Brian Stelter Profile picture
Jun 8, 2021 20 tweets 10 min read Read on X
Today is the launch day for HOAX in paperback. It's the final edition of a book I have been writing for years. You can order a copy at BuyHoax.com. But this is more than a promotional thread, I promise! This is the "story behind the story," as I like to say on TV Image
I started blogging about cable news in 2004. Which means I've been studying Fox News for a long, long time. When Trump became the "Fox president," I felt compelled to write it all down. We were going to call the book WINGMEN, until the pandemic hit, and @jcheiffetz coined HOAX.
The Trump age was really the "hoax" age. This was clear when the hardcover edition came out last August. But the story wasn't over yet. I asked to add a few more chapters. Then, after the election, a few more. After the riot, a new prologue. Eventually I added 20,000+ new words.
There was ONE sentence that I cut from the new edition, because it was no longer true. I'll show you. Before the election, I wrote, Trump "had alternative platforms, like One America News, that were eager to please him, but OANN was tiny & posed no immediate threat to Fox." Oops.
Election Week 2020 was like a volcanic eruption in the right-wing TV world. It altered the landscape in an instant. For the first time since launch day in 1996, Fox faced true competition from the right. Newsmax & OAN gained fans. All of that is part of the new narrative of HOAX.
There's a scene on page 367 when I broke the news to Newsmax boss Chris Ruddy that his channel had just out-rated Fox for the first time. Surprise – I had received the overnight ratings in my inbox before he did. But Fox clawed its way back, and that's part of the story too...
To win back the Trump base, Fox ran even further to the right. And here's the thing: It worked. It was toxic for the USA, but it was profitable for Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch. "We turned so far right we went crazy," in the words of one Fox commentator. cnn.com/2021/06/08/med…
It all comes back to the word HOAX. Trump and Fox tell the same story: That no one else, that nothing else can be trusted. Have you ever looked back at the way Trump was talking in October of last year? "Hoax," "ballot hoax," "rigged election." Here's page 10 of the new edition: Image
That's why HOAXthebook.com now opens with a scene from January 6. Showcasing "how both the GOP and its media organs had been radicalized by the Trump years." I think it might be the first book to really grapple with the post-riot landscape. amazon.com/Hoax-Donald-Tr…
Other new chapters of HOAX examine Fox's coverage of George Floyd, its airing of "riot porn," its handling of the 2020 campaign, and the minimizing of the pandemic. "We denied the pandemic," a dissident Fox commentator told me, "and now we're denying the election outcome."
For a taste of the new reporting, here's my #longread for CNN about how Fox management reacted to Trump's loss. Practically every change was about having less news on the air and more opinions-about-the-news. cnn.com/2021/06/08/med…
It was like serving dessert without dinner, when the dessert consisted of screaming about how awful the dinner was, and warning that the meal might be a socialist plot, and hey, while we're at it, why are chefs so corrupt?
In a new round of reporting for today's new release, Fox sources conveyed an utter lack of leadership. Why did the Big Lie spread for so long on Fox's airwaves? Because, in the words of an old Murdoch family friend, "Rupert has always been afraid to dictate to them." Page 369: Image
I really didn't intend to crack the whole hardcover book open and revise and add 12 all-new chapters. But the story kept changing. I'm indebted to @OneSignalPub, especially @jcheiffetz, for letting me work on this right up until the printing presses started to whirrrrr.
And I appreciate all of you putting up with my tweets about it 😊 If you'd like to order a paperback copy, check out Bookshop, Amazon, B&N, or your local shop. If you previously ordered the e-book, it will automatically update with the new chapters 👍 simonandschuster.com/books/Hoax/Bri…
The HOAX audiobook is all up to date, too, thanks to @SimonAudio. Here's where to order a copy 👂

Audible: adbl.co/2WB4FMQ
Apple Books: apple.co/31tCW3Q
Google Play: bit.ly/30tJ3Dp Image
One of the essential arguments in HOAX is that "Fox News enabled Donald Trump in ways that changed the country forever." For a sampling, @lithub has published chapter two from the book, titled "Fox News Brain:" bit.ly/34ZEumZ Image
Another essential argument in HOAX is that an insurrection couldn't have happened without 20+ years of Fox. We talked about that on @NewDay
There's lots more to share, but I have to save some for book buyers! Here's how to order the paperback:

Amazon amazon.com/Hoax-Donald-Tr…

B&N barnesandnoble.com/w/hoax-brian-s…

Bookshop bookshop.org/books/hoax-don…
And if HOAX isn't up your alley, check out these 3 new releases, all hitting stores today 👍

