Throw in Fox’s coverage of “critical race theory” in other Virginia schools (mainly Fairfax) and its 98 segments and nearly 5 1/2 hours of coverage (!).
Why so much Loudoun coverage? Part of it is that Virginia has a gubernatorial race this fall, the GOP candidate is trying to make “critical race theory” a major issue, and Fox is eager to help. But there’s another element...
Loudoun is a bedroom community for GOP activists, analysts, and operatives, who are using their political skills and communications experience as leaders of the commonwealth’s anti-”critical race theory” parents groups to focus attention on the issue.
These people are camera-ready and Fox often puts them on without noting their day jobs. This, for example, is Ian Prior, a Republican political operative Fox has repeatedly ID'd as simply a Loudoun parent.
Here's what the coverage looks like by month. Note the huge spike in June, when Fox's "critical race theory" hysteria was at its peak.
Fox & Friends ran the most coverage of Loudoun schools (32 segments across all editions), but "straight news" shows also gave them a lot of attention.
The right is using Loudoun to run a very particular playbook. Here's how it works:
What a pitiful human being. He could encourage his viewers to get vaccinated and reduce their risk of serious illness or death, but he does this instead. time.com/6080432/tucker…
Republican leaders spent decades telling their supporters to ignore the mainstream press and patronize the avowed ideological media they created in its place. They succeeded. That right-wing media is opposed to or apathetic about the vaccine, even if it kills their audience.
Conservative vaccine hesitance is evidence of the victory of the GOP media project. Their supporters are in a bubble of right-wing social media, radio, digital, and TV, none of whom carry a message that getting vaccinated is a good idea.
These are all from the last few days. That's the message conservatives get from the TV hosts they've been told they should trust. Mission accomplished.
Fox hosts are relentlessly attacking the vaccination campaign against the coronavirus. Their nightly effort to delegitimize the vaccines is a big problem. mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-…
The vaccines are miraculously safe and effective against the virus and its variants. But if you watch Fox, you hear a stream of stories about how they may not work and may kill you if you take them, along with aggrieved rants about the Biden administration effort.
It didn't have to be this way. It’s easy to imagine a world in which Fox hosts relentlessly talked up how Donald Trump had made the vaccines possible and how if viewers got vaccinated, the dreaded masks and lockdowns would be gone forever.