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2 Nov, 7 tweets, 3 min read
Thread: Right now Fox News viewers are being misled about Trump's chances of winning the election in the following ways...

cnn.com/2020/11/02/med…
Fox is so chock full of pro-Trump commentary and rally coverage that viewers come away with the impression that this race is a whole heck of a lot closer to 50/50 than it actually is. The prime time narrative: "BIG ENTHUSIASM FOR TRUMP." "MASSIVE." "TRUMP CLOSING THE GAP..."
The network's talk shows are constantly suggesting that a minority of people are actually the "silent majority." Example: Voters-in-diners segments. Sunday's AM show featured Trump voter after Trump voter at a diner in Asbury Park, NJ. Not at all representative of a blue state.
The shows are also emphasizing state polls that are outliers. And as you already know, Fox's highest-rated shows make Biden seem practically un-electable – they portray him as "sleepy" and crooked and corrupt. They paint Kamala Harris as a radical.
And what about Trump's daily distortions? I was about to write that Fox handles Trump's lies with kid gloves, but that's insulting to gloves. The lies are barely even touched at all. (It's so revealing that Fox never hired a fact-checker, the way CNN poached @ddale8.)
In my book HOAX, I point out that Fox's liberal pundits have increasingly been placed in the position of fact-checking Trump AND their fellow commentators – because Fox's anchors and reporters fail to do it. Today is a good day to BuyHoax.com
This stuff matters because Trump's base = the Fox base. In the event of a Biden win, some Fox viewers will feel blindsided. They might believe it's a fraud, a crime, a hoax – in part because they've been misled about Trump's popularity and honesty. #end

cnn.com/videos/busines…

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More from @brianstelter

Brian Stelter Profile picture
2 Nov
The main reason 2020's election night is going to be different "is because it takes longer to count those mail-in ballots." Here's a thread with what CNN DC bureau chief @SamFeistCNN told me...
Could the networks project a winner on Tuesday night? If "we know the results and there is a clear winner in FL and NC and AZ – these are all states that are likely to finish their count on Election Night – we could very well know a winner." But if it comes down to PA, then no.
Feist noted that we'll know the results of mail-in and early votes in FL and NC early on Election Night. But in other key states -- like PA and WI -- "it's going to take them a while." There could be red shifts in some states, blue shifts in others. Watch: cnn.it/3mLrSGP Image
Read 5 tweets
Brian Stelter Profile picture
30 Oct
No matter what happens in the 2020 election, this chapter of American history could well be called the "fake news age." So I went back to the beginning... to the "fake" origins... cnn.com/2020/10/30/med…
All the anti-media attacks and Covid denialism, all the pro-Trump propaganda and all the assertions that you shouldn't believe your own eyes and ears — I argue that it's all rooted in Trump's insistence that news is "fake." He made the claim for the first time on Jan. 11, 2017...
On that day, @CraigSilverman couldn't believe HIS ears. He had been studying and exposing truly "fake" news, made-up stories, for years. Suddenly Trump has hijacked the term. The two of us took a trip down memory lane for this week's RS podcast cnn.com/audio/podcasts…
Read 7 tweets
Brian Stelter Profile picture
26 Oct
POTUS is tired of the coronavirus and is blasting the news media for taking the virus so seriously. (I can't believe I just wrote that sentence.) His base agrees with him, but he's out of touch with the rest of America. Here's the data that proves it...
Pew's polling shows that 4 in 5 Americans are following news about the virus closely. ABC's polling shows that nearly 4 in 5 are worried about getting infected. abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump…
The virus IS the biggest story of 2020. Obviously no one wants it to be. But it's a once-in-a-century pandemic – it's affected everyone on the planet – so this is less about newsrooms setting the agenda and more about the virus and the public health community setting the agenda.
Read 5 tweets
Brian Stelter Profile picture
18 Oct
In every campaign cycle, right around this time of year, Republican-aligned media rolls out a closing argument against the Democrats. In 2014: Ebola. 2016: "Her emails." 2018: The "caravan." This year, it's an echo of 2016 – it's about HIS emails...
Fox News is a key player in this rollout every two years. In my essay on today's @ReliableSources, I quoted from this recent @emilyvdw piece, "How Fox News molds reality into a serialized TV drama"

vox.com/culture/215031…
Pro-Trump media outlets careen from conspiracy to conspiracy. Newest example: On the same morning that the @washingtonpost front page said "'Unmasking' probe concludes without charges," the @NYPost front page promised "BIDEN SECRET EMAILS." On to the next!
Read 9 tweets
Brian Stelter Profile picture
14 Oct
Alright, who's in the mood for a #thread about the DUELING TOWN HALLS problem?
First things first: TV networks are always competing to host town halls. It's not primarily about "ratings." Trump's town hall on ABC only had 3.8 million viewers! News divisions are proud of these events, proud to connect voters with the candidates, etc. It's in the TV news DNA.
NBC produced a town hall with Biden last week. Trump was offered the same opportunity. Even though he attacks NBC so much that some journos have been placed in danger... even though he calls it "Concast..." even though he lies incessantly... tenets of journalistic fairness apply.
Read 13 tweets
Brian Stelter Profile picture
10 Oct
On almost every stop of my book tour for HoaxTheBook.com, I've been asked about the future of Fox News. And I've talked about the battle for control of Fox that will erupt in the event of Rupert Murdoch's death. Time for a #thread...
Rupert's four adult children all hold power through their shares in the Murdoch Family Trust. In HOAX, I outlined a theory: Could James "partner with his sisters to wrest control of Fox Corp" from brother Lachlan, who currently runs the company?
On Page 313 I wrote, "sources said that Elisabeth would surely side with James, and Prudence likely would as well—three votes against one. Was this a serious possibility, or just a liberal fantasy? 'Time will tell,' a source said." It all hinged on the passing of the patriarch.
Read 7 tweets

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