Last week the folks at Fox News seemed like the frustrated parents of a juvenile delinquent son who was caught setting his high school principal’s car on fire.
The network had no problem spinning measles outbreaks, the Epstein files coverup, the murder of Iranian school children, the mass pardon of cop beaters, the president’s insider trading, self-dealing, foreign bribes, vanity projects, or his deference to Bibi Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin.
Fox News didn’t seem to care that he kept threatening the very foundations of our democracy with unconstitutional executive orders while openly defying various court rulings.
The network didn’t mind when high-ranking members of the Trump administration openly lied about details regarding the death of two American citizens at the hands of federal law enforcement agents.
The spikes in inflation, gasoline prices and residential electricity rates weren’t even speed bumps to the folks at Fox News who kept insisting the country was experiencing a new golden age of prosperity.
As the Ukraine War raged on without an end in sight no one on Fox News seemed to remember Trump’s promise to end it before he was sworn in for his second term.
Even his deeply unpopular war of choice in the Middle East didn’t cause much concern.
Last Thursday their glorious leader took a step too far when he used up about a half an hour of primetime television to spin the same election lies that cost the network $787.5 million. Fox News still faces a $2 billion defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic for the lies the network knowingly promoted about the 2020 election.
Trump committed the ultimate sin. He was messing with the money.
Since Trump’s primetime address I’ve noticed a subtle shift on Fox News away from the president. The network is still trying to terrify its audience about the looming threat of a communist takeover of radical Democrats.
Fox News is still demonizing transgender folks and undocumented immigrants. It continues to beat the drum about the evils of diversity, equity and inclusion in American institutions.
The network mocks what it calls ‘woke’ celebrities while it promotes racist tropes about urban crime and the decay of western civilization. The cultural battles are never-ending while some of the shine of their populist hero is chipping off like the American Flag Blue coating on the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.
Last week I noticed a slight transition away from the usual praise for the president. It’s beginning to sink in that his administration could be a catastrophe for the conservative movement and the Fox News media empire.
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
