After Texas teachers were told to give “other perspectives” on the Holocaust, Fox News is quiet about a “critical race theory” story
The network’s culture war has borne a toxic fruit
Written by Eric Kleefeld
Published
For the past year, Fox News has waged a steady and relentless campaign against “critical race theory,” using the term as a catch-all phrase for any right-wing culture war grievances against racial diversity and civil rights. Now, the stream of Republican-backed state legislation it supported has been shown to potentially chill teaching of the Holocaust — and unlike other networks, Fox News isn’t reporting on the story.
NBC News reported Thursday that a group of teachers in Southlake, Texas, had secretly recorded audio from a meeting with a school district administrator, regarding pressure over which books could be available in their classrooms as a result of a new state law requiring the inclusion of multiple perspectives on “widely debated and currently controversial” issues.
“As you go through, just try to remember the concepts of [state House Bill] 3979,” the administrator said. “And make sure that if — if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”
After teachers responded in disbelief, the official replied, “Believe me, that’s come up.”
The district superintendent later gave a statement to NBC News, assuring the public that “we recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust.”
This district was also a “critical race theory” focal point for Fox News earlier in the year, before the Texas law was passed.
In addition to NBC’s reporting (which has been highlighted on MSNBC as well), other national news outlets have also picked up on the story, but so far Fox News has not covered it on either its TV channels or its website.
As another positive example of news coverage, CNN New Day co-anchor John Berman on Friday morning interviewed Lois Lowry, author of the historical novel Number the Stars that has been used to educate children about the Holocaust for over 30 years. (The book was also mentioned by one teacher in the Texas audio.)