Most of the folks at Fox News last week looked like they would rather endure a drug-free root canal performed by a trained chimpanzee than talk about Trump’s disastrous war in Iran. The conflict that was supposed to be over in a matter of weeks has dragged on for months with no real end in sight.
More American troops have paid the ultimate sacrifice as Iran managed to strike U.S. a military base in Jordan. As soon as the first retaliatory strike was launched at an Iranian target gas prices spiked.
As the midterm elections loom Trump is dropping like a stone in the polls. Most of the president’s campaign promises have not materialized as grocery prices remain stubbornly high, mortgage rates have spiked, Black and Latino unemployment are higher now than when Trump started his second term, the national debt has increased and residential electricity rates have gone up in nearly every state.
The war in the Middle East will only make everything worse for Trump as it has caused an increase in the price of petroleum-based fuels along with fertilizer. His plan to add additional tariffs to nearly every country on planet earth won’t ease the affordability crisis.
The president continues to boast to the American public about a booming stock market, but the average citizen won’t touch most of their investments until retirement. The gains they might see in their 401(k) plans, IRAs or stock portfolios are just Monopoly money until they sell.
Trump is slowly sinking a ship he managed to pull out of the depths of his party’s losses in 2020 and the riot on January 6th.
Last week Fox News hosts openly called the war unpopular and questioned how the so called decimated Iranian military was able to strike U.S. targets. Jesse Watters was the only Fox News hosts who has not lost faith. Even Sean Hannity couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for the conflict.
Producers at The Five decided the war wasn’t even worth covering so it wasn’t mentioned for most of the week. Laura Ingraham spent more time discussing the woke leadership at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
The network put far more focus on trashing Democrats last week than covering a regional Middle East conflict that could spiral out of control at any moment.
Fox & Friends
The Five
The Ingraham Angle
Jesse Watters Primetime
Hannity
Multiple Trump press conferences and media appearances
The corporate leadership at Fox News knows the president watches a lot of the network’s programing. There have been several examples where Trump has repeated talking points from various Fox News shows.
The network often caters to an audience of one - knowing the president is probably intently listening to every word.
Some Fox News hosts have close personal relationships with the president
Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Brian Kilmeade sent text messages to then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the January 6th riots to pursuade Trump to call off the attack on the Capitol.
It is extremely rare for anyone on Fox News to openly criticize anything Trump does much less repeatedly complain about his foreign policy.
Over the course of five days multiple Fox News hosts openly questioned Trump’s strategy in the war. They also challenged things he said about Iran’s ability to fight back.
None of this was an accident. The folks at Fox News are desperately trying to send a message to their glorious leader - the war in Iran is a disaster.
I also suspect the war is bad for ratings as the conflict in Iran wasn’t even mentioned Tuesday through Friday on the top-rated cable news show - The Five.
In the following excerpts you can see repeated phrases and soundbites that are meant to get the president’s attention.
Fox News started the week with what seemed like a desperate plea to the president.
“Nine straight days. They’re really hitting Kuwait hard. And they’re hitting Bahrain. But Jordan is the biggest surprise. . . .We’ve got to get missile defense there. As simple as that,” said Brian Kilmeade.
Retired General and former White House NSC Senior Director, Rob Spalding, warned that the U.S. military could be tied up in the region for years.
“I do expect that we’re going to be there a long time. You know Operation Northern and Southern Watch went on for almost 20 years I think.”
Guest host Charlie Hurt was the first person on Fox News last week to point out that Iran wasn’t as weak as Trump and the Pentagon had promised.
“One of the things that’s really alarming right now is that those strikes on Jordan were pretty advanced weapons, and we certainly felt like a lot of the strikes previously had taken out there, a lot of their missile capabilities. So that is definitely alarming.”
Harold Ford Jr mentioned that the Strait of Hormuz was blocked
‘Mark Warner’s right. Bombing alone may not work. . . .We do not, nor have we ever controlled the Straits of Hormuz.”
The Fox News host simply known as Kennedy was worried about an increase in U.S. military casualties.
