Tucker Carlson’s lawyer claims that nobody actually believes anything he says. Judge Mary Vyskocil wrote According to Judge Vyskocil, “any reasonable viewer arrives with an appropriate amount of skepticism about the statements he makes.," which include everything from exaggeration to "non-literal" commentary.
However, when Carlson was the top-rated anchor on Fox, however, he'd say, “[r]emember the facts of the story; these are undisputed." How is that not an actionable statement? Perhaps a network who promoted Carlson so heavily should make it more clear that he's "exaggerating" rather than allowing him to assert "undisputed facts."
Fox writer David Rutz promotes the narrative that fact checking is biased against conservatives, going one step further to endorse Media Research center Tim Graham's claim, "I have been through a lot of fact checks, and I cannot recall a check favoring the right half of politics that's been reversed. This pattern of fact checkers having to walk back their supposedly all-knowing rulings underlines how eager they are to solidify Democrat narratives and undermine conservative journalism." According to the Pew Research Center, "Republicans far more likely than Democrats to say fact-checkers tend to favor one side."
TechPolicy.Press debunks this claim by reporting Paul M. Barrett's (a senior NYU research scholar) research on fact checking. “It’s largely because the conservative misinformation is the stuff that is being spread more,” said Jay Van Bavel, a NYU psychologist. “When one party, at least in the United States, is spreading most of the misinformation, it’s going to look like fact-checks are biased because they’re getting called out way more.” Additionally, a peer-reviewed study by Oxford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale, and Cornell scholars "supported this analysis."
Should you trust a billionaire who claims to be a "pro gamer" but just pays other people to boost his account to run the country? I certainly wouldn't. Elon Musk is facing accusations of pretending to be skilled at video games after a disastrous livestream of Path of Exile 2 raised suspicions about his gaming abilities. While Musk has previously boasted about being a top-ranked Diablo IV player, gamers pointed out his lack of knowledge of basic gameplay mechanics and the fact that his characters had unusually high-level gear, suggesting he hired others to boost his profile.
This isn’t the first time Musk has been mocked for his gaming habits; his Elden Ring build, which featured nonsensical choices like two shields, also led to widespread ridicule. Despite these controversies, Fox News has remained silent on the issue.
Fox writer Elizabeth Elkind wrote that "GOP lawmakers have consistently pointed out that Medicaid and other federal aid programs are not mentioned in the text of their framework for that legislation." This statement paints Democrats as fearmongering and overreacting. Sure, GOP lawmakers claim that Medicaid will not be cut, but that's not what affected states have reported.
Reuters reports that "States say Medicaid access cut, White House says no payments disrupted." While press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Medicaid program online portals would be "back online soon" and "no paymets had been affected" after the sudden outage in January, many states still don't have access. Democratic U.S. Senator Ron Wyde said, "My staff has confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states following last night's federal funding freeze. This is a blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed."
Joseph A. Wulfsohn wrote in 2022 that "other outlets worked to suppress or downplay the New York Post's reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop in 2020" as conservative outlets shed light on it. Plenty of liberal outlets reported on the scandal, such as Brian Funk's article "Released Twitter emails show how employees debated how to handle 2020 New York Post Hunter Biden story" and the piece "US authorities investigating if recently published emails are tied to Russian disinformation effort targeting Biden."
Those are only two examples. A simple Google search for any liberal news network with the search term "Hunter Biden's laptop 2022" will yield results. NBC News continually reports on the situation, writing the article "Hunter Biden cites financial woes in request for federal judge to dismiss laptop data case: on March 5, 2025.
In 2019, it came to light that Fox News might have sat on a major story about Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump before the 2016 election. Journalist Diana Falzone had reportedly gathered the facts, but her superiors at Fox News, particularly Ken LaCorte, allegedly prevented it from being published, saying, "Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert [Murdoch] wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go."
Even worse, Murdoch deliberately allowed the network promote Rudy Giliani's lies about 2020 election fraud, saying "I could have [stopped it]. But I didn't." This move isn't surprising. In fact, Murdoch claimed in a 2013 interview with Peter Robinson that Fox's former slogan "Fair and Balanced" slogan was accurate, saying, "In fact, you'll find just as many Democrats as Republicans on and so on." I'm afraid that's not at all true, especially for Trump-era politics.
Gabriel Hays peddled claims from Joe Rogan and Elon Musk that the U.S. government is riddled with "fraud and waste" thanks to Democrats, continuing to say that "everybody should be celebrating" the cuts. Specifically, Hays praised DOGE for uncovering "billions of dollars in misplaced and wasted government funding and stirr[ing]," including, apparently, in Social Security.
Forbes debunks the claim that the SSA is "riddled with mass fraud," writing, "there’s no evidence it takes place at anywhere near the scale Musk and Leavitt have claimed. The Inspector’s General office that oversees the agency found erroneous payments accounted for less than 1% of total payments between 2015 and 2023. ...The SSA has previously said payments are automatically canceled for anyone over age 115."
