Fox News Turns to Rampant Fear Mongering in Run Up to Midterm Elections

With political stakes remarkably high, the White House and Fox News appear to be working hand in hand to do the one thing they know will rally their base: Scare the hell out of them.

Examples of irresponsible fear-mongering are too numerous to list, but Tomi Lahren‘s appearance from this morning’s episode of Fox & Friends (watch above) is a perfect illustration of the common day scare tactics on full display on Fox News.

In this clip, we hear Ms. Lahren opine on the doxxing of Sen. Cory Gardner (whose wife received a graphically violent text) and tie that action to the danger posed to anyone who considers themselves conservative.

“This is not just something Senators are going through,” Lahren said, “it’s anyone who sits right of center, anyone who is a Trump supporter.” She added “We are all targets of this and extends beyond this whole public office. The average citizen, if you are on the right should be concerned and in danger.”

In short, if you are watching Fox News because you enjoy the conservative programming, you should be concerned and are in danger. Be afraid.

The coming midterm election is by any measure a critical one; a referendum on both the Trump administration and a Republican party that has laid down its ideological integrity and knelt before a new king in the name of winning.

The opposition party historically does well in the first midterm, so turning out the base to stem a predicted blue wave is of enormous importance to the GOP and its media boosters.

Political experts expect the Democratic party to retake control the House of Representatives, though flipping the Senate still seems a long shot. A legislative branch entirely under Democratic control could spell doom for much of Tump’s agenda — if not, through some more existential threat, the presidency itself.

Cut to the current political environment: the economy is booming, unemployment is down and President Donald Trump just flipped the nation’s highest court to a decidedly conservative tilt by seeing his second Supreme Court Justice confirmed.

As the enormously important midterm election looms, partisan pundits turn their eyes towards voter turnout. So how does Fox News’s decidedly pro-Trump programming rally the base amid salad days? Easy. Scare the bejeezus out of them and hope they vote purely out of fear of an unknown future.

Noted Libertarian James Bovard once said, “As long as enough people can be frightened, then all people can be ruled.”

So Trump’s most loyal Fox News lieutenants — Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Fox & Friends, and FBN’s Maria Baritoromo — are turning to scaremonger their viewers with threats of violence in a manner that might be effective but is remarkably irresponsible.

Where did they get this tact? It’s a time-honored strategy, but the latest iteration is naturally inspired by the Commander in Chief. During a political rally in Topeka last week, Trump said: “You don’t hand matches to an arsonist and you don’t give power to an angry left-wing mob — and that’s what they’ve become.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell followed suit the following day on the Sunday shows saying, “I’m really proud of my members for not knuckling under to those kinds of mob-like tactics.” He later added “We were standing up for the presumption of innocence,” he said. “And secondly, we were literally under assault.”

“Under assault” by those protesting sexual assault? That’s the argument being amplified by Fox News.

We are already seeing this in light of the liberal — often impassioned, occasionally radical — protests in response to the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and hastened FBI investigation into multiple allegations of sexual misconduct put forth from decades ago.

During a heated conversation with a progressive guest, Bartiromo cited anonymous Twitter threats as examples of “the left’s” extremism. Take a look:

Cherry picking the craziest and most unhinged examples to represent an entire party is another unfair and time-honored tactic, the sophistry of which is entirely transparent yet no less effective.

Imagine quoting an unknown white supremacist and saying he speaks for the Republican party as a whole. That would not just be outrageously unfair, but also irresponsible.

According to cable news transcription database TVEyes, since Labor Day weekend, the term “mob rule” was said 89 times on Fox News, which was more than double than that was uttered on either CNN or MSNBC. And the terms violent and violence? Fox News featured those words 60% more than it’s competitors.

Over the course of the next month, expect to see lots of b-roll of Kavanaugh protesters (almost certainly edited with footage of the most violent Antifa protestors retrieved from around the inauguration) presented as evidence that the left is unhinged and out of control.

There is no shortage of footage of protestors  — comprised from a diverse set of predominantly young women — getting in the faces of  Republican Senators (who are almost entirely elderly homogeneously white men.)  It’s scary out there for white dudes, right? They’re the victims. When in doubt, freak your base out and then you can control them.

In many ways, Fox News is like a classic rock radio station that relies on an audience aging “out of demo” that tunes in to hear the hits.

The Stairway to Heaven for and elderly, conservative audience is: “be afraid, be very afraid.”

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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