Angelo Carusone explains how Fox News manufactured the “critical race theory” panic
Carusone: “So that’s how you have something that a year ago nobody knew anything about, and now it’s common knowledge. It doesn’t happen by accident”
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Angelo Carusone explains how Fox News manufactured the “critical race theory” panic
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From the November 3, 2021, edition of SiriusXM's The Dean Obeidallah Show
DEAN OBEIDALLAH (HOST): I want to talk about Fox News. You talk about astroturfing, the idea of building the foundation for these ideas. How much of a role has Fox News been playing before critical race theory exploded onto the scene? Were they playing a role before that, laying the groundwork for that?
ANGELO CARUSONE: I think that the most instrumental thing was earlier this year where, you know, over the span of a little more than three months, they did 1,900 segments. Right at the height of the pandemic, where like, vaccinations were happening, right? We're still all in lockdown. We had all of the election stuff. The fallout was still happening then, the Democrats had just started to postpone this legislation and the Recovery Act.
And Fox does 1,900 segments -- not mentioned, didn't just mention the word -- segments, 1,900 about critical race theory.
So, that's how you have something that a year ago nobody knew anything about, and now it's common knowledge. It doesn't happen by accident.
That's -- think about how much money you have to spend in advertisements if you wanted people to know your brand to the degree that they were able to do it through that period of time. I mean, it's incredible.