President Joe Biden called for “uniting our nation” and ending “this uncivil war that pits red against blue” during Wednesday’s inauguration, while warning about the destructive potential of “lies told for power and for profit.” As if to demonstrate his point, Fox News’ propagandists responded with a wave of grievance-mongering designed to keep their audiences angry, afraid, and tuned in to the network for the next four years.
Notably, the network’s hosts have stressed to their audiences that when Biden and others call for defeating white supremacy and domestic terrorism in light of the deadly January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, they are talking about viewers like them.
Tucker Carlson warns viewers they could be targets of “war on white supremacists”https://t.co/Pl6HcOweSY
— Media Matters (@mmfa) January 21, 2021
The perpetual victims morning show ominously warns that an ex-Obama official was “talking about you, who's watching at home” when he commented that some Trump supporters are national security threats. (And yes, “deplorables” comes up) pic.twitter.com/rgr4ivnJzv
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) January 21, 2021
Fox shed viewers after then-President Donald Trump lashed out at the network following the election, and it has fallen out of first place in the cable news ratings for the first time in decades. Its executives have responded by amping up the influence of the network’s right-wing demagogues while cutting loose some senior members of its “news” division.
Chris Wallace, one of the few remaining network staffers with an apparent interest in keeping viewers tethered to reality, praised Biden’s speech as “the best inaugural address I ever heard” shortly after the president finished.
Fox News' Chris Wallace: “Martha, I thought it was a great speech. I have been listening to these inaugural addresses since 1961. John F. Kennedy's 'ask not'. I thought this was the best inaugural address I ever heard.” pic.twitter.com/LVnziRqqEY
— Lis Power (@LisPower1) January 20, 2021
But within hours, network contributors were warning that Biden’s repudiation of racism during the speech was actually an attack on everyone who didn’t vote for him.
At no point did Biden come remotely close to saying everyone who didn't vote for him was believing in nativism, and racism, and fear
And yet, here is Karl Rove on Fox News taking Biden's comments out of context to say that he did. Just utter bullshit, masquerading a punditry. pic.twitter.com/DU1RH3OEcD— Lis Power (@LisPower1) January 20, 2021
Biden spoke about racism, nativism and lies and Fox is livid
Biden: “The harsh ugly reality that racisms, nativism, fear ... have long torn us apart”
Fox: This harkens back to what we've heard about deplorables, clinging to guns and religion, people needing to be deprogrammed pic.twitter.com/k33y0KfoHT— Lis Power (@LisPower1) January 20, 2021
And later that afternoon, the real Fox lineup got rolling. The Five host Greg Gutfeld, who is reportedly up for a promotion to his own weekday program, concluded a screed by mocking Wallace by name for his praise of Biden.
Fox's Greg Gutfeld mocks Fox's Chris Wallace for praising Biden's inaugural speech pic.twitter.com/OQfOG6k4su
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) January 20, 2021
Gutfeld’s outburst presaged the four-hour onslaught from the network’s extended prime-time lineup (unlike the mainstream networks, Fox skipped the inaugural concert, including Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech.)
Fox News Primetime with Brian Kilmeade pic.twitter.com/m0oaejUyzf
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) January 21, 2021
Tucker Carlson Tonight pic.twitter.com/X71B8vOhZJ
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) January 21, 2021
Hannity pic.twitter.com/ULa2ao0wao
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) January 21, 2021
The Ingraham Angle pic.twitter.com/961uiBVxb1
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) January 21, 2021
Lowlights included Tucker Carlson’s rant about Biden’s criticism of white supremacists.
the answer is “white people,” he thinks all white people are being called white supremacist just bc he defends the proud boys in this exact same clip pic.twitter.com/3kCKPhWLdZ
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) January 21, 2021
While Hannity set the tone for what his coverage of the Biden administration will look like.
Hannity announces that his Big Guest tomorrow is Hunter Biden's laptop repairman pic.twitter.com/IoO6p3F40w
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) January 21, 2021
And the next morning, the Fox & Friends gang picked up where they left off, claiming that everything from Biden’s executive orders to the media’s Trump coverage to the second impeachment of Trump constitute the real disunity.
Ainsley Earhardt whines that “Joe Biden said yesterday, 'I want unity' ... but the first thing he does” is “17 executive orders really wiping away much of what President Trump did.” pic.twitter.com/A3Z1pEuGU3
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) January 21, 2021
Fox & Friends whines that the media was so nasty and unfair to the Trumps yesterday, especially because they were so kind to the Bidens, complaining that they must have missed Joe Biden's call for unity: “We have to be tolerant. Sounds like there's a lot of intolerance” pic.twitter.com/FE9CPV6bLL
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) January 21, 2021
Ainsley Earhardt guesses that Senate Democrats “would probably leave [Trump] alone” if he said he wasn't going to run again, but Will Cain says that's unlikely -- not because of Trump's countless crimes, but because The Democrats Want To Divide Us pic.twitter.com/U2Zr014c7n
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) January 21, 2021
It’s hard to get on board with a call for unity when your paycheck depends upon the opposite.