In April 2023, OutKick founder Clay Travis claimed that Trump warrants "wall to wall" coverage, saying that the Fox numbers reflect how much "people care" about it. In the title, Fox claims that liberal news outlets CNN and MSNBC "need Trump" to stay afloat and, as a result, that viewership would drop in after the election.
In reality, "post-election blahs are a cyclical feature of the landscape, regardless of which party wins," according to Rick Porter of the Hollywood Reporter. MSNBC's "primetime audience has fallen by about half, sparking scores of stories about a troubled operation," but it's expected, like "Fox News in 2020, or CNN in 2016, and all three in 2012." After Biden's win in 2020, Fox's viewerships tanked by 49%.
In 2016, Fox News quietly replaced their slogan "Fair and Balanced" into "Most Watched, Most Trusted." A high-ranking executive claimed the change "has nothing to do with programming or editorial decisions," but much speculation erupted from the switch because it occurred after Donald Trump's first inauguration. Fox News is55 percent commentary and 45 percent actual news reporting. They are neither "fair and balanced" nor "trusted" by many.
A Pew Research report analyzed major cable news reporting, stating that there has been a "major shift," as told by Politico. “Daytime programming now resembles primetime, with interviews and opinion replacing coverage of live events and breaking news,” the report states. Later in 2018, the network ran an ad campaign claiming "Real News. Real Honest Opinion" in order to backtrack on their claims of only reporting "the facts."
Fox writer Joseph A. Wulfsohn, when writing about Brian Stelter's return to CNN, claimed that "throughout much of [Stelter's] nine-year stint at CNN, Stelter was widely seen as an on-air favorite of Licht's predecessor Jeff Zucker, who turned the 'most trusted name in news' network into an anti-Trump media organization."
In reality, Zucker shifted focus during 2016 to on-air debates between candidates on both sides, including Donal Trump. In fact, "eaked secret recordings of conversations between Zucker and Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen made in March 2016 show that Zucker wanted to do a weekly show with Trump and offered debate advice to Trump," as recorded by Wikipedia.
Following the 2020 presidential election, Fox News reported false statements that voting machines had been rigged to steal the election from then-president Donald Trump, particularly Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. Maria Bartiromo, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, and Jeanine Pirro repeatedly suggested that these companies had manipulated votes to favor Joe Biden without evidence.
Dominion's sued Fox for $1.6 billion in damages despite Fox News argued that it was reporting "pure opinion" and would be protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. During pre-trial, investigation uncovered Fox News' internal communications that indicated executives and hosts were aware the network was reporting false statements. Fox settled the suit for $787.5 million and acknowledged the lies. Tucker Carlson was also fired.
In 2008, Fox host Sean Hannity reported that "twenty-plus thousand people" showed up to a November 5 rally at the Capitol before the House voted on healthcare, but he used footage from a "tea party" rally from September 12, which drew a much larger crowd than the meagre protest.
After Jon Stewart called out the channel for mixing up the footage, saying, "When that clip started, it was a clear fall day in Washington, D.C.; not a cloud in the sky; the leaves have changed. . . . All of a sudden, the trees turn green again, and it’s cloudy, and it looks like thousands and thousands of more people arrived." Hannity actually acknowledged the mistake, saying, “We screwed up."
Throughout the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, prominent Fox hosts suggested it was comparable to the flu, criticized lockdowns, and accused public health officials of overreacting. This messaging conflicted with scientific consensus and led to mixed public perceptions about the pandemic’s severity.
Back in September 2020, Vanity Fair reported "six months into the pandemic, and as U.S. deaths top 200,000, Trump's favorite news channel continues to downplay the horrific toll of the crisis." Notably, Fox personalities like Sean Hannity initially called COVID-19 a "hoax," and Tucker Carlson was a denier before flip-flopping to the other side. Both hosts peddled skepticism toward mask-wearing, social distancing, and vaccines.
Fox writer Betsy McCaughey wrote in 2023 that "Climate crazies want to use schools to brainwash your kids with this radical agenda," claiming that 'hammering K-12 school children nonstop about the dangers of climate change in every class, even math, art and gym, is... abuse."
Many Fox commentators have dismissed the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity contributes to global warming, instead claiming climate change is exaggerated or a hoax. They’ve criticized renewable energy projects and regulations aimed at reducing carbon emissions, framing these efforts as government overreach while ignoring an ever-growing body of evidence linking climate change to severe weather events and economic disruptions.
In December 2013, Megyn Kelly wildly claimed that "Jesus was a white man. ...he's a historical figure that's a verifiable fact, as is Santa, I just want kids to know that. How do you revise it in the middle of the legacy in the story and change Santa from white to black?"
