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Fox News still has not aired Trump’s comments denigrating Medal of Honor recipients

The sole mention came from a contributor flippantly dismissing the comments in passing: “I don't care what he says about the Medal of Freedom or the Medal of Honor. … He can be a rotten human being for all I care."

Written by Courtney Hagle

Research contributions from Tyler Monroe

Published

At an August 15 campaign event, former president and current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed that the Presidential Medal of Freedom he awarded to a Republican billionaire is “much better” than the Medal of Honor awarded to service members, because those recipients are either injured or dead compared to his “healthy, beautiful” donor. Trump seemingly doubled down on his comments on Monday. Fox News, meanwhile, still has not aired his comments a single time — despite spending years ginning up nonscandals about Democrats supposedly disrespecting the troops while simultaneously defending or downplaying Trump’s abysmal record of denigrating veterans.

  • As Media Matters reported last week, Fox News did not mention Trump’s comments a single time between when they were made on August 15 and 5 p.m. ET the following day. That trend continued through the weekend; as of 1 p.m. ET on Monday, the network still has not aired, or reported on, Trump’s comments.

    The only reference to Trump’s comments came from Fox News contributor Johnny “Joey” Jones on Friday evening, who brought them up in passing only to dismiss their significance: “I don't care what he says about the Medal of Freedom or the Medal of Honor. I don't care what words are taken out of context — or even left in context. He can be a rotten human being for all I care.”

  • From the August 16, 2024, edition of Fox News' The Five

    JOEY JONES (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): President Trump is not going to say things that make you feel good. He's not going to say things that make you feel heard and seen, but he might not send your son to war for no good reason. He might not bankrupt your business for no good reason. ... So I don't care what he says about the Medal of Freedom or the Medal of Honor. I don't care what words are taken out of context or even left in context. He can be a rotten human being for all I care. Do the policies that work that you did the first time around and you have my vote. 

  • Methodology

    Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “Trump,” or “Former President” within close proximity of any of the terms “Veteran,” “Medal,” “freedom,” “award,” “honor,” or “Military,” from August 15, 2024, when Trump made the comments disparaging Medal of Honor recipients, through August 19, 2024, at 1 p.m. ET.

    We timed segments, which we defined as instances when Trump's comments on Medal of Honor recipients were the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of the comments. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the comments with one another.

    We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned Trump's comments without another speaker engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about Trump's comments scheduled to air later in the broadcast.