Media Matters weekly newsletter, June 27

Welcome back to Media Matters’ weekly newsletter. This week: 

  • Right-wing media continue to push Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” as estimates find that over 11,000 people could die annually from Medicaid loss. 
  • Fox News has effusively praised Trump’s strikes on Iran
  • Fox News no longer cares about energy sector job losses. 

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  • This week in stupid

    Newsmax: Alligator Alcatraz
    • Fox’s Will Cain made his case for Donald Trump to be added to Mount Rushmore. 
    • Fox’s Jesse Watters called an early U.S. intelligence report on Trump’s bombing of Iran “enemy propaganda.” 
    • Ben Shapiro warned of a “deep state inside the Trump administration.”
  • This week in scary

    • Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on Trump’s mass deportations: “10 million is gonna be a big number in four years, which is basically gonna launch a soft civil war in the major cities.” 
    • Fox host Brian Kilmeade called for Israel to conduct more “assassinations” in Iran.
  • Excuse me?

    • Charlie Kirk said it “doesn’t feel right” for London and New York City to have Muslim mayors. 
    • Fox’s Laura Ingraham said “heads should roll” if Trump was wrong about the Iranian bombing damage assessment.
    • Newsmax host Rob Schmitt on the Senate parliamentarian: “Some say that she’s a partisan actor.” 
    • Half of the top 10 online shows spread misinformation or false narratives about Hurricane Helene in 2024.
  • Right-wing media push Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill as estimates find over 11,000 people could die annually from Medicaid loss

    Medicaid_Misinfo

    Citation

    Andrea Austria / Media Matters

    Two analyses of the House of Representatives' version of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” found that its deep Medicaid cuts — which right-wing media figures have supported for months — would result in more than 11,000 preventable deaths annually. When all aspects of the legislation are included, according to one of the analyses, the bill could cause an estimated 51,000 preventable deaths per year. 

    Right-wing media figures, however, have repeatedly claimed that people who “deserve” to be on Medicaid won’t be affected by the bill. Instead, they falsely argue that Medicaid will be strengthened for “the people that actually need it,” as Fox News’ Sean Hannity put it. 

    Some right-wing media figures and influencers have downplayed the House bill’s Medicaid cuts, claiming Democrats are “lying” when they point out the negative impact the legislation would have on Americans. 

    And Fox News is providing a platform for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to lie about the bill’s Medicaid cuts. According to Politico, Johnson is privately warning House Republicans will lose their majority if the Senate version of the bill’s Medicaid cuts are enacted. On Fox & Friends, however, Johnson said that “we are not cutting Medicaid” and the hosts didn’t correct him. 

    These Medicaid cuts are hideously unpopular and Fox is barely talking about them. Media Matters identified 1,390 mentions of the word “Medicaid” on Fox’s original programming from January 20 through June 21. By contrast, using the same method, we found that the network mentioned “Biden” 13,289 times during that period.

  • Fox News has effusively praised Trump’s strikes on Iran

    Trump w/ Fox News logo over outline of Iran

    Citation

    Andrea Austria / Media Matters

    Although some right-wing media have been divided over Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Fox News personalities and guests have been mostly uniform in their support of U.S. military intervention. And not surprisingly, according to The New York Times, Fox News’ own reporting influenced Trump’s decision to launch the strikes. 

    After the U.S. airstrikes, Fox was quick to praise Trump and his decision to launch the attack. Personalities on the network called him a “historic figure,” suggested the strikes were “a watershed moment for peace,” and claimed the bomber crews "potentially saved the world by doing this.” After Trump announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, Fox personalities said Trump should be given a Nobel Peace Prize and have his face carved on Mount Rushmore

    According to the early U.S. intelligence assessments, the strikes did not destroy Iran’s nuclear program and likely set it back by mere months.

  • Fox News no longer cares about energy sector job losses

    The issue of jobs — whether loss or creation — has been a central rallying cry from Fox News for more than a decade when it comes to the Keystone XL pipeline, the so-called “war on coal,” and a candidate’s electability in the fracked-gas-producing state of Pennsylvania. Now, with more than 800,000 jobs threatened by the repeal of the clean energy tax credits in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — many of them in red states — Fox is seemingly no longer concerned

    A Media Matters analysis found that Fox discussed the repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits in 18 segments about the “One Big Beautiful Bill” between May 22, when the House version passed, and June 23. None of these segments discussed the massive job losses expected from repealing the tax credits.