• A recent Media Matters study found that Fox News has spent at least 13 ½ hours covering the WNBA this summer. This week, Fox anchor Dana Perino said, “We are talking about the WNBA in this way three or four times a week amongst all the other problems in the world.” Another Fox anchor questioned the network’s coverage of Enes Kanter Freedom’s WNBA stunt, saying, “Why are we intellectualizing, or trying to intellectualize, this publicity stunt? It’s pathetic. It’s ridiculous.”
• With public anger building against Flock Safety over privacy concerns with its database of automated license plate scanners, right-wing media figures are split on the surveillance company. Those defending Flock say the cameras are an “incredible” and “extremely useful investigative tool” to fight crime and “keep us all safe.” Others argue the cameras are “dystopian” and will turn the U.S. into “a full-fledged surveillance state.”  
• Fox’s Lawrence Jones said Vice President JD Vance needs to “distance himself” from podcasters “going against the president” if he wants to be the 2028 GOP nominee for president.

In the four months since the initial ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran, Fox News figures have continuously warmongered. Throughout the cycle of ceasefire violations and stalled peace talks, individuals on Fox have urged President Donald Trump to “decapitate and destroy this regime” and send Iran “back to the Stone Age,” and encouraged him to “send the SEALs in and blow something up just for grins.” 

Media Matters studied 7 key shows on Fox News — which includes the network’s evening programming as well as some shows hosted by commentators whom Trump has praised or promoted during the Iran war — called for escalatory action in the war at least 252 times since the initial ceasefire agreement on April 7. The escalatory rhetoric on the network includes arguments for military strikes, ground invasions, regime change, arming Iranian citizens, or attacks on civilian infrastructure. 

I invite you to check out this study to see how the data breaks down. You can find it here.

Also: Many right-wing figures promised an early and easy victory against Iran when the U.S. and Israel launched the war in February. Six months later, it seems very clear the Trump administration has fallen quite short of its objectives. Nonetheless, a set of especially sycophantic pundits — including Sean Hannity, CNN contributor Scott Jennings, and Benny Johnson — are claiming that Trump has already won the war.

• Right-wing media ran with unsubstantiated claims from the Trump administration that the Department of Homeland Security found hundreds of thousands of noncitizens registered to vote in federal elections, often using the figures to cast doubt on state election systems and to push for voting restrictions like the SAVE America Act. However, new reporting shows the administration’s numbers are falling. 
• Laura Loomer: “You’re going to be at war with Muslims in America within the next five years.”

Due largely to inflation reignited due to Trump’s war with Iran, real wages have plummeted since March. This collapse has largely erased wage gains from most of the second Trump administration. Yet if you watch Fox News or Fox Business, you would have heard from hosts in recent weeks wages are increasing. 

Fox Business host Larry Kudlow said that “the economy is booming, and people are spending, and their real wages are rising.” That is demonstrably untrue, as shown through data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fox anchor Sandra Smith also joined in the false narrative, claiming, “Wages are going up. They look good.” In reality, increased inflation has almost entirely wiped out wage gains going back to March 2025. 

This false Fox narrative is nothing new. The propaganda personalities have been arguing that the economy under Trump is “booming” and “going gangbusters,” even though many months of the Trump administration have included job losses, inflation remains elevated, and economic growth remains below the second half of the Biden administration.

One month ago, the White House Correspondents Association gathered for its annual “dinner that celebrates the First Amendment” with Donald Trump. Journalists assembled in Washington, D.C., sat impotently as the president delivered remarks that mixed empty platitudes with withering insults directed at individual reporters. His behavior was unsurprising, especially given his administration’s frequent use of state power to try to cudgel the press into line. Since the dinner, he has only continued his assaults on free speech and the free press. 

Media Matters’ Matt Gertz provided this list of ways the Trump administration has assaulted the press since the White House correspondents dinner. As Gertz writes, “None of this seems likely to convince the WHCA to change course, and it’s unclear what if anything Trump could do to the press that would result in the rescission of his invitation for next year’s dinner.”