said, “You know, I never really had my mind made up about climate change. OK climate change, I can accept that. But after this fire and after their behavior, I think it's all a scam. It's — something's wrong here. It is a power grab. It is a money grab.” [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 1/8/25]
  • Fox host Sean Hannity and Leo Terell, whom Trump recently tapped to be senior counsel for the Justice Department, claimed that the idea that climate change played a role in the fires is “a lie.” “It seems like there has been zero forest management by the government at all. Zero. None whatsoever,” said Hannity. Terell later said, “It’s not a priority to the far left. … They focus on denying their responsibility by yelling out climate change. … That’s a lie! It's poor management on the part of the Democrats. They do not look at fire prevention.” [Fox News, Hannity, 1/8/25; Politico, 1/9/25]
    • Carolla said on Hannity that “they want to blame everything on climate change but it's really their inaction. That's why we are in this predicament.” “We had a major fire in Malibu three and a half weeks ago,” he said. “It’s not like it was three and a half years ago. This is an ongoing issue, and Newsom likes to say it's now year-round because he wants to talk about climate change, so he’s the first guy who’s aware of it. They want to blame everything on climate change, but it's really their inaction. That's why we are in this predicament.” [Fox News, Hannity, 1/8/25]
    • New One America News host and disgraced former Republican lawmaker Matt Gaetz claimed that Gov. Gavin Newsom was using the fires as an excuse for “photo ops” and to “blame climate change.” “Wildfires have plagued Newsom's tenure as governor, but instead of acknowledging poor forestry management practices, he's used these disasters as photo ops. He never misses a chance to parade around in his drainpipe jeans and French Laundry-issued, rosé-all-day aviators. Nor would he miss an opportunity to blame climate change, like he did in 2020.” [One America News, The Matt Gaetz Show, 1/8/25]
    • Ingraham dismissed the role of climate change to disparage California leaders: “Now the scope of this loss is unfathomable. Although, thankfully, the death toll currently is fairly low, there are many more injured. But forget the climate fanatics. Because natural disasters are always going to happen. Hurricanes, floods, mudslides, droughts, and, yes, wildfires. But disasters in leadership can make what is naturally occurring even worse. And California has suffered more than it should because it has screwed up priorities from top to bottom.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/8/25]

  • Right-wing media often downplay climate change during destructive fires

    • In the summer of 2023, which was plagued by record-breaking heatwaves and fires, right-wing media tried to convince people that concerns about climate change were overblown. When wildfire smoke from Canada choked New York in June 2023, Fox hosts mocked reports and politicians that connected the fire to climate change and blamed environmentalists and poor forest management. Right-wing media tried to convince their audience that extreme summer temperatures were “normal.” [Media Matters, 6/9/23, 7/20/23]
    • In August 2023, when fires killed over 100 people in Lahaina, Hawaii, right-wing media similarly dismissed climate change. Fox host Tammy Bruce complained that “some people are already moving into a political dynamic talking about climate change” while herself posing the question, “For really an ancient land that this hasn't happened before, why did it happen now?” [Media Matters, 8/11/23, 8/23/23]

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Moderator Fact Checks Trump Lie On Migrants 'Eating Dogs And Cats'

Moderator Fact Checks Trump Lie On Migrants 'Eating Dogs And Cats'

DONALD TRUMP: What they have done to our country, by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country, and look at what's happening to the towns all over the United States. And a lot of towns don't want to talk -- not going to be Aurora or Springfield -- a lot of towns don't want to talk about it because they're so embarrassed by it.

In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats, they're eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what's happening in our country, and it's a shame. As far as rallies are concerned, as far as -- the reason they go is they like what I say. They want to bring our country back, they want to make America great again. It's a very simple phrase, 'Make America Great Again.' She's destroying the country, and if she becomes president, this country doesn't have a chance of success -- not only success, we'll end up being Venezuela on steroids.

DAVID MUIR (MODERATOR): I just want to clarify here. You bring up Springfield, Ohio, and ABC News reached out to the city manager there. He told us "there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community." All of this --

TRUMP: I've seen people on television --

MUIR: Let me just say, here --

TRUMP: The people on television say my dog was taken and used for food, so maybe he said that and maybe that's a good thing to say for a city manager. But the people on television said their dog was eaten by the people that went there.

MUIR: Again, the Springfield city manager says there's no evidence of that.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters .

Moderator Debunks Trump Lie On 'Execution Of Babies' After Birth

Moderator Debunks Trump Lie On 'Execution Of Babies' After Birth

DONALD TRUMP: They have abortion in the ninth month. They even have, and you can look at the governor of West Virginia, the previous governor of West Virginia, not the current governor; he's doing an excellent job. But the governor before, he said the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby, in other words, we will execute the baby.

And that's why I did that because that predominates, because they're radical. The Democrats are radical in that and her vice presidential pick -- which I think he is a horrible pick by the way for our country because he is really out of it -- but her vice presidential pick says, "Abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine." He also says, "Execution after birth." It's execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born is okay, and that's not okay with me, hence the vote.

...

LINSEY DAVIS (ABC MODERATOR): There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Alex Jones

Unearthed Video Shows JD Vance Praising Alex Jones For 'Important Truths'

New reporting from ProPublica and Documented revealed that Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, praised far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones as a truth teller during a closed-door meeting with the Project 2025 partner organization the Teneo Network in 2021.

Meanwhile, Jones said today that he was in a meeting with Vance “a month ago.”

