Melissa Joskow / Media Matters
Fox News has yet to report on a public health official’s July 31 testimony to members of Congress that the Trump administration was warned that “any policy” involving the separation of immigrant families had the potential to cause “traumatic psychological injury” to children. His testimony highlighted the administration’s willingness to separate families en mass despite official warnings about the consequences for children's health.
The official, Cmdr. Jonathan White of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, testified that separating families “entails significant harm to children” and told lawmakers that he and the Office of Refugee Resettlement had raised that point with administration officials, who chose to pursue family separation anyway. As part of a “zero-tolerance” immigration policy, the administration separated nearly 3,000 children from their parents, and many of those children are already reportedly showing signs of psychological injury.
Ignoring a story like this is typical of a network that serves essentially as a propaganda machine for President Donald Trump. Fox hosts and contributors rallied behind the administration’s cruel family separation policy; they joked about and downplayed child detention centers; they fearmongered about immigrants; they ignored stories that revealed the cruelty of the policy; and they demonstrated immense apathy toward the children, with one host, Brian Kilmeade, approving of the policy because, “these aren't our kids. ... It's not like [Trump] is doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas.” Fox even hosted a doctor to dismiss the health effects of keeping children separated from parents “in cages or in windowless rooms.” Fox has repeatedly proved that its commitment to Trump outweighs its interest in humane policy, and its failure to report on the administration’s apathy toward the potential health effects of separation on kids is just the latest evidence.
Methodology: Media Matters searched Snapstream for mentions of “injury,” “harm,” “children,” and “kids” on Fox News on July 31 and August 1 through the time of publication.