“Because there aren’t too many approaches. There aren’t too many choices left available. Unfortunately, once you’ve started something like this, the way you finish it is with American ground troops. And, you know, we’re saddened and disgusted to hear about those newly minted Gold Star families. That is not what we want. But if we see a ground invasion, you’re going to see a lot more than that. And you’re going to, you know, you’re going to have young people whose lives are destroyed. And, you know, we’re not going to be saying their names every day on TV. And it’s not just politically costly. It’s at some point it gets to be immoral.”
Harold Ford Jr. cut her off.
“The only other option is another deal. And the deal is probably, I hate to say this, this is not a political comment, but it may be worse than the deal Obama struck, because you’re going to have to unfreeze all of that money if we don’t want to put troops on the ground, because guess who else knows? We don’t want to put troops on the ground. The Iranians. So again, this is not what I want to have happen.”
“Coming up, the U.S. launching more strikes tonight in Iran, a live report from the region. Plus, what’s this going to do to Republicans in the midterms? . . .Three members of our military were killed over the weekend tragedy. . . And with the midterm elections a little more than 100 days away, the clock is ticking for President Trump to get out of this war before voters head to the polls It’s making a lot of Republicans nervous. It’s already, as we know, unpopular. According to the new Washington Post Ipsos poll, 69% of Americans disapprove of the handling of this conflict. Republicans cannot let this become an endless distraction, especially if they want to win in November,” said Ingraham.
Watters dedicated eight and half minutes to the war. He remained enthusiastic about the conflict.
Sean Hannity gave a brief statement about the war with no additional commentary.
Trey Yingst, chief foreign correspondent for Fox News, opened the segment with more details from the region.
“Saudi Arabia has rerouted their oil eight million barrels a day through the Red Sea. So, if you stop Saudi Arabia, that would really affect the price of oil and gas. Have they actually done it yet? Or they just say they’re going to do it,” asked Kilmeade.
“They say that they’re going to do it. And there are initial reports of some incidents off the coast of Yemen,” said Yingst.
Guest host Charlie Hurt repeated the same talking point he’d made the day before on The Five.
“We’ve been hearing that we’ve destroyed their missile sites and flattened key military installations in Iran. But if so, how is Iran still able to launch lethal attacks against U.S. military personnel and equipment?”
As he has for week Watters included images of weapon systems firing and aerial shots of missile strikes during his discussion of the conflict. Watters mostly spoke in soundbites and cliches.
His guest, retired general and former national security adviser to Trump, Keith Kellogg had a far more sobering take
“Here is a concern I do have for Iran, though. You have played sports. I’ve played sports, we’ve watched sports. And you let a team hang around a baseball team in the ninth inning or a football team in the fourth quarter. We were clearly the better team. You should have closed them out in the first quarter, not the fourth or the first inning, not to ninth inning. And as long as they stick around, the more dangerous they become. And that’s kind of where we’re at right now. And by the way, when people talk about troops on the ground, that’s pretty important because I’ve never seen a war won strictly from the air.”
Most of the time Hannity dedicated to the war was given to Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy. Miller sounded a lot like Watters. In his eyes Trump could do no wrong and a U.S. victory was certain.
Steve Harrigan, a Fox News correspondent reporting from the Middle East, took the conflict far more seriously.
“Iran’s foreign ministry also making a somewhat veiled threat, the spokesperson saying when asked about the possibility of a U.S. invasion of Iran, saying there are many in Iran who are counting down the moments until that happens, basically saying bring it on.”
Trey Yingst led the segment.
“The strait remains largely at a standstill, with just three commercial vessels passing through on Tuesday, according to Kpler Shipping data. The other area of focus remains on Iran’s nuclear program that President Trump says will be targeted in the days ahead.”
This was the first time last week anyone made mention of the existence of Iran’s nuclear program. For weeks President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have insisted that Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Epic Fury had destroyed Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Suddenly Brian Kilmeade was left to explain Pickaxe Mountain, a second location deep underground that might hold additional materials Iran could use to rebuild its nuclear program.
Fox News producers created floor to ceiling graphics that contained basic details about the facility along with a giant map of potential targets in Iran.
“The president’s statement about Pickaxe. As we go over to the map,” said Kilmeade as he spoke with Richard Goldberg of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
Goldberg included more details about the facility.
