Don’t ever expect Fox News to obsess about the white domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol this past Jan. 6. The network certainly doesn’t want to risk losing even more of its viewers to rivals that’ve found a way to be even more right-wing. So, the network has instead aired hundreds of segments over a 12-week period seeking to falsely portray undocumented immigrants as the actual dangers, a top media watchdog said.
Media Matters For America said that of the more than 1,300 immigration-related segments Fox News aired from March 22 through June 11, nearly half, 605, falsely framed immigrants as dangerous. That included giving a platform to former White House aide and noted white supremacist Stephen Miller, who on Sean Hannity’s show called asylum-seekers at the border “the single greatest epidemiological disaster in this country.” Nearly 350,000 people died from COVID-19 last year; it wasn’t asylum-seekers who downplayed and exacerbated this pandemic, Stephen.
“Statements promoting the myth of immigrant criminality were by far the most prevalent tactic Fox used to suggest that migrants were dangerous; Fox personalities and guests brought up stories about immigrants, migrants, or cartels committing crimes or dealing illicit substances in 429 total segments,” Media Matters continued.
Nearly 150 segments sought to portray immigrants as moochers. It’s safe to say those segments ignored the fact that undocumented communities pay billions in taxes every single year. They pay more than the previous president! Meanwhile, dozens of other segments “peddled racist conspiracy theories about migrant culture as a threat to American culture, including pushing the white nationalist ‘great replacement’ theory.” Recent history has horrifically, terrifyingly, tragically shown us the deadly consequences of this extremist thinking.
Following one Tucker Carlson segment this past April, Daily Kos’ Dave Neiwert wrote the white supremacist ‘replacement’ theory has inspired “multiple acts of mass murder and terrorism,” including the 2019 massacre at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. The white supremacist terrorist had driven hours with an intent to kill Mexicans, complaining of an alleged “invasion” of Texas. The rhetoric on Fox News has, again horrifically, been echoing that.
In just one April segment, former unlawfully appointed official and anti-immigrant loudmouth Ken Cuccinelli claimed to Neil Cavuto that “we have a flood at the border, an invasion.” Cavuto himself in a question claimed an “out-of-control situation at the border.” Media Matter said that “[p]ersonalities and guests leveraged this not-so-subtle language in at least 86 segments over this period.” Other Fox News personalities who probably also consider themselves Very Serious types followed suit, with the report finding “[s]egments that fearmongered about migrants were nearly evenly divided between the network’s so-called ‘news’ (338) and ‘opinion’ (355) shows.”
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy reportedly threatened to blackball anyone in his own caucus if they even think of being a part of the new select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, Daily Kos’ Joan McCarter wrote this week. Nope, not trying to hide or avoid anything at all. Meanwhile, McCarthy’s just itching for the speaker’s gavel, God help us all. That should scare the shit out of all us, alongside continued extremist threats. It’s just that those deadly threats aren’t coming from vulnerable asylum-seekers and their families.
Published with permission of Daily Kos
