Hurricane Helene devastated southeastern states, killing at least 180 people with hundreds still missing. The “biblical devastation” to these areas, particularly in North Carolina, has prompted some TikTok users to spread unfounded conspiracy theories about the catastrophe that are reaching millions of users.
The most prominent of these conspiracy theories circulating on TikTok claims that the storm was not a natural occurrence but engineered in order to devastate North Carolina and create access to the land for lithium mining. Another variety of conspiracy theory that’s emerging is claims that “cloud seeding gone wrong” caused the hurricane. And another video featuring a clearly AI-generated image of Donald Trump wading through flood waters is even circulating, with overlaid text reading “this is our president right here.”
Outside of TikTok, the broader right-wing media ecosystem has been falsely insisting there is no federal response to Helene. In fact, the Biden administration approved federal assistance to supplement state and local efforts in various states affected by the hurricane. Additionally, media personalities and MAGA figures are falsely and dishonestly claiming that Helene victims are only entitled to $750 in aid - this is yet another example of right-wing media using undocumented immigrants as a political cudgel.
During the October 1 CBS News vice presidential debate, moderators Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell allowed Republican nominee Sen. JD Vance to tell a massive lie that his running mate “salvaged Obamacare.” In reality, Trump repeatedly attempted to destroy the Affordable Care Act and strip health insurance from millions of Americans.
Vance himself has proposed putting millions of Americans with chronic illnesses into their own insurance pool, as was standard practice in many states before adoption of the ACA. That had resulted in unaffordable insurance premiums, exclusions for preexisting conditions, and limits on both care and enrollment. A Media Matters review over the two weeks prior to the debate found that CBS and the other corporate broadcast networks entirely ignored Vance’s proposals.
Fox News stars are running cover for Donald Trump after special counsel Jack Smith provided extensive new revelations about the former president’s scheme to use lies about fraud to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, culminating with a mob of his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol. The network has spent four years supporting Trump’s subversion plot, covering up his attempt to steal that election, and paving the way for him to try again next month.
Smith’s filing includes previously unreported details about Trump’s activities leading up to and on January 6, 2021. While some at Fox recognized the gravity of these new details, the network’s biggest stars either presented Smith’s revelations as old news or ignored them altogether.
As Trump was pushing lies in his effort to overturn the 2020 election results, Fox figures were making similar claims on the channel’s airwaves. The network is, essentially, an unindicted co-conspirator in Trump’s plot to steal the last election.
In one example from the filing, Smith alleges that Trump and his allies entirely fabricated claims about noncitizens voting in the 2020 election. Right-wing cable outlets, including Fox News, have relentlessly pushed this false conspiracy theory during the 2024 election cycle.
Having seen the disastrous consequences of indulging in Trump’s election fraud conspiracy theories, Fox remains fully in his corner. The network’s airwaves are once again filled with baseless demagoguery about potential election fraud.
