This Is How Fox News and Trump Create a Vicious Cycle of Conspiracy Theories
Sean Hannity might not be employed by the White House as an adviser to President Donald Trump, but he might as well be, considering the undue influence the Fox News channel host has over our president. A new, extensive report from Media Matters for America, a nonprofit, left-leaning news-media watchdog group, illustrates exactly how the “feedback loop” between Fox and Trump works.
According to Media Matters’ Matthew Gertz — who documented each time the president’s tweets were inspired by Fox News hosts — the conservative news channel prompted more than 600 tweets from Trump this past year, nearly two tweets per day. And that number appears to be rising with each passing month.
And, in 2019 alone, Fox personalities helped convince Trump to:
- Investigate former Vice President Joe Biden
- Investigate the origins of the Mueller probe
- Shut down the federal government
- Declare a national emergency to secure funding for the border wall
- Pardon a convicted war criminal
- Cancel a missile strike on Iran
But those issues are a mere sampling of the veritable pu pu platter of conspiracy theories and conservative, America-first viewpoints Fox offered up. Others include trade wars with China and Mexico, alleged “voter fraud,” and the firing of former national security adviser John Bolton. Fox even goaded Trump into his racist attacks against Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings and the city of Baltimore. In some cases, such as the government shutdown, Trump went against Republican leadership in favor of Fox News hosts.
The president, who claims to be very busy, likely spends his copious amounts of “executive time” watching the network, looking for ideas. As campaign press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told Hannity on his radio show, “Yeah, the work that you do every night, Sean, is going to go a long way. It already has.”