Politico responded to the claims, citing, "Santa Claus can be traced to a real life monk named St. Nicholas who lived in what is today Turkey, according to the History Channel. Jesus Christ was born to a Jewish family around what is now Israel, and his race has long been debated with several scholars saying he likely looked like what many modern day people of Middle Eastern descent look like."
In 2015, the UK broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, found Fox News in violation of its broadcasting code after a guest on Justice with Judge Jeanine falsely claimed that Birmingham, England, was a "no-go zone" for non-Muslims. The comment, made by terrorism commentator Steve Emerson in January, described Birmingham as a city that is "totally Muslim," where non-Muslims allegedly avoid entering.
The remark, aired during a discussion on the Paris terrorist attacks earlier that month, was labeled a "serious breach for a current affairs program" by an Ofcom spokesperson. In response, Fox News expressed regret and issued an apology to the people of Birmingham for the inaccurate statement, writing, "We deeply regret these errors and apologise to the people of Birmingham, our viewers and all who have been offended."
In 2007, alk show host Dan Caplis repeated a story that Fox News reported "as a matter of fact that Hillary Clinton has... played the madrassa card on Obama. Fox reporting as a matter of fact that Obama spent four years in a Muslim seminary."
Obama had, in fact, attended a secular public school open to students of all faiths. The suggestion that Obama’s schooling indicated un-American values fueled baseless speculation about his religious beliefs and loyalty to the country. Despite corrections, the narrative persisted, feeding conspiracy theories and distracting from meaningful policy discussions.
In 2008, E.D. Hill criticized an innocent photo of Barack Obama sharing a friendly fist bump with wife Michelle. She said, "A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently. We'll show you some interesting body communication and find out what it really says."
The anchor, who had participated in Fox News since 1998, only hosted America's Pulse one week until it was shut down for this baseless comment. She apologised for the mistake, saying, "I apologise because unfortunately, some thought I personally had characterised it inappropriately. I regret that. It was not my intention. And I certainly didn't mean to associate the word 'terrorist' in any way with Senator Obama and his wife."
In 2009, Fox News ran a full-page ad in major newspapers, including The Washington Post, The New York Post, and The Wall Street Journal, accusing other networks—ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN—of ignoring a significant Tea Party protest on September 12 at the U.S. Capitol. The ad boldly asked, “How did ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN miss this story?”
CNN commentator Rick Sanchez pointed out the event's extensive coverage, and HuffPost writer Jason Linkins reported, "It took me all of 30 seconds to open up TVEyes and search CNN and MSNBC for Tea Party coverage on Saturday, September 12. ...CNN ran no less than 14 reports on the Tea Party rally, beginning at approximately 7:00 a.m. During the same time period, MSNBC offered viewers four reports on the Tea Parties" and provided "one of the event's most iconic images."
In 2008, Fox & Friends, a morning program on Fox News, aired altered photos of two New York Times reporters, Jacques Steinberg and Steven Reddicliffe, in a segment criticizing the newspaper’s coverage of Fox News. The images were manipulated to make the reporters appear unflattering—Steinberg’s teeth were yellowed and had huge dark circles while Reddicliffe’s features where enlarged and exaggerated.
The segment was part of a response to a critical article published in The New York Times about Fox News. The altered photos were accompanied by mocking commentary, further fueling the sense of animosity between the network and the newspaper. Trend Hunter also reported that they went even crazier with the photoshop, airing pictures of "Steinberg photoshopped onto the body of a poodle, and Reddicliffe photoshopped onto the face of the dude walking the dog."
In March 2020, Sean Hannity dismissed COVID-19 as a “hoax” perpetuated by Democrats to harm Donald Trump politically, saying, "They’re scaring the living hell out of people and I see it again as like, ‘Oh, let’s bludgeon Trump with this new hoax.’” Oddly enough, it took nine days for him to change his tune: "This program has always taken the coronavirus seriously and we’ve never called the virus a hoax."
In fact, Fox News rarely took COVID-19 seriously. During the same segment, Trish Regan claimed, "[COVID-19] is yet another attempt to impeach the president." Similarly, Jeanine Pirro suggested that "all the talk about coronavirus being so much more deadly [than the flu] doesn’t reflect reality." COVID-19 is far deadlier and more contagious than the flu.
On election night in 2000, Fox News was the first network to declare George W. Bush the winner in Florida, despite the race being too close to call. Other networks soon followed suit, but the decision was later retracted as vote recounts began. Fox’s early call for Bush is often criticized for influencing public perception and pressuring other networks to align prematurely.
While Bush ultimately won the presidency, the incident highlights the risks of prioritizing speed over accuracy in reporting. For conservatives who cherish fair elections, this episode underscores the importance of ensuring transparency and accuracy in media coverage of critical democratic processes.
