The mission of Fox News from its inception has been to unreservedly promote right-wing propaganda and the agenda of the arch-conservative Republican Party. When Donald Trump was elected, Fox News saddled up and transformed itself into Trump’s official Ministry of Disinformation. The network’s programming unabashedly reflects and defends Trump’s hostility, dishonesty, and pompous ignorance.
In pursuit of their mission, Fox News occasionally crosses a line that even they regard as over the top. When that occurs their standard reaction is to pretend it never happened and decline to comment. Any contrition, or even deference to journalistic integrity, is viewed, in the Trump mold, as weakness.
However, on Sunday Fox News aired a segment about the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. The video that played during the segment included a photo of Maxwell, Epstein, and the future Melania Trump. Missing from the picture was Donald Trump himself, who was standing next to Melania. This deliberately deceptive edit could only have been done to protect Trump from being connected to Epstein and Maxwell. It was a brazenly deceitful action on the part of Fox News who know all too well that Trump and Epstein were pals.
Fox News edits Trump out of photo with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago https://t.co/Fx87397x1y pic.twitter.com/SEst77byQY
— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) July 6, 2020
The fraudulently edited picture was quickly exposed by online observers who were familiar with the famous photograph in its original form. This was apparently embarrassing enough that Fox News issued a rare apology:
“On Sunday, July 5, a report on Ghislaine Maxwell during FOX News Channel’s America’s News HQ mistakenly eliminated President Donald Trump from a photo alongside then Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell. We regret the error.”
There are two blatant misrepresentations in that rather disingenuous apology. First of all, there is precisely zero chance that Trump was edited out of this photo “mistakenly.” The cropping is so precise and focused on only the excision of Trump that it’s impossible to escape the conclusion that it was deliberate. And the segment ran this altered photo three times.
Secondly, Fox’s expression of regret is the least they could do – the very least. If they had any real regrets they would put them on the air with the same priority that the fake photo was given. But of course, to do that would mean giving the story about Trump’s long and unsavory friendship with Epstein more exposure. And that would go against the mission of Fox News and their Trump-fluffing hosts, editors, and executives. So, don’t hold your breath.
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.