The Teneo Network, an “invitation-only group of young conservatives” that ProPublica and Documented said Vance joined six years ago, is one of over 100 conservative partner organizations included on the Heritage Foundation’s advisory board for Project 2025. Project 2025 is an extreme right-wing initiative to provide policy and personnel to the next Republican presidential administration.

This post has been updated for clarity.

Vance called Alex Jones a truth teller

In a private speech in 2021 given to the Teneo Network, Vance said that he got backlash when he said that the far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones “is a better source of information than Rachel Maddow, the MSNBC gal,” which he described as a “plainly obvious observation.”

He went on to add that “the most important truths often come from people who are crazy 60 percent of the time but they’re right 40 percent of the time.”


Vance was speaking before the Teneo Network, a Project 2025 partner

The Teneo Network is a right-wing networking group spearheaded by prominent conservative legal activist Leonard Leo. ProPublica and Documented reported on Vance’s speech to the group and what it means for a future Trump second term:

Adding Vance to the ticket bolsters the connections between Leo’s network and the Trump 2024 campaign. It also strengthens ties between Trump’s reelection bid and the Project 2025 blueprint, which outlines plans for a second Trump administration, including firing thousands of career civil servants, shuttering the Department of Education and replacing ambitious goals to combat climate change with ramped-up fossil fuel production. In a recent TV interview, Vance said the document contained “some good ideas” but claimed that “most Americans couldn’t care less about Project 2025” and that the Trump campaign wasn’t affiliated with it."

Jones also claimed he was recently in a meeting with Vance

On his show on July 16, Jones said he was “in a meeting with J.D. Vance a month ago,” calling him “a great guy” and adding that “he's defended me when I was being censored.”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Jesse Watters

Fox Ignored Texas Woman's Legal Ordeal Over Emergency Abortion (VIDEO)

Fox News has barely covered the story of Kate Cox, a Texas woman who sought to terminate her pregnancy due to the fetus’s fatal diagnosis but had her court-ordered emergency abortion halted after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton petitioned the Texas Supreme Court. Instead, one Fox show opted to cover a supposed “attack” on “tradwives,” with host Jesse Watters dedicating a segment of his coveted 8 p.m. slot to the topic.

The Texas Supreme Court overturned a ruling granting Cox an exception to the state’s abortion ban

On December 5, Cox filed a lawsuit in Texas for an emergency court-ordered abortion “to protect her health, life, and future fertility.” Cox, who was 20 weeks pregnant at the time the suit was filed, sought the abortion after her fetus was diagnosed with trisomy 18 and “had no chance of survival.” In addition, the lawsuit detailed how Cox had visited three different emergency rooms in the past month with “severe cramping and unidentifiable fluid leaks” and was “at high risk for many serious medical conditions that pose risks to her future fertility and can become suddenly and unexpectedly life-threatening” if she did not undergo an abortion. The suit also included a recommendation from Cox’s OB-GYN, who stated they have a “good faith” belief that Cox should be exempted from the ban.



Texas’ current abortion ban restricts all abortions after six weeks, a period during which pregnancy would mostly not even be able to be detected, effectively banning all abortions. The ban makes narrow exceptions for “medical emergency” cases where the pregnancy “places the woman in danger of death or a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function unless an abortion is performed.



"The lawsuit articulates that Texas’ abortion law is inconsistent, causing confusion over which pregnancies qualify for an exception. The December 7 district court ruling allowed Cox to legally terminate her pregnancy. Paxton responded to the ruling by writing that Cox had failed to demonstrate she has a “life-threatening” medical condition related to the pregnancy that puts her “at risk of death” or major bodily harm, warning doctors they could be liable for civil and criminal penalties for providing Cox an abortion, and petitioning for intervention from the Texas Supreme Court. The following day, the court temporarily blocked Cox from receiving an abortion and, on December 11, reversed the district court’s ruling. In the opinion, the court argued that “some difficulties in pregnancy … even serious ones, do not pose the heightened risks to the mother the exception encompasses.” By the time of the ruling, Cox had already left Texas to have the abortion out of state.

Fox News barely covered Cox’s story

Fox News practically buried Cox’s story, despite wide reporting from mainstream media. Fox host Pete Hegseth briefly mentioned it on Fox & Friends Weekend during a “Headlines” segment listing major national news stories; chief political anchor Bret Baier took the same approach, devoting only about 30 seconds of airtime to the story during the prime-time “hard news” show Special Report; and a panel guest on weekend show Fox News Live brought it up during a discussion about the 2024 election.
Sean Hannity gave the most coverage to the story — but not during his prime-time Fox News show. Hannity discussed Cox’s legal fight on his radio show, arguing that her case is “definitely the exception” to Texas’ draconian abortion ban.
“This is certainly an outlier. This is not your average case,” the Fox host said.
However, Hannity was primarily concerned with how stories like Cox’s (and hardline anti-abortion stances in general) affect Republicans’ electability. Hannity also brought up the late-term abortion red herring, complaining that Democrats “never want to answer” the question of whether third-trimester abortions should be banned outright.

Fox News gave airtime to a supposed “attack” on tradwives while the real attack on Cox played out

Instead of covering Texas’ attempt at forced birth, Fox News’ Jesse Watters devoted an entire segment of his 8 p.m. broadcast to the supposed feminist assault on “tradwives”-- women who subscribe to “traditional” gender roles within marriage, often invoking the aesthetic of the 1950s housewife and romanticizing submissiveness to men. Tradwife content on social media — and the broader “trad” movement itself — has been linked to right-wing and white-supremacist ideology.

