Why Do You Watch Fox "News"?
An Invitation to Step Outside the Static
It’s on TV when I walk into patients’ homes. At my parents’ house. It’s even on at most military bases. While I try to be open-minded and listen, all I hear is rage, misinformation, and a weird obsession with Biden.
But worse than the noise—I’m losing my family to the alternate reality Fox News has created.
Because of Fox, my mom argues that babies are murdered after birth. Right before the 2024 election, another relative told me that she voted for Trump because illegal immigrants were engaging in unchecked crime sprees across the US. When discussing the country’s slide toward authoritarianism since the second Trump presidency, my aunt sent me a Facebook message that said that Heather Cox Richardson was a progressive Democrat who, according to my aunt, “writes for the Democratic Underworld.”
The ache of this loss is indescribable. I am unable to have deep discussions about my values with the people I love the most. When my own intelligent family members flippantly dismiss inconvenient truths, I feel like Scrooge watching his past life through a window. I can see who they used to be. I just can’t reach them.
I wish this were just about differences in opinion. It’s hard to stay close when we’re living in different versions of reality.
Instead, I am labeled a bleeding liberal who learned too much about science—and not enough about God. A soul in need of prayer.
To understand how this happened, we need to take a look at where Fox came from.
A Brief History of Fox News
Fox News was launched in 1996 by Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes, a media consultant for former Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush.
Despite its claims to be “fair and balanced”—a slogan that was changed to “most watched, most trusted” in 2017—Fox News forged strong links with many leaders in the Republican party.
These connections continue to exist to this day, including with the current president. In fact, in Trump’s first presidential term, he employed 20 Fox-affiliated staffers. In his second term, he employed 21, including for some of the most challenging and high-profile Cabinet appointments, such as the Secretary of Defense.
This level of media integration is unprecedented—neither Biden nor Obama brought individuals from a news company into the White House, outside of the role of press secretary.
While Murdoch and Ailes initially aimed to provide unbiased news coverage, they quickly learned that negative headlines, partisan talking points, and sensationalism drove increased viewership and financial gain.
Ailes even made the following observation:
“If you have two guys on a stage and one guy says, ‘I have a solution to the Middle East problem,’ and the other guy falls in the orchestra pit, who do you think is going to be on the evening news?”
As Fox became more partisan, viewers’ ideology moved further right, pushing Fox to maintain and even increase partisan bias, fueling a dangerous cycle.
Much of Fox’s opinion reporting relies on manufactured rage, emotional manipulation, and misinformation. It’s not just news anymore. When something’s repeated enough, it starts to feel like the only version of the truth.
When viewers watch Fox for several hours a day without consuming diverse news sources, it becomes an addiction. An addiction to rage. An addiction to hating “the other”. An addiction to tribalism.
Fox viewers often struggle to engage in real dialogue—not because they lack intelligence, but because the network isolates them from other perspectives. They are entrenched in the emotion of the argument instead of the truth. This makes it far more likely that they revert to the use of logical fallacies (for more information on logical fallacies, please take a look at my previous piece here).
Lies Perpetuated by Fox
While it’s true that media bias exists across the board, what Fox News has done is not just biased. It’s intentional, far-reaching, and harmful in ways no other network comes close to.
Here are some examples:
Election fraud in 2020
Fox News played a central role in promoting the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen—a narrative now widely known as “The Big Lie.” In 2023, Fox agreed to pay a $787 million settlement to Dominion Voting Systems after repeatedly broadcasting baseless allegations that Dominion machines had switched votes from Trump to Biden.
In its lawsuit, Dominion aimed to prove that Fox acted with actual malice—either knowingly spreading falsehoods or showing “reckless disregard” for the truth. Internal emails and text messages presented in court revealed that Fox executives and hosts privately admitted the claims were untrue, even as they continued to air them on programs hosted by Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, and Jeanine Pirro.
The network is also facing an ongoing defamation lawsuit from another election technology company, Smartmatic. In response to Fox’s legal defense, Smartmatic’s attorney issued a stark rebuke:
“First, Fox uses its lies to disrupt American democracy and public trust in the election system, and now it is attempting to cover up those lies by misrepresenting basic constitutional law. Simply put: the First Amendment does not protect intentional lies. Fox has found themselves trying to justify the unjustifiable — they knowingly lied to their viewers and the public for profit.”