“You have those ventilation shafts. We don’t have the schematics of the facility the way that we probably had for Fordow. Remember, the IAEA inspectors had been down in Fordow for years. We knew the facility pretty well and could map it out for an attack. We may not have that sort of granularity unless the Israelis or somebody have the intelligence to people who inform that for Pickaxe Mountain.”
Brian Kilmeade included more ominous news about the target.
“Is any activity among the collapsed complexes where we’d like to go in and get the nuclear material, the uranium that the president calls nuclear dust? Some say if we’re going to get it on our own, we’ll need about 15,000 troops on the ground to do just that,” said Kilmeade.
Watters had the same tone as the night before. He made sure to include that 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, one of the soldiers who was killed by an Iranian strike, was a fan of his show.
“Tyler loved Primetime, watched it almost every night. When I heard that, I was very moved. . .Trump’s going to make him pay for every innocent ship they clip in the strait and Trump says will bomb a bridge or a power plant,” said Watters.
Hannity just let Fox News correspondent Steve Harrigan describe the conflict.
“Now the possibility exists of a second front opening up in this war Houthi rebels, terrorists in the Red Sea attacking two tankers, both carrying Saudi oil.”
Brian Kilmeade asked Trey Yingst about two tankers that were hit in the strait.
Kilmeade: Hey, Trey. Any word from the Saudis on two of their ships being hit? Have they commented?
Yingst: They’ve not yet commented. But this is certainly an escalation because it means it’s not just rhetoric from the Houthis in Yemen.
Kilmeade: And devastating to the markets will jack up big time. It’s already in the 90s. Thanks so much, Trey.
Kilmeade’s co-host Lucas Tomlinson pointed out that a strike to a power plant could horribly backfire.
“President wanted to order some would consider a disproportionate response. You would hit Damavand plant again is responsible for 40% of Tehran the capital’s power. The only question is, do you want to turn the lights off? For millions of Iranians who are sympathetic to the American cause.”
Later Kilmeade warned that Russia might be supplying Iran with information about U.S. military bases.
Kilmeade: A lot of people are miffed. How is Iran still able to hit us after all the damage we have done? . . . The biggest change is what Iran did in the pause in fighting since the MoU was signed. It looks like they did, and they reconfigured and they reconstituted more than we thought. . . The other thing is people are wondering how are they getting such a precise hits on our bases? It’s become abundantly clear. The Russians are providing a lot of intelligence. In fact, they hit in Saudi Arabia yesterday. They hit facilities, but they hit the exactly CIA wing of the facility. How would you know that if the Russians weren’t providing exact logistics?
Watters continued to treat the war like a video game.
“The War Department is prepping a massive offensive. . . . Fox News alert. Bombs away. . . Trump wants revenge. The Houthis claim their blockading the Red Sea. But they’re not. They did clip some tankers. One of them a Saudi ship now leaking oil into the water. This could snarl commerce today. Today oil closed over 100 bucks a barrel.”
Hannity joked that the leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) should flee the country.
Kilmeade: The one thing we did not anticipate is how quick Iran has been able to rebuild during that pause in fighting after the signing of the MoU that has surprised experts.
Hurt: You know, the president and the administration are going to have to sell this because right now, this is not a popular war, and it is very alarming, Brian, what you’re talking about, about the fact that when after all of this, Iran comes back better equipped with better missiles, better able to target more, better than better, but some of it, some of the techniques of these missiles that hit our bases in Jordan, they were guided in ways that that we that I think surprised us. Whatever the case, it’s alarming. And it suggests that that that a change of tactics is definitely necessary.
Kilmeade: Reuters reporting Russians are helping. When you hit that scary, when you hit a room in a building that the CIA is, the Russians are helping.
Laura Ingraham didn’t even try to hide her disdain for Trump’s handling of the conflict.
“The New York Times reporting tonight that an Iranian threat to Air Force One did indeed prompt the plane swap during the NATO summit. So, if Iran can credibly threaten Air Force One overseas, we didn’t decimate their military capabilities. Obviously, they’re still capable of a lot of harm.”
Friday was more useless fluff.
The main topic on Fox News last week was the usual - Democrats are terrible but with the added twist of Democrats are communists! I thought the war was more important to cover as Fox News will always find a reason to criticize and demonize the Democratic Party.
