Whose Side Are They On? Fox & Friends Pushes Biden ‘Weakness’ Narrative on Day of Putin Summit
Like all cable news shows, Fox & Friends spent a considerable amount of airtime Wednesday morning focused on the first summit between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Unlike their competitors, the conservative morning show pushed a curiously anti-American and purely political narrative that Biden is going into the diplomatic chat promoting weakness and that his adversary is the “champ” — as at least one pundit called him.
Whose side are they on again exactly?
Watching a few minutes of Fox News, one is overwhelmed by the preponderance of American flags and open patriotism. But when it comes to the Biden-Putin summit, it appears that at least Fox & Friends was more eager to preemptively promote their political opinions of a weak American president than provide fair and reasonable analysis ahead of the results.
At issue is the Biden administration’s decision to nix a joint news conference following the discussions and instead feature President Biden taking questions solo. It has been reported by the New York Times that the reasoning behind this, according to unnamed White House officials, is that they saw how Putin dominated former President Donald Trump during a Helsinki press briefing in 2018. But Biden’s opting not to join Putin on stage is an illustration of weakness.
The 6 AM hour opened with Fox News anchor John Roberts reporting from Geneva, citing “some people” who are calling the lack of a joint press conference a “real missed opportunity,” for Biden to show how tough he is, which was a leitmotif picked up throughout the balance of Wednesday’s program.
Viewers were then treated to comments made on Hannity Tuesday night by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who twice called out what he sees as Biden’s weakness. Then there was The Hill’s Joe Concha who compared Putin to the “champ” in a boxing metaphor making the challenger wait in the ring, when in fact, Biden reportedly made Putin wait for the meeting to commence (Womp!)
And in case anyone forgot the image of Biden stumbling up Air Force One’s stairs, Steve Doocy was quick to mention that watching Putin run down the steps will remind people, or it will be a comparison some people will be making.
The promotion of a strong Vladimir Putin and weak Joe Biden is by any objective measure the sort of narrative that Russian propaganda outlets would convey. And while I won’t go so far as to say that Fox & Friends is promoting Russian propaganda, when their political agenda is so closely aligned with Putin’s, it might be time to do hit the proverbial “reset button,” or at least stop wrapping yourself in an American flag to shield you from what many will see as anti-patriotism, however highly-rated and profitable it might be.
CNN honcho Jeff Zucker famously labeled Fox News programming “state-run TV” during the Trump administration. That moniker still applies but perhaps for a different state.
Watch above via Fox News.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
