Fox News believes in one thing: the current white supremacist status quo in our country. That stance, inherently racist, is also tied to a faux free market capitalism rooted in anti-democratic and pro-autocratic beliefs in how the world best works. The never-ending parade of doughy white male and (predominantly) blond female faces one sees on the network is a testament to that sensibility.
In the midst of our current economic crisis, the pandemic, and widespread protests against racial injustice, continuing law enforcement violence, and civil rights abuses, Fox News decided to throw up (and I do mean vomit) an “infographic” with the S&P 500 as its metric, that tracked something called “Percentage Change One Week After Event.” In addition to there being zero context for this infographic, which was wildly unscientific and statistically idiotic, the “events” that were placed in correlation to stock market surges were some of the worst in recent history: the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the acquittal of Los Angeles police officers in the Rodney King police brutality case, the shooting death of Michael Brown, Jr. in Ferguson, Missouri, and the recent murder of George Floyd by four (now-former) Minneapolis police officers.
Yes, you read that right.
Here’s the truly abhorrent “infographic.”
I guess the network’s point was that murdering unarmed Black people tends to be financially beneficial for the richest in our country. That might be the truest statement Fox News has ever accidentally made. What it may speak to is how civil unrest, coupled with fascistic law enforcement response is somehow tied to the confidence game that is the stock market. According to Business Insider, the Special Report “journalist” referenced the graphic by saying, "Historically, there has been a disconnect between what investors focus on and what happens across the rest of the country." That’s when the producers opted to display a graphic meant to point to positive economic gains directly connected to the deaths of Black men. Think about that.
Initially, Business Insider reports Donald Trump’s favorite channel defended their bad choice, citing similar reports in other business media. Fox News released a second statement, not exactly apologizing, for being so monumentally racist, “The infographic used on FOX News Channel’s Special Report to illustrate market reactions to historic periods of civil unrest should have never aired on television without full context. We apologize for the insensitivity of the image and take this issue seriously.”
It’s no surprise that Fox News continues to find new depths to dig into. It’s just depressing that there seems to be no rock bottom.