In the segment, Watters blamed the media and unhappy feminists for criticizing tradwives before interviewing Estee Williams, a popular tradwife TikToker. Williams offered a disclaimer regarding women who choose to have a career, but she also agreed with Watters’ framing, arguing: “The traditional housewife is kind of under attack right now because of feminism and definitely the 1950s housewife narrative."

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch Retires, But His Destructive Legacy Remains

During Rupert Murdoch’s 25-year tenure as the head of Fox News Channel, he created a right-wing misinformation machine, subsidized by cable customers, that played an essential role in former President Donald Trump’s rise to power and subsequent attempts to stay in power by stealing the 2020 election. The network has divided not just Americans, but also their families, with the anger and bigotry stoked by Fox destroying relationships among loved ones.

Rupert Murdoch announced he was stepping down after over 25 years at the helm of Fox Corp.

  • Rupert Murdoch announced in September that he would step down as the chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp. in November, leaving his son Lachlan Murdoch as chairman and CEO. Rupert Murdoch launched the Fox News cable channel with political strategist Roger Ailes in 1996, creating a hallmark for conservative TV commentary. [The Associated Press, 9/21/23; The New York Times, 9/21/23]

During his tenure, Murdoch created a right-wing misinformation machine that helped bring Trump to power and supported his lies

  • Rupert Murdoch amassed a fortune by building Fox News into a right-wing misinformation machine that played an essential role in the rise of former President Donald Trump and his deadly attempts to steal the 2020 election. As Media Matters senior fellow Matt Gertz wrote, “The network’s noxious mix of right-wing propaganda, bigotry, lies and demagoguery attracted the largest audience in cable news while shaping the Republican Party’s base in its image.” [Media Matters, 1/6/21; MSNBC, 9/21/23]
  • Murdoch admitted that he let Fox News personalities push election conspiracy theories, despite knowing that they were bogus. Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against the network revealed that even though Rupert Murdoch thought Fox was “uniquely positioned to state the message that the election was not stolen,” he agreed the profit motive was the deciding factor: “It is not red or blue, it is green.” [Media Matters, 2/27/23]
  • The network also pumped coronavirus conspiracy theories out of its airwaves as the country struggled to respond to a deadly pandemic. In just 2020, the first year of the pandemic, the network promoted COVID-19 misinformation over 13,000 times on its weekday programs. [Media Matters, 12/30/20, 12/30/20]

Fox has divided the country, including many family relationships

  • Writer Megan Garber explained in The Atlantic in 2020 that Fox had developed its own language, and that “at this point, some Americans speak English; others speak Fox.” She added: “The result is disorientation. The result is mass suspicion. … Fox has helped to create a nation of people who share everything but the ability to talk with one another.” [The Atlantic, 9/16/20]
  • Journalist Luke O’Neil collected stories, including his own, of “families torn apart by toxic cable news” and published them in The Guardian and New York magazine. [The Guardian, 4/12/19; New York magazine, 4/9/19]
  • One person told O’Neil: “I hate what Fox News has done to almost everyone in my family. It’s absolute poison and the only thing I think is worse is that there are people who think that destroying the morals and conscience of multiple generations is worth a few more bucks. I absolutely refuse to believe that people like [Fox host Sean] Hannity don’t know what they are doing.”
  • Another person told O’Neil: “I called at Thanksgiving to say hi, which was when my dad called Obama the N-word during the call, apropos of nothing.” They lamented that they “pretty much don’t go home any more” because their “family and friends all have broken Fox brain,” adding, “I’m not totally sure when it started since I haven’t lived at home since 2002. It slowly built, but the rift probably started around 2008, when I was volunteering for Obama. It got the most heated when my mom went to a Trump rally in Phoenix ahead of the 2016 election.”
  • O’Neil: “Dozens … talked about the sad lonely twilight of their parents’ or grandparents’ lives, having been spurned by, or having disowned much of their families over political disagreements.” O’Neil wrote: “Whatever the actual direction of causality, there are many, many Americans who blame Fox News for changes in their loved ones, and many people out there who feel as though their friends and family members have been lost to a 24/7 stream of right-wing propaganda.”
  • Edward Lyngar in Salon: “We’re losing people like my father to the despair of Fox News, and it’s all by design.” Lyngar wrote that his father “is a kind and generous man and a good father, but over the past five or 10 years, he’s become so conservative that I can’t even find a label for it. What has changed? He consumes a daily diet of nothing except Fox News.” [Salon, 2/27/14]
  • A Boston Globe article recounted documentary filmmaker Jen Senko’s story of her dad’s Fox-induced “descent into anger.” Senko told the Globe: “He became a person we hated being around and we didn’t know. … It was a really horrible period of time for us. … It was a nightmare, both my brothers blocked him, I blocked him.” According to the report, “Senko’s stomach clenched every time she thought of visiting. Her dad was angry all the time. And Senko knew exactly what was to blame: The steady drip-feed of outrage he listened to every day.” [The Boston Globe, 5/1/19]

Cable customers are subsidizing Fox’s misinformation, with some objecting because of how it has harmed their families

