If you want a perfect example of how Fox Business ratchets up its viewers’ sense of fear and misplaced outrage while undermining their engagement with reality, Sen. Ron Johnson and host Maria Bartiromo really put on a show for you Monday morning. This is 41 seconds of vague and baseless allegations and demonization of political opponents set against a visual backdrop of completely unrelated fearmongering.
“Gasoline is higher because of their war on fossil fuel and their climate change policies, which are a fantasy,” Johnson said.
Well, actually … gas prices are down and climate change and policies to combat climate change are very much a reality. The policies may be insufficient, but that’s due to Republican opposition, not some lack of knowledge of how to tackle the problem.
He continued: “Again, elections matter, radical leftism only destroys, it does nothing to build things. But unfortunately, too many Americans listen to the mainstream media who are supportive of President Biden’s policies and we’re in a very dangerous moment in this country’s history.”
Radical leftism only destroys, it does nothing to build things? President Joe Biden is in no way a leftist, radical or otherwise, but that’s what Johnson wants to suggest he is—and Biden is the one who got a major infrastructure law passed to literally build things. That law is popular enough that Republicans keep trying to claim credit for its investments.
“But, I mean, what’s the motivation, senator?” Bartiromo chimed in. “I don’t understand why. Are they just against America? I don’t get this!”
“Maria, I can’t explain people who want to push socialism, communism. I mean, it’s happened for decades, for centuries.”
Yes, that’s members of the party that tried to overturn an election, including through violence, wondering if their political opponents are “just against America” for trying to fight climate change. It’s a classic turn to demonizing opponents without offering any real basis—and if it fell short of the overt dehumanization of Donald Trump’s recent “vermin” rhetoric, it sounds like Bartiromo at least is itching to go there.
The entire time Johnson and Bartiromo were having this conversation, what viewers were seeing on screen were unrelated images of migrants arriving in the United States and Border Patrol-provided numbers about things like how many migrants were gang members or had known criminal histories. (As with Republican outrage that the Border Patrol is successfully intercepting large amounts of fentanyl, Fox News and Fox Business want viewers to fail to notice that if the Border Patrol knows about these people’s criminal histories and outstanding warrants, it is in a position to take action on them.)
This is a short clip but it really puts on a master class in propaganda, from the outright lies to the urgent inquiry of “are they just against America?” to the immigrant invasion narrative silently running on the screen throughout. This is how Fox News and Fox Business are shaping their viewers’ political consciousness.
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