A Surviving Facts Blog
I’ve been reading Fox “News.” I want to understand what a far right audience is hearing (I’m not ready for News Max!). Are the White House/Elon Musketeer shenanigans reported as CNN or the Wall Street Journal (a conservative newspaper that supported Trump during the election) do?
Sadly, no. Fox News continues to push provably inaccurate information, or they refuse to challenge lies spouted by Trump and his cronies.
About 6 days ago, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a Fox interview, “Air crashes happen. But there were more under Biden than Donald Trump.” Almost immediately after, Fox News issued an article claiming to have analyzed FAA data supporting this statement.
Both Duffy’s statement and Fox’s article are hugely misleading. I’m going to break it down for you.
FACT: Before January 2025, a COMMERCIAL airline crash had not occurred FOR SIXTEEN YEARS. When the American Airlines and Black Hawk helicopter collided last month, killing 67 people, that record was broken.
FACT: As reported in the Washington Post:
Searching for accidents under the FAA’s Part 121 regulation (regularly scheduled air carriers), we found 125 accidents under Trump and 127 accidents under Biden. However, only one was fatal during Biden’s presidency, compared to three during Trump’s first term.
To clarify even more, the Washington Post notes that the Biden fatality was not crash related. Rather, an airline ramp employee was pulled into an airplane engine.
Whether one wants to focus on number of incidents or number of fatalities… the Post thought this an absurd comparison, and I agree.
FACT: Duffy lumped together apples and oranges, to use a cliche. Commercial airline crashes, non-commercial accidents and airline incidents are not the same. Under Biden, there were NO commercial airline crashes. Under Biden, in his first month, there were 2 more “incidents”- not a statistically material number- than Trump’s first month. In Trump’s first month, a commercial airline crashed with fatalities and additional crashes have happened since.
FACT: When Obama took office, because of recession, the FAA had fewer employees than the number now under Trump. That had changed by the time Obama left office because the economy had recovered.
In the end, the Post criticizes BOTH the Democratic and Republican parties for partial, misleading or inaccurate information.
That we have to clarify misleading information dished out as news to Americans shows how dismal today’s politics are. In ad hominem style- essentially a personal attack- Duffy blamed Pete Buttigieg for various issues. The “argument,” if you want to call it that, wasn’t about Buttigieg and his performance. The issue was clear: a fatal commercial airline accident occurred. How was Duffy, the new Transportation Secretary, going to reassure the American people about the safety of commercial flying?
Instead of effectively answering this question, Duffy inflamed the far right by attacking Buttigieg and providing information without adequate clarification of what it meant. Knowing Fox News viewers often love to hear the all-Dems-are-bad rhetoric, Duffy played low rather than high.
Even worse, Fox News not only didn’t challenge Duffy, but also then repeated the misinformation in an article “based on their review.”
When I taught college English, I taught students effective arguments. One famous essay by Stephanie Ericsson called “The Ways We Lie,” defines ten different ways people lie: the white lie, facades, ignoring facts, deflecting, omission, stereotypes/cliches, groupthink, out-and-out lies, delusion and dismissal. I’m not going to define each one- read her essay- though many are self-explanatory. Ericsson’s point is that deception is used in many ways. Everyone lies, Ericsson says, and we need to be aware of how we may deceive through the techniques she describes.
Looking at her list of lies, I could apply many to Duffy’s and Fox News’ misuse of information. The fact is: they lied. And before my reader has a conniption, Democratic sources sometimes do the same thing. No matter who does it, it’s lying.
This language manipulation damages our ability to trust information and to trust one another. It also makes lying ok- and I personally don’t think it is. How can we come together if deception has become a primary communications method?
We have to be more diligent. Are you willing to read through studies, reports, and fact sheets to find the accurate nuggets? That’s part of our problem: everyone wants information fast. The sound bite has replaced critical thinking. Sensationalizing has overcome reasoning. And the divide in our country widens.
I would love to hear from you, even if, especially if, you disagree. Perhaps we can bring back the American tradition of debate. Please like and share this blog with others. Subscribe to receive it by email and go directly to the Walk the Moon website to peruse the full collection of articles and updates. You can email me from the Walk the Moon website as well.
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