"The Plague Year" by @lawrence_wright bookshop.org/books/the-plag…

"Life on the Line" by @emmabgo amazon.com/Life-Line-Youn…

"Make A TikTok Every Day" by @davejorgenson penguinrandomhouse.com/books/673001/m…

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More from @brianstelter

Jun 14
Several dozen sidelined Voice of America staffers have suddenly been called back to work as the Israel-Iran conflict escalates – a dramatic turn of events for the US government-funded broadcasting system that was shut down by the Trump administration in March 🧵
>> @W7VOA says VOA specifically brought back Farsi language speakers who had been on paid administrative leave. The move suggests that the US government wants to bolster its programming into Iran. Here's my full story cnn.com/2025/06/13/med…
BEFORE the cutbacks were instituted in March, VOA said that it produced 4+ hours of "Persian-language programming to Iran" a day, meant to confront the "disinformation" of the "Iranian regime" and "speak directly to the Iranian people and the global Persian-speaking diaspora."
Read 6 tweets
Jun 8
The timeline of Terry Moran's suspension deserves some unpacking.

This morning Trump White House aides publicly pushed ABC to discipline Moran. Lots of people have well-reasoned objections to that. But let's also note: ABC didn't "need" to be pressured >>>
As soon as ABC News execs woke up, it was obvious that they'd have to say something. Moran's post lit up group chats and Slack channels because it was so shocking to see from a network correspondent (and someone who had just interviewed Trump a matter of weeks ago!)
At 8:20am @PressSec said "we have reached out to @ABC to inquire about how they plan to hold Terry accountable." It's unclear who at ABC was contacted. But conversations were already underway at ABC by then.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 8
"If you have the courage to speak, we are saved. If you fall silent, the country is doomed."

Scott Pelley had some strong words to share on tonight's CNN special after the telecast of "Good Night, and Good Luck" >>>
"People are silencing themselves for fear that the government will retaliate against them, and that's not the America that we all love," Pelley told Anderson Cooper in an exclusive sit-down cnn.com/2025/06/07/med…
When Cooper asked Pelley what Murrow would think of the state of play at CBS, Pelley said "he would probably be waiting to see how this lawsuit from the president works out and how the Paramount Corporation deals."

Murrow, he said, "would be for fighting," not settling.
Read 6 tweets
May 29
Hollywood producers are thinking twice about liberal-sounding storylines. Media companies are downplaying diversity initiatives. "The Apprentice" struggled to gain US distribution last year. That's what makes the timing of "The Handmaid's Tale" finale all the more remarkable...
The acclaimed Hulu drama, which streamed its final episode yesterday, was unavoidably and unapologetically political.

"Handmaid's" launched a few months into Trump's first term and now it has concluded a few months into Trump's second term...
Trump's election certainly changed how the show was received. And the producers leaned in. They didn't hesitate when asked about real-world comparisons to the radicalism portrayed on screen. cnn.com/2025/05/28/med…
Read 7 tweets
May 19
In 2023, Dan Bongino, star podcaster, demanded to know: "What the hell are they hiding with Jeffrey Epstein?"

In 2025, Dan Bongino, FBI deputy director, disappointed the 2023 version of himself. "I have reviewed the case. Jeffrey Epstein killed himself," he wrote yesterday.
Bongino was flooded with replies here on X from people who don't believe him. And that backlash is part of a broader phenomenon. Listeners accustomed to conspiracy theories and "just asking questions" innuendo aren't accepting the answers they're getting. cnn.com/2025/05/19/med…
Conspiracy thinking has been a defining trait of the MAGA movement for as long as Trump has been a politician. Right-wing media personalities like Bongino, acting as Trump’s top attack dogs, routinely floated unproven theories as a way to malign Trump's political opponents.
Read 9 tweets
May 12
Since the beginning of this year, The Atlantic has hired twelve journalists away from The Washington Post. The New York Times has poached at least ten Posties. CNN has picked up half a dozen. The exodus is deeply distressing to Post staffers.🧵
The Post exodus is one of those things that rival editors whisper about, sounding mystified as they ask, "How is Jeff Bezos letting this happen?" @ClareMalone has some answers in a comprehensive new story about Bezos and the Post newyorker.com/magazine/2025/…
Malone quotes a "former top editor" who says "this is all a story about Jeff and how he changed over the course of his ownership and really became a different person, with huge implications for the institution."
Read 9 tweets

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