Show an ad over header. AMP

Conservative TV networks tout conspiracies

27 July 2020
Dan Ackermann

Several right-leaning TV networks have been forced to walk back or acknowledge reports they've aired touting conspiracy theories in the past few weeks.

Why it matters: There's been a lot of focus over the past few years on misinformation spreading online via big platforms like YouTube and Facebook, yet some of the most damaging falsities have come from broadcast networks that reach millions of Americans daily.

Sinclair Broadcast Group asked its dozens of local affiliates across the U.S. this weekend not to air a controversial interview conducted on its program "America This Week," which touted conspiracy theories that NIAID director Anthony Fauci started the coronavirus.

  • The interview, conducted last week features discredited researcher and activist Judy Mikovits saying she believes that Fauci "manufactured the coronavirus" in monkey cell lines and paid for and shipped the cell lines to Wuhan, China.
  • That assertion has been widely discredited by scientists and health officials.
  • Sinclair later clarified that "as a company do not support the baseless claims that were rebutted during the original segment."

Fox News host Jesse Waters said in an interview Saturday with Eric Trump that QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory movement, "uncovered a lot of great stuff when it comes to Epstein and the Deep State."

  • He later clarified in a statement to Axios, "While discussing the double standard of big tech censorship, I mentioned the conspiracy group QAnon, which I don’t support or believe in. My comments should not be mistaken for giving credence to this fringe platform."

One American News Network (OANN), a conservative network that's become a recent favorite of President Trump's, has also spread its fair share of false information, but unlike its peers, it has been more reluctant to apologize or walk those segments back.

  • Earlier this year, the president tweeted a conspiracy theory promoted by OANN that an elderly man that was pushed to the ground by police officers in Buffalo, New York was a member of the fringe anti-fascist movement called Antifa.
  • The network's leadership didn't didn't apologize or walked back the comment, although reports surfaced that some of the network's talent was horrified by the report.

Be smart: OANN's audience tiny compared to both Sinclair and Fox, but it's still available in over 35 million homes in the U.S, per Bloomberg. Fox is available in over 80 million homes, and is routinely ranked the highest-rated cable news network in the country.

The big picture: Even big social media sites, which are usually more hesitant than traditional media companies to remove misinformation, have cracked down on these specific types of conspiracies.

Bottom line: Television, especially local television, is still the top place Americans get their news, per Pew Research Center.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

Section2

Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.