  • Cable companies' customers are being forced to subsidize Fox’s lies. Cable companies pay channels' “carriage fees” to carry their channel, and Fox charges a higher amount than all other networks aside from EPSN, which is then passed on to customers. “These carriage fees are now so valuable to Fox that reporting from Media Matters has found that Fox would still have a profit margin of more than 35% even if it sold no advertising,” The Guardian wrote. [The Guardian, 8/15/23]
  • Over 165,000 individuals have signed the #NoFoxFee campaign, demanding that their cable providers stop forcing consumers to subsidize Fox News’ lies. Some of them have also left public notes on how consuming Fox News has changed their families. [Common Cause, accessed 11/16/23]
  • A #NoFoxFee petition signer wrote that her brother and sister-in-law have “totally bought into the lies and misinformation” they see on Fox. The signer added: “We can no longer talk about current events” and that their relatives think “all other news sources were lying to them” as a result of watching Fox News, saying that makes them feel “very estranged from them.”
  • Another signer wrote: “I no longer have relationships with my mother or sisters because they have become radicalized to become fascist sympathizers by their viewing of cable Fox ‘News.’”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Elon Musk

Media Matters Responds To Elon Musk's Threat Of Legal Action

Media Matters president Angelo Carusone released the following statement in response to Elon Musk's legal threat:

Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Musk is a bully who threatens meritless lawsuits in an attempt to silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate. Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified. If he does sue us, we will win.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Israel

Christian Nationalists And Right-Wing Media Hail War As Sign Of 'End Times'

Christian nationalists and several right-wing media figures have embraced the war between Israel and Hamas as a sign of the End Times, claimed “the role of Christians is to convert the Jews,” and asserted that Christians must support Israel because “God has a covenant plan as part of the End Times."

Hamas launched its attack against Israel on October 7, with militants from the Gaza Strip targeting both civilians and Israeli military personnel. Israel has since pledged to eradicate Hamas, leading the Israeli military to target Gaza in an ongoing conflict that has reportedly left more than 1,400 Israelis and more than 8,000 Palestinians dead. Right-wing media have spewed misinformation and hate about the conflict, spreading anti-Islamic bigotry and antisemitic conspiracy theories, defending the thousands of civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip, and even calling for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

Right-wing evangelical support for Israel has long been connected to end-time beliefs and Christian Zionism. In a recent MSNBC op-ed, columnist Sarah Posner spotlighted this phenomenon in light of the war between Israel and Hamas:

For many “Christians Zionists,” and particularly for popular evangelists with significant clout within the Republican Party, their support for Israel is rooted in its role in the supposed end times: Jesus’ return to Earth, a bloody final battle at Armageddon, and Jesus ruling the world from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In this scenario, war is not something to be avoided, but something inevitable, desired by God, and celebratory.

Amid the Hamas-Israel war, right-wing and Christian nationalist media outlets and figures have connected the war to biblical End Times prophecy:

  • Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk hosted Christian nationalist pastor Jack Hibbs on his Salem Media radio show, where Hibbs connected the war to biblical prophecy of the End Times and urged listeners to convert Jews to Christianity. Hibbs claimed, “The government of Israel has been brought together by the will of God.” Kirk himself later noted that “when we start to see war and rumors of war break out … that is something that Christ our lord said explicitly in regard to the end of time.” Kirk also asked Hibbs to explain why Christians should support Israel even though it is not “a godly nation.” In response, Hibbs declared, “The Christian is commanded to provoke the Jew to jealousy,” and that Christians “need to look past the sins of Israel and the sins of the Jew and give them the hope of Jesus.”

  • BlazeTV founder Glenn Beck, who began claiming the End Times were imminent at least a decade ago, cited the ongoing war and claimed, “I know everybody's been saying that forever, but it's kinda looking like, you know, Jesus might be coming.” His guest, Daily Wire host Andrew Klavan, agreed that the End Times are near and asserted that “Jews are the theater in which God plays out his relationship with man.” Earlier in the week, Beck posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “the growing unrest around the world signals that end times are approaching.”
  • At an October 26 event attended by Republican members of congress and Israeli diplomats, right-wing pastor John Hagee — who has blamed Catholics for the Holocaust and called Hitler a “half-breed Jew” — cited End Times prophecy and called for military support for Israel and U.S. strikes on Iran. Hagee later echoed a similar message on Mark Levin’s Fox News program, declaring that Iran was behind Hamas’ attack and that God has a “covenant with [Jewish people] that they should own this land forever.” Levin praised Hagee and his group, Christians United for Israel, saying that it “doesn't get the attention that it deserves, you have millions of people who support this effort.”
  • At the outbreak of the war, Jenna Ellis, a host for Salem Media and former Trump lawyer who pleaded guilty to charges related to former President Donald Trump’s scheme to subvert the results of the 2020 election, told her audience, “When we see what's going on in Israel, it is very possible that this is setting the stage for the End Times, or the end of all things, to begin happening.” She warned that “biblical prophecy has been fulfilled so that the rapture literally could happen at any moment” and that Christians “will return with [Jesus] on white horses.” Ellis elaborated that because of the events in Israel, people “need to be prepared with the knowledge of God, with the hope of salvation, and with trusting in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to know that if the rapture happens today, or if you die today, you know that you will meet your creator.” Two weeks later, Ellis hosted Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) on her American Family Radio program, where Jordan declared that Christians should support Israel for both geopolitical and "scriptural reasons.”
  • On his radio show, self-described “Christian nationalist” Lance Wallnau said that Christians should “be encouraged” by the war, claiming that “God is going to have a harvest of nations and people, and you're going to live to see how this circumstance … is going to work out for that very purpose.” Wallnau expanded: “Only Christians can look at these events and see the patterns from the past, see them in the present, and weave them into the fulfillment of the Feast of Israel. Because I really believe we're watching the end-time feast. It will not be interrupted. It will not be stopped. Remember what the Lord said. He said, he said he's going to shake all the nations so that the glory comes where he wants it to go.”
  • On the Christian nationalist program FlashPoint, where Wallnau serves as a contributor and Republican politicians, including Trump, have been interviewed, he again cited the war as part of the End Times and said “the good part” of the war is that it will cause Jews in Israel to “realize how dependent they are on God.” Warning about a potential alliance uniting Russia, China, and Iran, Wallnau also said, “When you put Persia, Russia, and China together … you’ve got an End Time — the formation of the early phase of the beast. When you have that kind of starting to consolidate against Israel, you've got end-time stuff.”
  • Steve Strang, founder of the right-wing Christian outlet Charisma News, cited the war as a potential sign of the End Times and coming “tribulation.” Strang claimed that as part of the end of times “tribulation,” half the world's population could die. Strang also said that even though “most of the Israelis don’t acknowledge God,” Christians should support Israel because “God blesses those who bless Israel,” and “God has a covenant plan as part of the End Times.” Notably, Charisma News is a top corporate sponsor of the ReAwaken America tour, which Media Matters previously documented as having repeatedly featured antisemitic speakers who have praised or defended Adolf Hitler.
  • Several other right-wing Christian outlets also linked the war to biblical prophecy and covered the outbreak of the war as a sign of the End Times, including Trinity Broadcasting Network and Christian Broadcasting Network.
  • “Doomsday prophet” Jonathan Cahn, who posts so-called “prophetic updates” on YouTube, used the war to promote his “guide for the End Times.”
  • Christian nationalist singer and right-wing media figure Sean Feucht posted on social media that “this a prophetic hour and Christians everywhere must stand with Israel,” asserting that “a covenant keeping God never backs down from keeping his promises (Genesis 12). A two state solution will never be the answer for peace.” Feucht has been connected to high profile Republican politicians and has traveled the country promoting “Biblical moral law” on a joint tour with Turning Point USA.
  • Right-wing host of The Absolute Truth, Emerald Robinson, posted on X that, amid the war, “the role of Christians is to convert the Jews by preaching the Gospel to them.” She declared, “That’s what Jesus Christ commanded us to do.”

