October 30, 2017

Look at How Fox News Covered Manafort Monday

“Meanwhile on Fox News” leaps to new heights of absurdity.

On Monday morning, the federal investigation into possible collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Russian government reached its most explosive point to date with the indictments of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. Shortly afterward, and separate from the two indictments, special counsel Robert Mueller announced that former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations he had with Russian officials offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.

Major networks scrambled to deliver full-blown coverage of the unfolding drama. But the folks at Fox News showed up with a wholly different approach—one that arguably took the network’s pro-Trump slant to new levels of absurdity.

Here’s an abbreviated version of the network’s journey on what’s widely been dubbed Manafort Monday:

7:30 a.m. EST: With federal charges about to be unsealed, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway tries to dismiss the prospect of an indictment as mere speculation. She also echoes Trump’s claim that the Russia investigation is a “hoax,” while insisting the focus should be on Hillary Clinton and the Trump-Russia memos paid for, in part, by the DNC, known as the Steele dossier.

8:00 a.m. EST: Speculation evolves into reality. While images of Manafort being driven to surrender himself over to federal authorities surface in a slew of news outlets, Fox News eschews Russia coverage in favor of Halloween candy and the uproar over Google’s hamburger emoji placing cheese underneath the meat patty.

12 p.m. EST: No longer able to hide behind candy and cheese, Fox News puts on its serious face to discuss what else: Hillary Clinton.

https://twitter.com/jnsanchez/status/925038580577329152

12:45 p.m. EST: The network’s coverage finally pivots to the Trump-Russia investigation, but only to question special counsel Robert Mueller’s credibility.

1:30 p.m. EST: The White House-Fox News hand-holding continues, as press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders asserts during an afternoon press briefing that the only true collusion took place between Clinton and Russia.

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate