Fox News has not mentioned on air new data released on Friday showing that violent crime dropped sharply in major cities over the first half of 2024, even as it devoted more than 4.5 hours of coverage to violent crime during that period. Much of Fox’s crime coverage during this period was reporting on individual anecdotes featuring alleged migrant offenders. 

The network remains dedicated to its bogus strategy of trying to boost former President Donald Trump’s campaign by blaming President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for a purported surge of violent “migrant crime,” undeterred by the fact that violent crime has plummeted from the heights it reached during Trump’s presidency or that studies show immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans .

The Major Cities Chiefs Association released a report on August 8 showing “a sharp drop in violent crime in the first half of the year” compared to the same period in 2023, with the decline reaching “more than 25% in some communities” according to an Axios analysis. MCCA found  violent crime dropped in 54 of the 69 cities it reviewed and a fall in homicides of “more than 17%,” Axios reported. The results are consistent with other data showing that violent crime has plummeted since its recent peak in 2020.

But Fox did not mention that data on its airwaves a single time from August 8 through August 14, according to a Media Matters review. FoxNews.com did publish a straightforward write-up of the Axios analysis — but appended at the top of the article video from Fox’s America’s Newsroom in which anchor Dana Perino disparaged a report she said she “had been reading in some other media that ‘blue city crime is down.’” The America’s Newsroom video is titled, “Any claim blue city crime is down is a ‘hoax’: Darrin Porcher.”

The story that the network wants to tell is that its viewers are threatened by a crime crisis and that Democrats are to blame. Fox devoted 4 hours and 36 minutes to covering violent crime over the same period — even as it ignored data showing that violent crime had declined. The network’s coverage featured its usual obsession with the supposed spike in “migrant crime,” with a particular focus on anecdotes featuring alleged offenders from Nicaragua and Venezuela. 

Trump and his party are committed to the falsehood that the country faces an explosion of crime committed by immigrants, and his Fox propaganda machine ran at least 998 weekday segments featuring discussions of violent “migrant crime” from January 1 through July 12, according to a Media Matters review. 

In reality, immigrants commit fewer crimes on average than native-born Americans, there is no data showing a migrant-driven crime spike, and Republicans — at Trump’s demand — killed a bipartisan bill supported by Biden and Harris that would have provided increased resources to build the operational capacity to detain and deport more migrants.

Methodology

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “murder,” “homicide,” “rape,” “assault,” “robbery,” “theft,” or “larceny” or any variation of either of the terms “crime” or “violent” within close proximity of any of the terms “drop,” “decrease,” “downward,” “decline,” “fall,” “fell,” “plummet,” “trend,” “rate,” “Major Cities Chiefs Association,” “MCCA,” “study,” “report,” or “data” or any variation of the term “low” from August 8, 2024, when the Major Cities Chiefs Association released survey data showing a drop in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, through August 14, 2024.

We also searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “murder,” “homicide,” “rape,” “assault,” “robbery,” “theft,” or “larceny” or any variation of either of the terms “crime” or “violent” from August 8, 2024, through August 14, 2024. 

We timed segments, which we defined as instances when either the data from the Major Cities Chiefs Association showing a drop in violent crime or any violent crime as defined by the MCCA — homicide, rape, robbery, or aggravated assault — was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of either the MCCA's findings of a drop in violent crime or violent crime in general. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed either with one another.

We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned either the MCCA findings or any violent crime without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about either scheduled to air later in the broadcast.