Protests or Riots? Right-wing Media Is Spreading Trump Propaganda. Again.
Fox News and Sinclair TV stations are busy cheerleading for Trump instead of reporting the facts on the ground in Los Angeles.
Here are two headlines about the very same story. One is telling you the truth, the other is spinning Trump propaganda:
“LA protests: Trump sends thousands more troops in ‘authoritarian’ move”
“US Marines to deploy to Los Angeles to help quell anti-ICE riots”
The first is a more accurate version of events from the non-profit, fact-based journalism outlet, The Guardian US. The other? It’s by Fox, the Murdoch empire’s flagship and Donald Trump’s most powerful media partner.
Here’s another example of fact vs fiction: LA’s local ABC station said this about the Monday protests: “Hundreds of people gathered near the Federal Building on Monday for the fourth day of protests. Things remained mostly peaceful and calm throughout the day before several stores were looted after nightfall.” But from her perch in DC, a Fox staffer wrote this about the very same thing: “As the riots continued raging on Monday …”
I haven’t been able to find a single local LA news outlet that agrees with the ‘riot’ characterization. Reporters describe what they see as violence, unrest or protest. Even the local Fox station is avoiding the Trump talking points. But Trump very much wants the country to believe that dangerous riots are underway so every other Murdoch-owned outlet appears to be helping him spread that lie. He’s even calling it an insurrection. It’s not. This isn’t just about media bias any more. Now that U.S. Marines have been deployed to city streets, fanning the flames could quickly lead to real carnage.
Media watcher Susan Borden notes: “Murdoch-owned media was CREATED to help elect Republicans — full stop. … Now, RW outlets are *fanning flames* on behalf of Trump's goal to escalate tensions.”
Media critic Margaret Sullivan adds: “Over the weekend, the New York Post blasted this front page headline in their usual huge cover type: ‘L.A. War.’ In an already highly inflamed situation, the Trump-friendly tabloid had no hesitations about escalating things, including with a cover photo of protestors kicking a Border Patrol car.”
This “cheerleading” for Trump is no surprise. Fox is so closely aligned with Trump that many of its on-air talent are on temporary assignment in high profile administration jobs. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard is even considering having Fox employees produce and anchor special visual intelligence briefings for the reading-averse Trump.
Meanwhile, the cable network is happily serving as state-run media doing whatever it can to promote Trump’s false version of events while hiding factual information from its vast audience. Remember when Trump’s misguided tariff scheme tanked the stock market in April? Fox conveniently dropped the use of its daily stock ticker to keep its audience in the dark about the bad news. The LA protest coverage is just as misleading.
Others rigorously toeing the Trump line include Fredrich Smith’s Sinclair with its nearly 200 local TV stations feeding communities across the country a daily pro-Trump narrative. Sinclair famously has its reporters read the very same misleading copy at station after station. The Sinclair station's social media feeds are also filled with bogus pro-Trump information. This week, the Sinclair LA coverage is also reliably pro-Trump.
Despite chatter about a feud between Trump and Elon Musk, Musk’s X (twitter) is also very busy amplifying pro-Trump content — including conspiracy theories about the ICE protests.
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Truth Is Now Even Harder to Find. Spineless Media Bosses Share Some of the Blame.
Fox, Sinclair and X are not outliers. Just this week we learned that under pressure from Republicans, YouTube changed its moderation policies to permit more lies and conspiracy theories on the video channel. Fact checking is also dead on Facebook and Instagram as part of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s rightward shift towards Trump. Nexstar, the largest owner of local TV stations in the country with 200 outlets, the News Nation cable channel and the Hill digital site, fired one of its news reporters to stay on Trump’s good side and avoid a lawsuit.
Other media owners cozying up to Trump include Google’s Sundar Pichai, Apple’s Tim Cook, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos,TikTok’s Shou Chew. All of them seem motivated by a desire to stay out of Trump’s crosshairs and simple greed.
Among the most galling examples are the billionaires and corporations with mainstream news entities that are now more intent on securing deals for the non-news parts of their businesses. Instead of standing up for journalists and fact-based reporting, they are now laundering the news, eliminating fact checking and even making big payoffs to the president. The worst offenders include: the Washington Post’s Jeff Bezos, LA Times’ Patrick Soon-Shiong, Disney, and Paramount Global.
Counting on civic minded owners to stick to their promises failed spectacularly for the Post & LA Times. Here in Chicago, reporters at the once vibrant Chicago Tribune launched a campaign to find an investor with deep pockets to prevent Alden Global Capital from taking full control of the newspaper. No one stepped up. The vulture hedge fund now has 100% ownership and has cannibalized the Trib and every other newspaper it owns.
As mainstream media deteriorates - many with an assist from their owners - a way forward may come from the many new nonprofits, a growing cadre of independent journalists, and public supported media that are all producing solid journalism. Your local TV news station (unless it’s owned by Sinclair) is also likely a good resource for credible information.
As the situation in Los Angeles continues, I’d also recommend local coverage including the LA TV stations and even the embattled LA Times. We news consumers have a role to play, too. That includes being smart about what information you share on social media and supporting the news outlets doing it right.
Jennifer Schulze is a longtime Chicago journalist. She’s on Bluesky @newsjennifer.bsky.social and Substack at “Indistinct Chatter.” Read the original column here.
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It seems clear that the only way to preserve (or, at this point, restore) democracy is for ordinary people to continue making noise; protesting peacefully, contacting elected officials, attending town hall meetings and talking with others. Those in power have completely sold us out.
Protest, protest, protest. People are being fed a pack of lies. We can't make them stop under the current regime. But we can prepare.
The court liabilities weren't enough to discourage fox, so document document document and take away broadcasting licenses, or fine every person working on the lie train from the owners, to the talking heads, to the writers, to the "fact" checker/researchers, and all the support staff. We need to know who works there and what they do so they all can pay the legal and financial cost. The day is coming and everyone will be held to account