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