After weeks of warning of an imminent communist revolution Laura Ingraham added a new detail to raise the panic levels for Fox News viewers.
On Monday Laura Ingraham weaved a tapestry of paranoia and fear.
“Imagine not 10 or 20 million migrants pouring across our southern border over four years. Of course, that happened under Biden. Imagine that numbers 100 or even 200 million people, mostly from the Third World, camping out in your communities, demanding services from education to housing to health care, and imagine a government that scrambles to cater to them while leaving you and your families to pay for and live with the fallout. That’s what’s coming if the Neo Bolsheviks get real power. . . Tens of millions of indigenous flooding, the country is going to do what for the middle class destroy hospitals, destroy their schools, take over their cities and suburbs alike like everything else that these people are promising, it’s all false, and it’s going to crush our poor and our middle class worse than anyone else, that’s for sure. So this glorious socialism isn’t about advantage and opportunity. It’s about punishment and reckoning.”
On Wednesday Jesse Watters had a slightly different take on Jesse Watters Primetime.
“This race is boiling down to communism versus capitalism. Remember, communism is not a new idea. It’s an excuse for people who don’t want to work and a weapon to kill the country.”
Sean Hannity discussed the source of the simmering communist revolutionaries.
“By the way, this far left movement that he’s talking about is not new. It is the result of decade after decade of indoctrination by an anti-American college professors, this unholy alliance with Democrats and teachers unions, public schools, public museums, the media, mob, legacy, media, mob, all preaching, you know, the oppressor versus the oppressed. And now this is the, well, predictable result of life, a belief in confiscation of wealth. . . They get to steal the power, steal the money, they get to redistribute it. They get to create the voting base, and they get more powerful and you lose your freedom.”
The network spent 8% of its airtime on the shows I covered endorsing candidates.
Darline Graham - U.S. Senate, South Carolina - Republican (Lindsey Graham’s sister)
Mike Rogers - U.S. Senate, Michigan - Republican
Ken Paxton - U.S. Senate, Texas - Republican
Christine Drazan - Governor, Oregon - Republican
Bruce Blakeman - Governor, New York - Republican
Sean Hannity dedicated most of his program on Monday to an extended interview with Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC). Graham was appointed by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to fill her deceased brother’s senate seat for the rest of his term.
She announced her decision to run for a full term as senator during the interview.
Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS News Hour. The following list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not. This list has been truncated for space. Source - The PBS News Hour transcripts.
The controversial influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate will remain in federal custody as they fight extradition to England. The brothers were arrested in Miami last weekend and face dozens of new rape and sex trafficking charges in the U.K. The dual U.S. and U.K. citizens are prominent figures in the so-called manosphere, where they promote their own brand of hypermasculinity and misogynistic views. (PBS News Hour)
Protests in New Delhi turned violent last week after police intervened in a student-led demonstration calling for reforms to India’s education system. Tear gas canisters boomed through the streets, and police beat people with batons. Some protesters threw stones at security officers dressed in riot gear.
The chaos erupted as supporters of the so-called Cockroach Movement marched toward Parliament, demanding that the education minister resign amid anger over the leak of a national exam. The protests were among the largest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in years. (PBS News Hour)
The Israeli parliament has dissolved, paving the way for October elections. The country’s longest-serving leader is bracing for one of his toughest reelection fights. Benjamin Netanyahu faces national questioning over his leadership during and since the Oct. 7 attacks, including a constitutional crisis pitting his government against the judiciary. *Fox News has largely ignored most of the protests and public criticism Netanyahu has faced in Israel. (PBS News Hour)
The Justice Department is investigating whether scholarships at Harvard University funded by Chinese donors favor foreign students. It’s the latest inquiry the Trump administration has levied against the Ivy League school. The DOJ announced the probe last week, citing concerns about possible discrimination against American students. It did not specify which scholarship programs are under review. (PBS News Hour)
Artificial intelligence is fueling stock market highs, economic growth and a construction boom across the country. But it is also igniting fierce local debates about the benefits, the costs and whether the data centers that power AI should be built at all. Economics correspondent Paul Solman looked at how one of those battles is playing out in the Midwest. (PBS News Hour) *Fox News included several segments that promoted AI data centers. During an episode of Fox & Friends the network even included a full-length advertisement produced by Meta that promoted AI and data centers.
