Fox & Friends ignores new report on scale of Russian disinformation 

Fox’s morning show attacked the Russia investigation instead of reporting on a new study about Russian efforts to back Trump

Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

Fox & Friends ignored news of a new Senate report detailing Russia’s extensive social media operations to sway voter opinion in favor of President Donald Trump.

The research, conducted for the Senate by Oxford University, is “the first to study the millions of posts provided by major technology firms to the Senate Intelligence Committee” related to Russia’s disinformation campaign. The Washington Post reported on a draft of the study over the weekend, writing that “the operation used every major social media platform to deliver words, images and videos tailored to voters’ interests to help elect President Trump — and worked even harder to support him while in office.” The report obtained by The Washington Post has been provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee, which plans to release it publicly later this week.

Fox & Friends, the president’s favorite morning news show, failed to mention the report even once on its December 17 show. Instead, the show’s coverage continued to criticize the Russia investigation, offering claims that there is still “no proof of collusion,” complaints about the cost of the investigation, objections to the treatment of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and criticism of former FBI Director James Comey. This lack of coverage falls in line with Fox & Friendshabit of ignoring news stories related to the Russia investigation that paint the president in a negative light.

In contrast, CNN’s New Day and MSNBC’s Morning Joe mentioned the report multiple times throughout the morning, with at least one in-depth segment on each show.