Last week on Fox overpaid television personalities tried to fake their way through a war they didn’t understand. As the president changed the reasons he started the military conflict with Iran the folks at Fox struggled to forge a coherent message about it.
The propaganda machine sputtered and stumbled. The network kept repeating Trump’s mixed messages:
* The war was already over/The war will be over soon/This isn’t a war
* High gas prices are a small price to pay for freedom/Gas prices will drop immediately/Americans don’t care about high gas prices
* There will be no ground invasion of U.S. troops/There might be a short ground invasion of U.S. troops
* We’ve killed their leadership/The new leadership is worse than the old leadership
* Trump is the peace president/Trump has started military conflicts with seven different countries
* This war will bring long-term peace/Every problem in the world is caused by Iran
* Russia is helping Iran/Russia is not a concern/This war is about China
* The U.S. is NOT fighting Iran for Israel/Sean Hannity featured a 21 minute interview with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu
When Fox News hosts weren’t talking out of both sides of their mouths, they were promoting Trump’s lies.
* Americans overwhelmingly approve of Trump’s decision to attack Iran - several polls say otherwise
* Iran was capable of a nuclear attack on the U.S. or Israel - despite no evidence supporting this
* The people of Iran will rise up and take over their government - so far no such movement has formed. It could be because people don’t want to stage a revolution while being attacked by the U.S. and Israel
* Trump’s promises of ‘no new wars’ did not mean he’s an isolationist
In the four years I’ve covered Fox News the past week is the weakest I’ve ever seen the network. Instead of a streamlined well thought out strategy to promote the war the network’s messaging is a sloppy mess full of contradictions.
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