The Senate is weighing President Trump's nomination of Todd Blanche to lead the Department of Justice as questions continue over the administration's handling of investigations into Jeffrey Epstein. It comes days after Blanche met privately with several survivors of Epstein's abuse. Justice correspondent Ali Rogin spoke with Liz Stein, one of the survivors who met with Blanche. A group of survivors who met with Blanche Thursday wrote an open letter to those senators, urging them to vote against Blanche, calling their meeting with him "an hour of deflection, interruption, and gaslighting." (PBS News Hour)
Wildfires have engulfed entire homes in Turkey, while, in the mountains of Sicily, towns were surrounded by a wall of smoke. In Spain, a fire in Guadalajara, north of Madrid, has burned some 80,000 acres and forced more than 1,200 people to evacuate. It’s now the country’s second largest wildfire on record. In France, public health officials say there were upwards of 5,700 more deaths than usual during a record-setting heat wave last month. (PBS News Hour)
OpenAI says it’s investigating what is called an unprecedented cyber incident after one of its A.I. models went rogue and hacked another company. The ChatGPT maker says the breach happened last week while OpenAI was testing the cybersecurity capabilities of its systems. The head of the hacked company, Hugging Face, called the attack mind-blowing, but said there was “no malicious intent.” The incident has raised concerns about the growing capabilities of A.I. and the need for guardrails to keep the technology in check. (PBS News Hour)
A U.S. attorney in Washington state who was fired by the Trump administration is suing the government over his dismissal. Roger Rogoff was sworn in after a panel of judges unanimously selected him. Less than an hour later, he was fired via email. His lawsuit highlights the legal fight over Trump’s power to shape the judiciary. Rogoff joined Justice correspondent Ali Rogin to discuss more. (PBS News Hour)
The man who killed Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman was sentenced to life in prison last week. Vance Boelter pleaded guilty last month to killing the Democratic lawmaker and her husband, as well as critically wounding another state senator, John Hoffman, and his wife. That plea allowed him to avoid the death penalty. Instead, he was given two life terms, plus an additional 40 years, the longest sentence the judge on the case says he has ever handed down. Boelter also faces state charges for murder and attempted murder, as well as a personal injury lawsuit. (PBS News Hour)
An unnamed member of Vice President J.D. Vance’s security detail is under investigation over a suspected leak to the media. The Secret Service tells the News Hour that the internal review is in response to an MS NOW report last week about frustration over the vice president’s last-minute travel and his use of resources for personal matters like flying his son to a golf lesson by military helicopter.
An agency spokesperson adds that disciplinary action could include a possible criminal inquiry for allegedly compromising operational and information security. (PBS News Hour)
The CDC says the U.S. has now seen more cases of measles so far this year than in all of 2025. More than 2,300 infections have been reported nationwide, making this the worst year for the disease since 1991. Outbreaks in South Carolina, Utah, and Arizona have sickened hundreds of people, most of them unvaccinated. The spike comes as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has downplayed the risk of measles and raised questions about the benefits of vaccines. (PBS News Hour)
The Israeli military is deploying more troops to the occupied West Bank after one of the deadliest shootings there in months. Palestinian health officials say the Israeli military shot and killed four Palestinians in the village of Tell in the Northern West Bank. The bodies of those killed were taken to a nearby hospital. Four others were wounded, some of them critically. In the meantime, Israelis buried a 32-year-old reserve soldier who was killed in the shooting, one of at least two Israeli fatalities. Both sides are offering different accounts of what led to the shooting. (PBS News Hour)
In Ukraine, officials say at least 10 people were killed and nearly 100 others injured by a Russian ballistic missile strike in the Kyiv region. The attack happened near a defense industry event. It comes a day after President Zelenskyy met with the American defense manufacturer Raytheon, which makes the Patriot air defense systems that Ukraine says it needs. In the meantime, in St. Petersburg a Ukrainian drone attack damaged warehouses owned by Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries. Kyiv says the retailer supplies the Russian military, which the Kremlin denies. (PBS News Hour)
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.