Research/Study
Arizona indicted 18 people including several Trump allies in a fake electors scheme. Fox News covered it for only 2 minutes.
Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator in the charges
Written by Tyler Monroe
Research contributions from Rob Savillo
Published
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Fox News has barely covered the indictment surrounding election interference in Arizona, which refers to former President Donald Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator, dedicating only 2 minutes of coverage to the story since the news broke on April 24.
The indictment names several Trump allies — including Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and Boris Epshteyn — for their role in the fake electors scheme to keep Trump in power after the 2020 election. At the time, Fox News hyped the scheme, both hosting the major public announcement in December 2020 and repeatedly pushing Trump's false claims that the fake electors could be legitimate.
What limited coverage Fox has provided of the Arizona news has largely lacked details, with Fox's flagship news show Special Report dedicating only 31 seconds to the news, while news show America Reports covered it for only 10 seconds, noting that Epsteyn had been indicted in Arizona as he walked out of a New York courtroom during Trump's ongoing New York hush money trial.
Most of the discussion came from a segment on Life, Liberty, & Levin when guest John Yoo, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institute, vaguely referenced the indictments, claiming that “people in the states had every right to select alternate electors … . That's all part of politics and campaigns.”
Fox Business has also barely covered the story, airing only one brief headline on Mornings with Maria the morning after the news broke.
The Arizona coverage is just the latest example of Fox ignoring damaging news, prosecution updates, and fact checks of Trump and his allies' unlawful attempts to steal the 2020 presidential election as the network continues its push to help the former president get reelected in 2024.
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Methodology
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Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel and Fox Business Channel for any of the terms “Tyler Bowyer,” “Kelli Ward," “Nancy Cottle,” “Robert Montgomery,” “James Lamon,” “Samuel Moorhead,” “Lorraine Pellegrino,” “Gregory Safsten,” “Michael Ward,” “Jacob Hoffman,” “Anthony Kern,” “uncertified,” “grand jury,” “aide,” or “elector” or any variation of either of the terms “elect” or “indict” within close proximity of either of the terms “Arizona” or “AZ” from 7 p.m. ET April 24, 2024, when a grand jury handed down its indictments in the Arizona election interference case regarding conspiring to falsify the 2020 election results in the state, though 12 p.m ET on April 29, 2024.
We timed segments, which we defined as instances when the indictments in the Arizona election interference case were the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of the indictment. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the indictment with one another.
We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned the indictments without another speaker engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about the indictment scheduled to air later in the broadcast.
We rounded all times to the nearest minute.