For years, prominent evangelical leaders and various right-wing media figures have warned that the End Times are either here or imminent, citing various conflicts in Israel. In 2011 on Fox News, Glenn Beck invoked “Gog and Magog,” as “a huge, huge sign,” of the End Times. (According to Britannica, in the Bible, “the names Gog and Magog are applied to the evil forces that will join with Satan in the great struggle at the end of time.”) In 2023, Beck is still invoking “Gog and Magog” as evidence of an imminent return of Jesus Christ, declaring last week, “We’ve got Gog and Magog for the very first time conspiring against Israel.”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Liz Harrington

Trump Spokeswoman Says Murdoch And Fox Aim To 'Damage' Him (VIDEO)

Fox News is hosting the first Republican presidential debate on August 23, and former President Donald Trump has yet to agree to participate, defying the Fox hosts who are pushing him to. This follows Trump telling Reuters recently that Fox is a “hostile network” and that he is considering offers to counterprogram the debate. This comes as reports indicate that the Murdochs have soured on Flordia Gov. Ron DeSantis and instead are turning their attention to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin; mentions of Youngkin have spiked on Fox lately as hosts have touted Youngkin and encouraged him to jump in the race. Additionally, mentions of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are crowding out opportunities for others on the network.

Meanwhile, Newsmax personalities are urging the former president to appear on their network instead; others in right-wing media are broadly understanding of Trump's inclination to skip the debate. Gabriel Sherman has also reported that Tucker Carlson may book Trump to counterprogram the debate.

Amid this, Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington appeared on Steve Bannon's War Room and agreed with Bannon that the Murdochs and Fox were trying to take out Trump; she additionally called Fox a “fake news network” and noted that viewers are “fleeing” in favor of independent outlets.

STEVE BANNON (HOST): He just put out a tweet about, or Truth Social, about the debate. And he took a poll at the debate at the time that was happening. Now he's saying he may watch for VP candidates. I want to make sure President Trump knows that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Kari Lake will not be on that stage. I don't know if it's – I don't know if it's going to be a really productive thing to watch if it is for VPs.

But is President Trump now coming? Do you agree that Murdoch's trying to set a trap for Trump over at Fox and all he cares about is whether it's Tim Scott or Youngkin or – or you pick them. All they want to do is damage President Trump. Maam?

LIZ HARRINGTON (TRUMP SPOKESPERSON): It's obvious, but it's not working. And it didn't work in 2016. And the people have learned a heck of a lot since then. They know what's going on. And look, he poured, what, over a million dollars into Ron DeSantis pockets for his book deal. How's that working out for him?

I mean, they've already moved on basically over there at that fake news network. So, look, it's not working and people are fleeing that station. They've gone to alternative media. They go directly to the source. They go to the truth. That's why they're thousands of people breaking records in Erie, Pennsylvania. They're watching directly on our livestreams, RSBN, Real America's voice, all of these different outlets. That's what they're going to. So they think that it's still business as usual. They think that they still have the power. They don't. The people have the power. And the people are fully behind President Trump.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Jesse Watters

In Wake Of New Trump Indictment, Fox News Mounts Frantic Defense

A federal grand jury indicted Donald Trump on Tuesday on criminal charges sought by special counsel Jack Smith in his examination of the January 6 insurrection. Of the three indictments filed this year against the former president, this latest set of alleged crimes includes the ones Fox News’ propagandists were most involved in enabling — and they quickly moved to denounce the charges in the hours after they were reported.