January 6
Fox News coverage of the January 6 insurrection included conspiracy theories, including that Antifa was present in the riot. The network’s hosts also stated that the event was not an insurrection, that white supremacy was not involved, that it was “just a riot”, that no weapons were present, that the rioters hadn’t used force, that the FBI instigated the attack, and framed the attackers as victims of the ‘Deep State,’ rather than instigators of violence.
Despite the public coverage on the network, in private, Fox News hosts reached out to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to stop the insurrection. According to Politifact:
“Fox News personalities went through his chief of staff Mark Meadows. ’Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home,’ Laura Ingraham of Fox News wrote. ‘This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.’ Sean Hannity and Brian Kilmeade sent similar messages to Meadows.”
COVID
Fox News coverage of COVID turned a global health crisis into a partisan wedge. Even before the virus reached the U.S., network hosts dismissed it as “just a flu” and accused public health experts of exaggerating the threat to harm Trump politically.
The coverage was so misleading — and potentially dangerous — that 74 journalism professors signed an open letter urging Fox to uphold basic journalistic ethics:
“Urgently, therefore, in the name of both good journalism and public health, we call upon you to help protect the lives of all Americans — including your elderly viewers — by ensuring that the information you deliver is based on scientific facts.”
Beyond COVID denial, Fox’s vaccine coverage fueled dangerous hesitation:
Bloomberg reported that Fox's negative coverage of vaccines was directly associated with increased vaccine hesitancy among its audiences.
According to the Washington Post, during March–June 2021, Fox viewers under 65 had substantially lower vaccination rates than viewers of other networks—even after accounting for partisanship.
Fox's COVID coverage wasn’t just misinformation—it shaped behavior and public health outcomes with lasting, measurable consequences. Areas with strong Fox viewership experienced measurably lower vaccination, illustrating the real-world cost of media-driven distortion.
Climate change
While Fox News covers climate change in its segments, it frequently does so to deny that it is an urgent issue, or is even an issue at all. In fact, climate denial claims dominated 86% of climate change segments on Fox News in 2019, according to a study completed by Public Citizen.
This study also found that there were three core messages being sent by the network to its viewers: that climate change is a vehicle for the Democrats’ radical big-government agenda, that responding to the climate crisis would kill our economy and send us back to the stone age, and that concern about the climate crisis is liberal hysteria.
“‘In this era of crisis, keeping climate denial alive is deadly,’ said Allison Fisher, outreach director of Public Citizen’s energy program and author of the report. ‘No other major media outlet is pushing out climate doubt to so many viewers as frequently as Fox News. Other media outlets should shame and expose Fox for its climate deception and its role in obstructing climate action.’”
A separate analysis completed by Yale compared cable news coverage of climate change between Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. The study found that compared to the two other networks, Fox News coverage of climate change was more dismissive. Additionally, it found that Fox interviewed a larger number of climate change denialists.
A remarkable finding in the study was that while Republicans’ views of climate change correlated with which news outlet they watched, Democrats’ views of the same issue did not vary.
This asymmetry is especially revealing:
“‘Some Republicans… are less skeptical when exposed to information on the reality and urgency of climate change.’”
Immigration and Crime Narratives
Fox News frequently portrays undocumented immigrants as a national threat, spotlighting isolated violent crimes to stoke public fear. But data from the FBI, DHS, academic researchers, and national reporting tell a different story: undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born citizens. In fact, crime has decreased as immigration has risen. The gap between Fox’s narrative and factual data is stark.
For example, Fox headlines frequently highlight alarming crime cases involving undocumented immigrants. One such headline, published in September 2024, read:
“Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants with sexual assault, murder convictions… roaming US streets”
These stories spotlight worst-case scenarios to stoke fear and advance a partisan agenda—not to provide balanced reporting or context.
The American Immigration Council reports that immigrants, including the undocumented, are less likely to commit violent, drug, or property crimes than U.S.-born citizens. As immigrant populations grew from 1980 to 2022, crime rates dropped nearly 60%.
FBI/Texas data show undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born citizens for violent/drug crimes, and a quarter the rate for property crimes.
Studies cited by the U.S. Justice Department and the Center for American Progress show that states with sanctuary policies experience no rise in crime—and in some cases, even a decrease.
The Brennan Center calls the “migrant crime wave” a political construct built on anecdote, not evidence. Reuters has also debunked one of the most egregious claims—that undocumented immigrants kill 4,000 Americans annually—citing data that show fewer than 500 annual homicides involve rifles and no credible support for that figure.