Matthew Tighe/Adobe Stock; Bill Pugliano/Getty Images News/Getty Images
Fox News heavily promoted hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure for COVID-19, despite limited scientific evidence at the time. High-profile figures, including President Trump, also touted the drug. However, subsequent studies found no significant benefit, and the FDA later cautioned against its use for treating COVID-19.
The Washington Post mocked the claim in the headline: "Trump is giving people false hope of coronavirus cures. It’s all snake oil." Fox published several reactions mocking journalists for their critiques, but they soon backtracked the claim when scientific evidence failed to provide effective results, writing, "Hydroxychloroquine does not clear coronavirus, but can alleviate symptoms, study says" before abandoning it altogether.
On election night in 2012, as the returns started to come in, some Fox News personalities struggled to come to terms with the reality of President Obama's re-election. The most notable moment came when Karl Rove, a key political strategist, openly challenged the network’s decision desk after it called Ohio for Obama. Rove, who had been an architect of George W. Bush’s victories, expressed disbelief, suggesting that the results were not final and that the state was still in play.
His reaction sparked tension among Fox's on-air talent, and the moment became a symbol of the network’s internal struggle to reconcile its analysis with the actual voting outcome. While skepticism and questioning the process are fundamental parts of a healthy democracy, it is essential for news outlets to responsibly present verified facts. Fueled by unsubstantiated doubt, claims of rigged elections can undermine public trust and the integrity of the democratic process.
In the lead-up to the Iraq War, Fox News strongly supported the Bush administration’s claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). According to Media Matters, "On June 21, hosts and guests on several Fox News programs hyped a false assertion by Sen. Rick Santorum and Rep. Peter Hoekstra that weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, despite the network's own reporting that discredited the claim."
CNN national security correspondent David Ensor reported that “Charles Duelfer, the CIA's weapons inspector, tells us the weapons are all pre-Gulf War-vintage shells, no longer effective weapons. Not evidence, he says, of an ongoing WMD program under [former Iraqi dictator] Saddam Hussein.”
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Fox News played a significant role in amplifying rumors and misinformation about Hillary Clinton’s health. As Clinton’s campaign progressed, unverified claims about her health began circulating, including allegations that she suffered from conditions such as Parkinson’s disease or even seizures. The network frequently aired speculative reports and baseless commentary about her physical condition, particularly after an incident at a 9/11 memorial event where Clinton appeared to stumble.
Fox News used these moments to fuel the narrative that Clinton was unfit for office, despite the lack of credible evidence to substantiate these claims. While a candidate’s health is a legitimate area of concern for voters, spreading unfounded rumors without verified facts can cause undue harm to the political process and sow unnecessary fear among the electorate.
During the debates over the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Fox News amplified claims that the legislation would create “death panels,” where government officials would decide whether individuals received life-saving care based on their value to society. This assertion was based on a misinterpretation of a provision promoting end-of-life counseling.
Fact-checkers, including PolitiFact, rated the “death panels” claim as false. The counseling provision was meant to help patients make informed decisions about living wills and advanced care but was portrayed as government overreach. Misleading narratives can hinder productive discussions about improving healthcare and addressing genuine concerns about costs and access.
In 2010, Fox News referred to the proposed Park51 Islamic community center in Manhattan as the “Ground Zero Mosque,” framing it as an affront to the victims of 9/11. The coverage emphasized opposition to the project, with some segments suggesting it was a symbol of Islamic triumphalism.
In reality, the project was neither located at Ground Zero nor strictly a mosque. It was a community center with facilities open to people of all faiths. This mischaracterization stoked tensions and contributed to widespread protests. For conservatives who value religious freedom, this controversy is a reminder of the need for balanced reporting.
In 2009, Fox News heavily promoted the Tea Party rallies while presenting its coverage as objective reporting. Hosts like Megyn Kelly declared it "tea party time, from sea to shining sea," and the protests were prominently featured on the network’s “Hot List.”
Reporters like Griff Jenkins even dressed in colonial garb, evoking imagery tied to the Tea Party’s historical roots, while other Fox personalities, including Neil Cavuto, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Greta Van Susteren, prepared on-location reports from rallies nationwide. “Fox appears to be promoting these events at the same time it is presenting them in a way that looks like reporting,” said Stephen Burgard, director of Northeastern University’s School of Journalism.
After the contentious 2020 presidential election, Fox News played a significant role in broadcasting numerous segments that promoted unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud. In particular, Fox hosts and guests pushed false narratives about the involvement of Dominion and Smartmatic voting systems in rigging the election.
Despite the fact that these claims were thoroughly debunked by independent fact-checkers and dismissed by courts, Fox News continued to give airtime to those alleging a stolen election. Internal communications later revealed that some Fox personalities privately questioned the validity of these allegations but still chose to amplify them for fear of losing audience support and facing backlash.
