If there is any question in your mind that Fox News is nothing but Fake News, skewed to Donald Trump and the GOP platform of racism and hate, this should dispel any notion you might have. Tucker Carlson of Fox News and Alex Jones of Info Wars both reported racist looting stories on their respective media outlets that never took place. Fox News carried a chyron, “Growing Concerns Of Looting In SE Texas,” when the police were reporting no such thing. Media Matters:
On August 30, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo announced that his officers had arrested 14 people for looting. But in a metropolitan area with 6.6 million residents, that's not a large number.
Nonetheless, President Donald Trump's favorite program Fox & Friends played the arrests up on August 30 and scaremongered about looters, with correspondent Griff Jenkins describing them as "criminals that have unleashed the worst that humanity has to offer."
Fox News' Tucker Carlson and his guest, former police officer and GOP congressional candidate Dan Bongino, also used over-the-top rhetoric on August 30 while discussing a tweet from ABC's Tom Llamas that described looting at a supermarket in Houston. Bongino said, "What kind of like certifiable savage man-beast do you need to be to walk into a small business [and loot]?"
I scarcely think that looting is the “worst that humanity has to offer,” but then I don’t write copy for Fox News. Meanwhile, back at the Info Wars ranch, Alex Jones was busy stoking the home fires of fear and hatred upon which he has come to depend to earn his daily bread:
Conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones, a Trump friend and ally, displayed blatant bigotry when he blamed looting on black people on his August 29 show, citing tweets he claimed to have seen. "It's got the racist black gangs are there saying, 'Look at what we looted, look at what we got.' They're putting it on Twitter, 'We're robbing the white folks, they deserve it.' And then of course there's black folks helping white folks and white folks helping black folks. It's a very small minority of scum that's doing this. But can you imagine if there were white people robbing black neighborhoods right now? And you know, I'm sure I bet some of that actually goes on."
It is unspeakable that Fox News and Info Wars were playing into peoples’ worse fears about life during a natural disaster. Washington Post:
There were about 63 people charged with storm-related crimes including burglary and theft from Aug. 26, the day after Harvey made landfall, to this past Thursday, according to the Harris County district attorney’s office. Harris County has a population of nearly 5 million people, including the city of Houston.
“There’s no doubt that on any given day, there are people who are going to steal other people’s stuff,” said retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, who helped oversee the military response to Hurricane Katrina. “But what we see after these storms is a greatly overexaggerated concern.”
In the days and weeks after Katrina made landfall, major news outlets relayed reports of rape and murder inside emergency shelters — many of which were later found to be false and may have delayed aid to evacuees. Some cable news broadcasts looped images of frantic flood survivors scavenging stores for food and supplies.
“That’s not looting; that’s survival mode,” Honore said.
It’s a sad commentary that there are hatemongers and fearmongers masquering at journalists or at least quasi journalists and reporting lies during a hurricane.