These aren’t random fact checks. They’re well-established findings from federal data, bipartisan research, and nonpartisan watchdogs. Yet Fox continues to promote fear over facts—fueling public support for ICE raids and justifying the inhumane treatment of people seeking a better life.
Economic Misinformation
If you watch Fox News regularly, you’ve likely heard a steady stream of complaints about inflation, gas prices, and job numbers under President Biden. But here’s what the data actually show. And it’s worth sitting with—especially if you say the economy is your reason for tuning in.
Under Biden, the U.S. added 15 million jobs from 2021 to 2024—the strongest job recovery in modern history. In contrast, during the early months of Trump’s current term (2025), job growth has significantly slowed, averaging under 150,000 new jobs per month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Real wages (wages adjusted for inflation) have increased under Biden. For example, average hourly earnings for non-supervisory workers rose from $29.92 in January 2021 to $34.91 in early 2025. Meanwhile, early 2025 data under Trump shows a deceleration in wage growth—particularly for low- and middle-income workers.
Inflation was indeed high in 2021–2022 as global economies emerged from COVID-19 shutdowns. But it has cooled significantly, falling from 9.1% (June 2022) to around 3.3% (May 2025). Fox rarely mentions this decline. And despite screaming segments about gas prices, average national prices have actually decreased from their 2022 peaks.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit record highs in 2024—under Biden—not under Trump. Retirement accounts recovered, small businesses rebounded, and consumer spending remained strong.
But if you rely solely on Fox News, you might assume the country’s in economic freefall.
Fox cherry-picks numbers, ignores context, and avoids data that challenge their “Biden ruins everything” narrative. That’s not journalism. It’s entertainment.
Many Americans cite “the economy” as their reason for voting Republican. But how many of those decisions were shaped by Fox’s skewed, incomplete coverage?
What would Fox News be reporting if Biden had tanked the markets with inconsistent tariff policies?
When a single network lies, riles people up, and drowns out dissent, it doesn’t just tilt the scales—it wrecks the foundation of an honest, informed democracy.
The Ethics of Fox News
Fox News does not merely fall short of public expectations—it fails to meet the most basic professional standards of journalism, as outlined by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).
Below are SPJ ethics guidelines Fox repeatedly violates:
Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable. Give voice to the voiceless.
Support the open and civil exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.
Recognize a special obligation to serve as watchdogs over public affairs and government. Seek to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in the open, and that public records are open to all.
Avoid stereotyping. Journalists should examine the ways their values and experiences may shape their reporting.
Never deliberately distort facts or context, including visual information. Clearly label illustrations and re-enactments.
Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.
Deny favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests, and resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.
Acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently. Explain corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly.
Expose unethical conduct in journalism, including within their organizations.
The job of the press is to hold power accountable. Fox News follows power, even when it lies, and profits from breaking the rules it’s supposed to uphold. This is what happens when profit outweighs principle.
Lie By Omission
Lying by omission is when an individual purposely leaves out information in order to hide the truth from others.
Fox News frequently engages in this tactic. The network often covers immigration by highlighting stories that depict immigrants as dangerous criminals—airing footage of them in shackles, claiming they rely on Medicaid, and implying they are smuggling drugs into the U.S.
What they often fail to mention are the cases where immigrants seeking asylum “the right way” were still deported to El Salvador, that the father of three marines was beaten by ICE outside of his place of employment, or that a large majority of immigrants being detained have no criminal record.
This pattern of selective reporting isn’t limited to immigration.
Researchers at Cambridge developed a study that portrayed the systemic harm when lying by omission. In one fascinating study, Fox viewers were paid to broaden their news consumption to include CNN instead of Fox for 7 hours a week for 4 weeks. The particular content being studied was COVID.
The study concluded that when the participants expanded their news diet to include CNN, they were exposed to more information related to COVID that was not covered by Fox.
This shows how our decisions are shaped by the information we’re given—or denied.
According to Pew Research Center data, 95% of Fox viewers identify with a religious faith. Truth and humility are not just good values — they’re Christian values. We are called to seek truth, and to be humble enough to admit when we’re wrong.
We also have a civic duty — as citizens, as voters, as patriots — to stay informed.
And yet:
You get your news from one station.
You watch the same hosts, night after night.
