Fox News opinion programs are the biggest source of disinformation

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Disinformation is defined as false information deliberately spread in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth.  It is intentional misinformation.

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Fox’s opinion programs are documented to be the source for much of the disinformation that is then amplified in social media. These programs draw the largest audiences on Fox and usually the largest audiences in all of cable news, dwarfing audiences on other extremist channels like OANN and Newsmax. Fox News disinformation campaigns appear to have the support from the highest levels of its parent corporation: Several hours of Fox’s evening programs were recently converted to opinion programs, clearly showing the increasing reliance of Fox’s corporate parent, Fox Corporation, on disinformation as part of its business model.

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Fox Corp lawyers defended Tucker Carlson -- as of summer 2021 the most popular program host on Fox -- in a slander case in U.S. District Court by claiming that no reasonable person would believe that he conveys “actual facts.”

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Fox poses a unique danger

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Fox disinformation campaigns are much more than just journalistic bias or simply bad journalism; their scope and power pose an existential threat to our democracy. Attempts to equate extremist media, such as Fox, with mainstream media result in false equivalencies. In terms of intentional or inadvertent promotion of misinformation, Fox is in a league of its own by any objective comparison of:

• The time dedicated to communicating misinformation and avoiding reality-based information.

• The intensity of audience outrage deliberately generated.

• The degree to which the misinformation communicated is demonstrably false.

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The plausible, evidenced argument has been made that America's current high level of angry political polarization can be attributed to Fox News.

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What Fox does

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Fox is not “fair and balanced,” despite that claim being its historic slogan. Even considering its daytime programming -- which is increasingly infected with segments from evening opinion programming -- it is not a source of actual news from a conservative perspective.

To be specific, some or all Fox opinion program hosts:

• Deny facts.

• Skirt inconvenient information that undermines their arguments.

• Histrionically repeat questionable information or outright misrepresentations.

• Impugn the motives and integrity of those who offer alternative viewpoints.

• Make viewers less knowledgeable than even those who watch no news at all.

• Are relentlessly partisan -- supporting one party, no matter the facts, and delegitimizing any American not sharing the host's political views.

• Overtly support white nationalism and anti-LGBTQ hatred and use rhetoric designed to inflame their audiences.