On December 18, during a segment on Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón promoting Tiffiny Blacknell to be his chief of staff, the co-hosts of The Five rejected a point from the show’s token liberal, Jessica Tarlov, who pointed to FBI data finding that violent crime and property crime had declined precipitously in the third quarter of 2023 compared to a year earlier. 

Co-host Katie Pavlich introduced a segment about Gascón promoting Blacknell, describing Blacknell as a “cop-hating former defender,” and then asked Tarlov about the city’s apparent inability to hire police to solve its “crime problem.” When Tarlov cited the FBI’s latest crime data as evidence that crime was down across the country — even though the public doesn’t perceive that to be so — her colleagues piled on.

Co-host Jesse Watters, who described Blacknell as a “cop-hating looter,” accused Tarlov of “cherry-picking” crime statistics before cherry-picking his own stats to fit Fox’s preferred narrative. “If you look at the NYPD statistics for here in Manhattan, from 2019 to 2023, every single element of crime is up. Every single one,” Watters said, adding, “You also have to trust your gut.” 

“Crime is not down,” Pavlich added without offering evidence to back up her claim. “That’s like saying inflation is down.”

The Five was one of several Fox programs that ran the Gascón story. During the segment, The Five’s co-hosts also accused Gascón of “promoting dangerous left-wing ideology over the safety of his city” and intending “to flip society so that cultural reparations trump law and order.”

Fearmongering about crime has long been a cornerstone of Fox’s coverage. In recent years, the network has fixated on progressive district attorneys, whose policies they claim are leading America down the path of ruin. Ahead of the 2022 midterms, Fox hosts leaned into  “America’s crime crisis,” which they used as a political cudgel to wield against Democrats.

Additionally, their criticism of Blacknell is nothing new. In 2020, Fox News ran a campaign attacking Blacknell, who had already been working with Gascón during his campaign and while in office. “‘Each time I have been the subject of a Fox News segment, the attacks have increased,’” Blacknell said at the time.