You talk with friends who agree with you.
You avoid sources that challenge your perspective.
If you’ve read this far, you know the truth. Fox has omitted facts, inflamed division, and paid nearly a billion in lawsuits for spreading lies. And still, it continues.
Every time you turn on the TV to watch this network, you are making the choice to remain in a version of reality shaped by omission, distortion, and fear.
I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. But I do hope we can agree on this: Truth matters. Every time we choose what to believe, what to overlook, or what to share, we’re shaping the kind of country we live in.
The argument that “all news channels are the same” is a comforting one — because it lets us off the hook.
But the data doesn’t back that up. Fox News has paid out nearly a billion dollars in recent years for knowingly spreading lies. Their evening opinion shows consistently rank among the least reliable sources on the media bias chart.
Yes, all outlets make mistakes. But not all of them build an empire on misinformation — or refuse to correct the record when they’re caught.
Knowing this — why do you still watch Fox News?
Data nerds unite!
If you’re hungry for the full breakdown of bias and reliability scores from Ad Fontes — including ratings for Fox News daytime vs. primetime, plus Newsmax and OAN — I’ve got you covered. Click here for the bonus material.
If this resonated with you, I hope you’ll consider subscribing or sharing. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, as long as they’re rooted in facts, not slogans. If you’re still reading, thank you. It means you’re thinking, and that matters.
Sources:
Rupert Murdoch summary | Britannica
Fox News is not news. Say it with me. | Press Watch
Fox News study comparing Fox and CNN highlights cable TV's harm
Roger Ailes - In his own words | Fox News
Newsmax and OAN News Consumers Also Likely To Turn to Fox News | Pew Research Center
SPJ’s Code of Ethics | Society of Professional Journalists
Fox’s $787 million settlement won’t restore damage to US democracy | CNN Politics
Fox, Dominion reach $787.5M settlement over false election claims | AP News
Ad Fontes Media Releases New Media Bias Chart | Ad Fontes Media
PolitiFact | The 2021 Lie of the Year: Lies about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and its significance
The Effect of Fox News on Health Behavior during COVID-19 | Political Analysis | Cambridge Core
Climate Change Denial Dominates 86% of Fox News Climate Segments - Public Citizen
Debunking the Myth of the ‘Migrant Crime Wave’ | Brennan Center for Justice
Fact Check: No evidence 4,000 people are killed yearly by undocumented immigrants | Reuters
Thank you for this excellent analysis and summary of Fox News. Even armed with the facts, it is difficult if not impossible to educate a devoted Fox News viewer. In order to have a relationship with my mom, son and other long time friends, I’ve chosen to not discuss the news and not respond when they bring something up. Other when mom (95 yo) said the immigrants were eating the pets. I couldn’t let that slide.
My mom’s idea of watching other channels is News Max and Oan.
The documentary The Brainwashing of my Dad helps explain the how and why of this phenomenon.
It's a great article explaining Fox. But what struck me most and tugged at my heart was the very first section speaking about the division and isolation from families who are lost in the Fox bubble. I am in the exact same position you described. Most of us know the evil facts about Fox. Pointing out the facts to those in the bubble doesn't help. It only raises their defenses. I would love for you to devote an entire article on ways of resolving the family divisions created by Fox. Speak more on the pain it causes, share ways people were able to help family members to escape the lies and delusions or how one can cope with the separation from loved ones. As much as I've tried, I have no answers. The only glimmer of hope I've had is asking them questions about some of the dogma and propaganda they believe and staying calm and nonjudgemental. I recently was in a discussion with my sister about abortion, defunding Planned Parenthood, etc. I used small steps of questions (though I knew the answers). "How do you think the laws should be? What about medical emergencies or situations of rape?" Again not confronting her answers. Then I asked her if she remembered when we were children and our mom was in the hospital at Christmas. They had let her come home for a few hours on Christmas day but she had to go back. I reminded her that Mom had been having trouble with a pregnancy. The baby had died and she was unable to miscarry. She became very I'll and labor was induced. I asked my sister, "What do you think would have happened to Mom if those abortion laws were in place at that time?" I only got a hint of understanding from her. But at least there was a crack in the bubble and she was thinking for that moment. So I'd love to hear more about this area of repairing the damage and/or dealing with the loss of family to the Fox black hole of delusion. Thanks for letting me ramble. This is close to my heart.