Last week, while other TV news outlets were reporting on the climate-driven extreme heat waves causing thousands of deaths and fueling wildfires across the globe, Fox News ramped up its climate denial machine by dusting off old talking points and elevating some new threads of climate misinformation while criticizing environmental policies, promoting fossil fuels, and attacking clean energy.
10 absurd segments Fox aired during deadly global heat wave
Written by Allison Fisher
Published
Here are 10 of the worst segments Fox aired between July 15-24 to deflect from, deny, and delay a response to, the climate crisis:
- On the July 15 edition of The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham platformed well-known climate denier John Christy and falsely claimed that on the question of whether the climate is overheating, “The science is not settled.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/15/22; DeSmog.com, accessed 7/28/22]
- The weekend edition of Fox & Friends aired a segment making the absurd claim that oil drilling is actually good for fish with conservative commentator Humberto Fontova, who made the same argument two days prior at another Murdoch media property, the New York Post, in a piece titled “Ignore the greenies: Offshore drilling produces not just oil but fish — and lots of them.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 7/17/22; New York Post, 7/15/22]
- During his Sunday program, Life, Liberty & Levin, host Mark Levin trotted out one of his favorite arguments against climate action by claiming that because it is a necessary component of photosynthesis, “Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.” [Fox News, Life, Liberty & Levin 7/17/22; Media Matters, 8/21/20]
- During the July 19 edition of The Ingraham Angle, Fox contributor Newt Gingrich attacked those concerned about climate change by suggesting that the climate crisis “is all a bunch of lies” from “truly bad people,” adding, “Just as, by the way, the same elites were lying to us about COVID.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/19/22]
- During the July 20 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade downplayed the record heat wave by telling viewers, “Don't panic. It is summer. … But it's just a little bit hotter than usual.” Co-host Steve Doocy also mocked climate concerns, adding, “But never let a crisis go to waste. So if it's really hot today, today would be a great day to talk about global climate change.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 7/20/22]
- During the July 20 edition of Your World with Neil Cavuto, Fox contributor Brian Brenberg called for more coal plants as a solution to extreme heat, claiming, “I think most of America wishes the coal plant was still there because… more people could be in a cool environment and be safer.” [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 7/20/22]
- During the July 20 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, host Tucker Carlson made the idiotic claim that “no one really believes in global warming and that's why all the liberals in the United States live on the coasts, because they don't believe it. That's why many of them fly private, because the entire theory is absurd and they know it.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 7/20/22]
- In the same episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight, frequent Fox News guest and climate skeptic Bjorn Lomborg suggested that climate change is actually good because “many more people die from cold” than heat. “Actually, over the last 20 years at least, we’ve seen more people being saved than extra people dying” he added. “We need to hear both sides of that story if we’re going to be well-informed.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 7/20/22; Media Matters, 11/10/21, 7/17/20]
- Using the New York Post as its source, the July 22 edition of Fox & Friends suggested that a conservation bill is now responsible for a surge in shark attacks since it was passed by the New York state legislature in 2019. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 7/22/22; New York Post, 7/21/22]
- Fox & Friends’ panel on July 24 criticized clean energy policies and claimed that promoting electric cars will “make children in Africa de facto slaves to make Pete Buttigieg's dream come true.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 7/24/22]