Trump is charged with four criminal counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. The charges stemmed from his efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election.

Trump’s efforts, in turn, depended on the complicity of right-wing media outlets like Fox to participate in his lies that the election had been rigged through massive voter fraud, which served as the pretextual justification for his scheme. This is particularly true for the fake elector scheme, which was widely promoted on Fox at the time.

Fox hosts don’t want Trump to face accountability. They support his bid to return to the White House, and they surely recognize that they bear some responsibility for his corrupt plot to retain power.

As news of the indictment broke, the co-hosts of The Five immediately set to work running cover for the former president, including absurdly claiming that the charges were an attempt to criminalize speech.

Jesse Watters, the network’s newly minted Tucker Carlson replacement at 8 p.m., argued that the charges were “overkill” and akin to “political war crimes.” He added a warning to Democrats, saying, “Payback is going to be a you know what. And you guys started it.”

JESSE WATTERS (CO-HOST): You have another thing. Greg said it. This is like lawfare, they call it. Legal warfare. If this was political, this would be, like, a political war crime. This is overkill. This is political germ warfare. These are political war crimes. It's an atrocity. It's, like, not just dropping one atomic bomb, you drop 15 dozen, Jessica. Enough is enough.

This is the establishment terrified of Donald Trump's reelection because of all the money that's going to dry up and all the influence. And you know what? They're terrified of the payback. And that's what this is about.

And what happens if you trigger a reelection by Donald Trump and he gets in there? You think he's not going to go after the Bidens? He might go after Dr. Jill at this point, after you've been rummaging through Melania's underwear drawer, turning his life upside down. Payback is going to be a you know what. And you guys started it.

The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld claimed Trump -- whom he described as “probably one of the most consequential leaders of our lifetime” -- was being targeted by nefarious forces for “payback” due to his being an “outsider” who was “outside the box.”

GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): You know, I look at this stuff -- I, honestly, I just see again -- it's war -- it's lawfare. That's all there is -- we're not supposed to understand this. This is supposed to be out of our hands, out of our control.

Donald Trump is probably one of the most consequential leaders of our lifetime. He was outside the box. He didn't play well with others -- others being insiders. This is the payback. He's not one of the kids that -- he's not one of them. He's the outsider. So, this is just payback and it's going to elevate him even more.

Gutfeld also said that charging Trump for his attempt to overturn an election was effectively “criminalizing thoughts and it's criminalizing speech.” (The indictment makes clear that falsely claiming an election was stolen is not a crime; it’s the elaborate scheme to overturn the election results based on those lies that is at issue.)

Fox offered similarly unhinged demagoguery following both Trump’s first indictment, over his alleged participation in a scheme to pay off a porn star during the final days of the 2016 campaign to keep her from publicly claiming to have had an affair with him, and his second indictment, regarding his retention of government documents after leaving the White House.

Contrary to the frequent argument from the network’s hosts that prosecuting a former president is the sign of a “banana republic” in which the justice system is politicized, many other democracies have charged and convicted former leaders with crimes.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Migrants

Murdoch Media Push Fake Story Blaming Migrants For Eviction Of 'Homeless Vets'

Right-wing media figures uncritically amplified a now-debunked New York Post story to demonize immigrants and attack Democratic lawmakers.

On May 13, the New York Post published a story alleging that a group of 20 homeless military veterans had been “evicted” from two upstate New York hotels to make room for immigrants who had settled in New York City. The Post claimed the supposed migrants were part of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ plans to secure temporary housing for immigrants entering the city.

After the Post published its story, the local outlet Mid Hudson News spoke with hotel management and service providers the Post claimed were involved in the removals. On May 18, the paper reported that not only had no homeless veterans been removed, but they were never there to begin with — one hotel manager “had never heard of” the veteran's group supposedly involved, while another said it “had not put any veterans in the hotel for ‘a long time.’”

The report also discredited a receipt presented by State Assemblyman Brian Maher as supposed evidence that the group representing the homeless veterans had paid for the rooms. The Post later reported that the group’s longtime advocate had lied to the newspaper about the entire situation, and on Friday the Mid Hudson News revealed that 15 homeless men were paid to pretend they were veterans who had been staying at the hotel.

By the time the story fell apart, right-wing media had already latched onto the now-debunked narrative and immediately weaponized the shoddily reported story as part of their ongoing fear campaign over a so-called “invasion” of migrants coming across the southern border.

  • Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt said it was “astonishing that some of these hotels are getting migrants” and having to cancel other reservations, adding, “There are two couples that booked rooms for their wedding … and 20 vets also were in that hotel, they all had to move out because these migrants moved in.”
  • Later on Fox & Friends, guest co-host Will Cain claimed that a “flood of illegal immigrants” are taking up hotel rooms and other resources in New York. Cain went on to remind viewers “about homeless veterans booted from a hotel so that rooms could be given to illegal immigrants,” with Earhardt adding that “Eric Adams says they’re gonna stay there for four months, so 20 veterans had to move to another hotel.”
  • Fox anchor Harris Faulkner claimed the story showed “the disgraceful treatment of our military veterans played out in Orange County, New York,” as the nonexistent group of “at least 20 homeless veterans, some reportedly suffering from PTSD, had to give up their hotel rooms for illegals.” Fox contributor Johnny “Joey” Jones added a jab at the Biden administration, stating, “A president that would leave Americans stranded in Afghanistan probably doesn't see the onus to take care of 20 veterans in a hotel. And I hate to say it, but that's just the absolute truth of it.”
  • Outnumbered co-hosts Emily Compagno and Kayleigh McEnany expressed outrage over the New York Post story, with Compagno claiming “America's heroes are now paying the price” for the “Southern border crisis.” McEnany lamented, “I can't help but notice the contrast when you have a 24-year-old — a veteran, had been in Afghanistan — kicked out of his hotel room as an Afghan national on the terror watch list is crossing the border in San Diego.”
  • Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum complained, “You’ve got the hotels in New York that are having to take folks in. You had one in Newburgh, New York, where they had to cancel a wedding and kick out some homeless veterans to make room for incoming migrants.”
  • Conservative moving company owner John Rourke appeared on One America News and ranted, “It just drives me nuts when we have veterans sleeping on the streets of this country and committing suicide in record numbers … and here we are filling up hotel rooms with illegal aliens, giving them cell phones, giving them medical attention, giving them food and water, and then putting them on planes.”
  • On Twitter, Donald Trump Jr. used the story to attack Democrats, stating, “Honestly, this is just infuriating! Homeless vets are being booted from New York hotels to make room for migrants. Fuck Democrats & their bullshit policies! America last isn’t hyperbole it’s their goal.”
  • Students for Trump founder Ryan Fournier tweeted, “Unacceptable. Nearly two dozen struggling homeless vets have been booted from NY hotels… So illegal immigrants can have space. WHAT?!”
  • Conservative radio host Bo Snerdley tweeted, “This is about as ruthless, coldblooded, and incredibly heinous as anything Biden and Democrats have ever done. Kicking American veterans out of their lodging to make way for illegal immigrants? What country IS this?”
  • Newsmax contributor Tony Shaffer later tweeted, “This tells you everything you need to understand about the progressive left cult - they are out to expand political power and a permanent underclass that will vote for them even if it means sacrificing veterans.”
  • Fox News contributor and former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted, “What could be more backwards than putting illegal immigrants ahead of American veterans? An insult to American sovereignty.”
  • 2024 Republican presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley tweeted a link to the New York Post’s story, adding, “Liberal insanity at work.”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

RFK Jr.

Far-Right Figures Celebrate Presidential Bid By QAnon-Tied RFK Jr.

Several prominent QAnon adherents, COVID-19 misinformers, and other extremists celebrated the announcement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s upcoming presidential campaign, with some right-wing media personalities also touting the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist as a courageous candidate.

Kennedy, commonly known as RFK Jr., filed paperwork on April 4 to run for president on the Democratic ticket. While he has yet to formally announce his campaign platform, it is reported that former Trump adviser Steve Bannon had pushed Kennedy to run for president in 2024 as a “chaos agent.”

RFK Jr.’s History of Extremism 

Through a number of nonprofit advocacy groups, chiefly Children's Health Defense, and an active social media presence, Kennedy has spent decades pushing anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and misinformation. Through Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy has frequently attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, and the pharmaceutical industry with unfounded claims about so-called vaccine injury, global surveillance through microchips, and censorship of vaccine misinformation.

Kennedy has frequently evoked the Nazis in criticizing the government’s response to COVID-19, and he has spoken alongside white supremacists to boot. At an anti-vaccine rally last January, Kennedy stated, “Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps into Switzerland. You could hide in an attic, like Anne Frank did,” before going on to claim that Gates and the government would use satellites and 5G cell phone technology for surveillance over “every square inch of the planet, 24 hours a day.”

With Kennedy as its spokesperson, Children’s Health Defense was a prolific producer of anti-vaccine content on social media, leading to both the organization and Kennedy being banned from Instagram in 2022.

Kennedy has also engaged with QAnon figures and events. In January, the Children’s Health Defense website published an article from QAnon influencer Kanekoa. Kennedy was also a featured speaker for an event hosted by Scott McKay, who has promoted a number of antisemitic and QAnon-related conspiracy theories, and at a rally organized by the German QAnon group Querdenken 711. Kennedy has also peddled claims that the government plans to use digital currency to control the population.

Despite earning him rebukes from public health experts and his own family, Kennedy’s views have gotten a warm response from Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham and endorsements from other prominent conservative pundits, including Rush Limbaugh and Dennis Prager. Now, news of Kennedy’s prospective campaign is receiving a similarly warm welcome.

Right-wing and Fringe Figures Celebrate RFK Jr.’s 2024 campaign

  • On Gettr, Steve Bannoncheered Kennedy’s history of anti-vaccine activism, posting, “RFKjr is the leader in the country of the movement to hold Big Pharma accountable… The Leader.”
  • Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jonescalled Kennedy’s campaign “a good thing,” adding, “He's got a lot of guts, and I really support him [for] the Democratic nomination.”
  • Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirkdeclared on his podcast, “I would vote for Robert F Kennedy Jr. for president over Mitt Romney any day.”
  • Blaze Media host Steve Deaceposted an image on Twitter of himself with Kennedy, captioning it: “As long as he doesn’t go trans, a man with high character and courage like RFK Jr will be tempting.”
  • Right-wing dirty trickster Roger Stonecelebrated Kennedy as “a great American. He's a man of enormous courage.” He went on to speculate that his campaign “will help in the end soften Joe Biden up for his defeat by Donald Trump in the general election.”
  • On the conspiracy theory website Gateway Pundit, founder Jim Hoftcelebrated Kennedy’s potential as a candidate, claiming he “distinguishes himself from many modern Democrats in that he still believes in free speech, the Bill of Rights, the US Constitution, and standing up against government corruption.”
  • QAnon influencer Jordan Saltherposted to Truth Social, “Can't wait to watch the Democrat primary debates. Imagine RFK Jr. redpilling the hell out of libs on the vaccine.”
  • Fox News host Jesse Watterscelebrated Kennedy’s campaign announcement, stating, “So RFK Jr. has a vision. I mean, at least he has one. Biden has none.”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Tucker Carlson lies

Fox News' Tucker Carlson Thinks Democracy Needs To End


TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): The larger a bureaucracy becomes, the more impersonal it gets. Past a certain size, organizations of any kind lose their regard for people. As they get bigger, they get blunter, more soulless and cruel. The people in charge no longer care what you think. They don't have to worry about how their policies will affect you or your family. And that's the inevitable product of population growth. If you had five children, you would bathe them all in love and attention. If you had 5,000 children, you wouldn't know their names.

