It becomes more apparent every day that Fox News needs to drop the “news” part. Some might consider it entertainment. Others call it propaganda. Whatever it is, it’s definitely not news. Monday night the channel made it clear news takes a back seat to its latest faux controversy. The channel spent just a few minutes on the Colorado mass shooting, while legitimate news organizations, online and on the air, spent hours with reporters in Boulder. On Sean Hannity’s prime time show the horrific murders were lucky to get 88 seconds of coverage (see above). CNN’s Oliver Darcy writes:
While CNN and MSNBC aired the press conferences from Boulder police, which any TV news professional with half-decent editorial judgement would do, Fox opted to stick with regular programming from its propagandists. During the first press conference, the network aired Sean Hannity showing footage of Biden stumbling on the stairs of Air Force One last week. And as Boulder police announced that 10 people had lost their lives, Laura Ingraham chatted with Dr. Scott Atlas about “THE SOCIAL DISTANCING FARCE.”
we’re more than 75 percent through Ingraham’s show and still no mention of 10 dead in a mass shooting in Colorado. Instead: pic.twitter.com/qLm8TkIEgw
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 23, 2021
There's a slew of breaking news today, including a mass shooting just a few hours ago, and the largest "news" channel on television is doing this pic.twitter.com/NRzSZGoj7U
— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) March 23, 2021
Darcy goes on to say:
This is not the behavior of a news organization. It’s the behavior of a right-wing talk channel. And it’s really time for other media outlets to recognize this and stop pretending the channel’s primary aim is to deliver the news. Failure to call the network for what it is not only does a disservice to readers, it is simply inaccurate.
Fox News barely showed Capitol Officer Brian Sicknick’s memorial.
Tonight, they are not discussing the horrific mass shooting in Boulder.
Fox News is anti-American propaganda created to sow hatred and division.
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) March 23, 2021
One person on Twitter had an interesting theory that Fox didn’t want to talk about the shooting.
The reason why Fox News and the GQP don’t want to talk about Boulder and don’t want gun reform is because they want to be able to kill their political opponents with guns. Prove me wrong.
— Brett Meiselas (@BMeiselas) March 23, 2021