Fox hypes immigration before midterms, then forgets "crisis"
A new study shows that Fox News hyped a so-called immigration “crisis” before the 2022 midterms, then significantly reduced its coverage of immigration after the midterm elections. The results confirm Fox’s long-established pattern of fear-mongering before elections.

Using a Google news search for foxnews.com, the study compared Fox immigration reporting and commentary on Nov. 1-2 (before the Nov. 8 midterms) to reporting Nov. 22-23. The total number of hits for “immigration” (found in both opinion shows and news programs) on Nov. 1-2 before the midterms was 1,600. After, it dropped 30% to 1,120 on Nov. 22-23. Fox stories and commentary featured the words “immigration and drugs” 283 times before the midterms, and only 10 times afterwards. Other noteworthy results: “immigration crisis” had 315 hits before and 240 after; and “illegal immigrants” had 226 hits before and 135 after. The only finding that showed essentially no change was the search for “open borders” (689 before and 686 after). See the accompanying chart (light color=before midterms, dark color=after) for details.

Headlines from foxnews.com from stories produced Nov. 1 and 2, before the midterms, illustrate Fox’s political agenda. These include “California border officers seize more than 2 tons of drugs…”; “Arizona detectives seize rainbow fentanyl, firearms, other drugs during major bust”; and “Blake Masters torched Dem senate opponent (saying that) drug cartels would vote for Mark Kelly.” One story that checks all the Fox fear-mongering boxes was, “Tim Ryan (Democrat) pledged to support taxpayer funded reassignment surgery for illegal immigrants.”

Immigration coverage after the election dropped off significantly, as the study notes. Fox’s stories after the election seem less fear-oriented and take on an angrier, more partisan tone, attacking Democrats for their alleged “open border” policies. The headlines from Nov. 22-23 include “(Republican) Texas Rep. Gonzales blasts Myorkas (Biden homeland security secretary) for border chaos in his district”; “Coalition of states push to keep Trump-era rule barring migrants to prevent spread of COVID”; and “Biden admin torched by Republicans for preposterous border policies…” To be fair, there were a few neutral reports such as “Border needs bipartisan solution now…”and “Mexican authorities urge U.S. to tweak travel alerts warning.”

These off year midterms reflected partisan conservative media’s propensity to gin up the fear about immigration. In 2018 before the midterms, the bogeyman was a migrant caravan that was supposedly ready to crash the gates at the southern border. CNN reported that the caravan was mentioned on Fox 733 times in the seven days preceding the election, and only 126 times in the seven days after (through Nov. 15, 2018). ( https://tinyurl.com/ycek87o6)

Fox’s pre-election fear mongering isn’t confined to immigration. A study by the liberal news watchdog Media Matters came up with predictable results when they examined Fox News’ crime coverage before and after the 2022 midterms. “Fox News significantly decreased its volume of violent crime coverage in the week of the midterms, down 63% from the week prior. The network averaged 141 weekday violent crime segments per week from Labor Day through the Friday before the election; in the week of the midterms, Fox aired 71 weekday violent crime segments — a decrease of 50% compared to the prior average. (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-coverage-violent-crime-has-dropped-after-midterms)

A look at the before and after statistics clearly demonstrates that Fox’s narratives on crime and immigration are engineered to politically manipulate a malleable public. Fox’s sensationalism, xenophobia, and fear mongering stir the conservative base, and scare moderates into believing that crime and immigration are much worse than they actually are.

Of course, this is the antithesis of peace journalism, which rejects partisanship and seeks balance that accurately reflects reality.

Before the congressional and presidential elections in 2024, don’t be surprised to see a surge in the number of stories about immigration, crime, LGBTQ rights, and other conservative red-meat issues on Fox News.