Fox cast doubt on the election results nearly 800 times in the two weeks after it called the race for Biden. Both the "news" and "opinion" sides were deeply involved in convincing their audience the election had been stolen.
It had a huge impact -- 45% of the majority of Republicans who falsely believe there was widespread election fraud cite Fox’s reporting for leading them to that conclusion, according to a recent poll.
Fox's credulous coverage of election fraud conspiracy theories helped set the stage for the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. That's what Fox advertisers are funding.
As @Sulliview wrote, “The only answer is to speak the language that the bigwigs at Fox will understand: Ratings. Corporations that advertise on Fox News should walk away, and citizens who care about the truth should demand that they do so.”
You can imagine a world where Fox hosts used their unique credibility with their right-wing audience to warn them away from dangerous extremism, but that's not where this is going.
Here's me last August predicting that Fox hosts would inevitably end up claiming that the danger of QAnon was blown out of proportion by Democrats and the media and that it was all an attack on run-of-the-mill Trump supporters. mediamatters.org/qanon-conspira…
You spend years working your way up at CBS and CNN, you jump to Fox News, spend a decade there, you become chief White House correspondent, then finally you get your own afternoon show, which you use to do... this.
.@pbump is correct that the rhetorical move Republicans and right-wing media are using is reminiscent of their "deplorables" backlash. Another case: their freak-out over the 2009 DHS report on right-wing extremism mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/c…
@pbump The report in question was about violent extremism, but right-wing media claimed it was actually an attack on their viewers, a way to silence them.
Facing new competition and sagging ratings, the network is heading deeper into the fever swamps. It will take the bulk of the right-wing media and GOP with it. mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-n…
Since the election, Fox has cut its "news" hours for more right-wing propaganda, infused the remaining "news" shows with "opinion" content; and laid off employees who had at least a nominal commitment to reality.
Fox's 2020 coverage helped stymie the response to a pandemic that has killed more than 400,000 Americans to date and triggered an insurrection in which pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol.