Fox News has a new piece criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris for claiming that the Biden administration has successfully reduced home heating and electricity prices. Now, I don’t know much about home heating and electricity prices, but I know Fox News is functionally an extension of the GOP and any criticism of an elected Democrat is worthless – irrespective of whether the criticism has merit.
To be clear, I’m happy to criticize Kamala Harris; I’ve expended quite a lot of digital ink doing exactly that.
Why? Because Harris’s politics and policies deserve criticism. Fox News, however, would criticize Kamala Harris simply because she’s a member of the Biden administration.
Of course, nothing I’m saying here is an insightful observation. Everyone knows Fox has a conservative bias. But I point it out because my sense is that it’s become so commonly understood and widely accepted that it is accepted as normal. Packaging a partisan operation as objective news is not normal. Fox isn’t the only culprit. MSNBC does it. CNN does it.
It’s a corrosive and obnoxious format, which deserves more frequent acknowledgment.
Anyways, I digress.
Fox News’ experts blast Kamala Harris
Here’s what Harris said that sent Fox into a tizzy. “For working families, we have reduced heating and electricity bills so folks have more money in their pockets to buy things like schools supplies, replace the dishwasher or take a family vacation.”
However, according to “experts,” Harris’s comments were “inaccurate.” Because “utility prices for most Americans have increased since President Biden and Harris took office in January 2021.”
Apparently, the experts also “slammed Harris” for being “completely out of touch” and “appearing to mislead Americans on the administration’s track record.”
“I’m not aware of anywhere in the United States where electricity prices or heating prices have gone down,” said Steve Milloy, an Energy & Environment Legal Institute legal fellow.
“Right from the beginning, Joe Biden put a chill on energy production. He’s just discouraged it. So, there was less investment that went into it.”
Again, the criticisms of Harris and Biden on energy are likely valid. But coming from Fox it means nothing because there is not a feasible situation in which Fox would not criticize Harris or Biden. So, any reasonable consumer is going to be skeptical when they see Fox roll out an “expert” on energy to criticize the Biden administration.
And that’s another thing. Citing experts. Fox and conservative America, especially during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, became openly disdainful of news outlets citing “experts.” It became a point of consistent mockery – which was fine because consistently, MSNBC or CNN or someone would roll out some “expert” to spew nonsense about how we need to stay in lockdown for two years straight or get fifteen boosters when you know the “expert” was chosen not for her credentials but for the message she was touting. And the expert would speak objectively about a topic, like mask use for example, where amongst the expert community, the verdict was still out.
I think you understand my point. Partisan programming dressed up as objective news is a concerning development in twenty-first-century media/politics/culture.
Fox News is not news. It’s entertainment for conservatives who want their opinions validated.
MSNBC is not news. It’s entertainment for liberals who want their opinions validated.
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Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
