While it has always been strongly suspected that Fox News swung to the political right in its coverage in a rather pronounced way, there used to at least be a veneer of cable news objectivity and civility.
"We report, you decide," was a Fox News slogan the cable channel even had trademarked in 1997.
"Fair and balanced," read another network catch phrase from the same era.
Perhaps lured into desperation amid a profoundly disrupted media landscape, in which not even renegade former voices like Tucker Carlson can be any longer be called to heel, Fox News seems to be lashing out, providing its "red meat and boiling tar" to its core far-right viewership in ways that might have seemed inappropriate in the cable news format even just a few month ago.
Take the chyron the network ran Tuesday night. During a "news alert" running late during the East Coast 8 p.m. hour on Fox News Tonight, Fox split the screen between a speech delivered by President Biden at the White House, and one being given by former President Donald Trump, as the latter addressed his indictment hours earlier in Florida for allegedly stealing highly classified documents.
Trump's speech supplied the audio, while a Fox News chyron read, "Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested."
This chyron didn't run in the context of an opinion show.
If the chyron is taken at face value, it would seem to express a profoundly cynical belief that the rule of law has been completely corrupted, and that an innocent former President is being persecuted.
Certainly, amid a dangerously polarized moment in American society, a minority of citizens believe just that, and that the charges against Trump are politically motivated. However, a plurality of Americans feel differently. They're in favor of the U.S. Justice Department's decision to prosecute the former President, who allegedly stored sensitive secrets about the nation's defense in his bathroom.
Was the chyron the result of a rogue newsroom voice or operator error? Next TV reached out to Fox News press reps Tuesday evening. Updated: We received this statement on Wednesday morning: “The chyron was taken down immediately and was addressed.”
No other insight was provided.
If the chyron were to actually reflect the belief and values of Fox's newsroom, of course, it wouldn't any longer be a matter of the news channel necessarily reporting anything, but rather "deciding" on some profoundly extreme beliefs on behalf of its audience.
A real Fox News chyron at the end of its 8 p.m. hour. pic.twitter.com/7fUT1Nj62DJune 14, 2023