So, in case you're wondering why our leaders no longer seem especially interested in your health or happiness or prosperity, that's the reason. They don't have to be interested. Our population is too big. Why should your opinion matter? You're one of many. Previous generations of Americans didn't live in a country like this and they would be stunned by the attitudes that are so common now -- attitudes we take for granted. "Arresting people for walking through the US Capitol building? How is that a crime?" nineteenth century Americans would wonder.

For most of our history, Americans believed they owned the Capitol. They thought it was theirs because they assumed this was their country, political leaders told them that it was. After the 1904 presidential election, Teddy Roosevelt greeted voters in person on the lawn of the White House. It was his home, he lived there, but it belonged to them. Attitudes like that are long gone. They're the victim of population growth. The Athenians invented democratic government, but at its peak, Athens only had about 8,000 voters. So, past a certain scale, democracy can't function very well. The concept of the citizen becomes too abstract.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

400 Toxic Moments That Defined Fox News Over 25 Years

400 Toxic Moments That Defined Fox News Over 25 Years

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters

Fox News is turning 25. As the organization that watches more Fox News than anyone, we wanted to share some moments that defined the network.

  • 1996

  • A Fox News anchor endorsed Bob Dole for president in the Republican National Committee's official magazine.
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Alex Jones, left, and Tucker Carlson

Alex Jones Claims Government Is Listening To His Chats With Tucker Carlson

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

ALEX JONES (INFOWARS HOST): Tucker Carlson has basically the highest ethics I've seen in journalism. He's incredibly smart, he's grown up, he's woken up to things being very sinister and he's come a long way, and he's surpassed really the work I've done. And Tucker understands what's happening and Tucker has the text messages from scores of people that are not in communication with each other, given to him in a file going back years, and it's because Tucker is smarter than them and he's laid the trap, and he knows about the FBI informants and the, quote, "unindicted co-conspirators" just like they did with Julian Assange setting him up.

...

JONES: We know that they spy on my text messages, my email, everything, and it's all given to Democrats, law firms, universities, think tanks. I mean, this is a major criminal operation, and that's exactly what Carlson talked about. That's exactly what Carlson talked about is how they are passing his information around, trying to find something he said unethical or racist, and of course, they can't. And that means they're reading my text messages to Tucker Carlson and our conversations and they're listening to conversations. And I'm gonna stop right there. And we already know that.
Zynep Tufekci

WATCH Turkish Coup Survivor Zeynep Tufekci Name What Trump Is Trying To Do

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters

ZEYNEP TUFEKCI (GUEST): And more importantly, and I think this is the part where the smoke kind of needs to clear, is that the Republican leadership has not come out and said, "You have to stop this right now."

And that's really important, because this is not a child whose tantrum we're watching. This the man who is the President of the United States, with whom we trust with the nuclear codes, who has executive power, and he is blatantly trying to -- yes, very clumsily, very buffoonish, it's clownish, it's not going to work, the lawsuits are incoherent -- but it's still an attempt to overturn a legitimate election --

CHRIS HAYES (HOST): Yeah.

TUFEKCI: Not through legal means but through extra legal means. And I -- you know, I'm an academic. I can argue forever is this an oligarch, which is technically a little more correct.

There's words like constitutional coup, there's democratic backsliding, which this country seen over the past few decades.

So, I can get even more and more precise and detailed about the technical term. But if you just kind of step back and look at it --

HAYES: Right.

TUFEKCI: It doesn't really matter what the exact term is unless we're contesting our grades here. You know, if I'm marking a paper, yes. But the reason people say coup is that it captures the spirit of what's being attempted.

HAYES: That's right.

TUFEKCI: And the fact that it's ridiculous does not make it unserious or not dangerous especially because the Republican lack of concern, fury, anything about it when there's already so much minority rule entrenched in this country is something really worrisome.

Steve Bannon

Watch: Bannon Calls For Beheading Of Fauci And FBI Director

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters

STEVE BANNON (HOST): Second term kicks off with firing Wray, firing Fauci.

Now I actually want to go a step farther but I realize the president is a kind-hearted man and a good man. I'd actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England, I'd put the heads on pikes, right, I'd put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you're gone -- time to stop playing games. blow it all up, put Ric Grenell today as the interim head of the FBI, that'll light them up, right.

JACK MAXEY (CO-HOST): You know what Steve, just yesterday there was the anniversary of the hanging of two Tories in Philadelphia, these were Quaker businessmen who had cohabitated if you will with the British while they were occupying Philadelphia. These people were hung. This is what we used to do to traitors.

BANNON: That's how you won the revolution. No one wants to talk about it. The revolution wasn't some sort of garden party, right? It was a civil war. It was a civil war.

Update: The transcript has been updated for clarity