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Fox News has cast doubt on or pushed conspiracy theories about the election results nearly 600 times [1]

['Written By', 'Research Contributions From']

Date: 2023-09

Previously, Media Matters reviewed similar claims on Fox’s airwaves in the four days after Biden was projected as the winner and found 255 such instances where the network cast doubt on or pushed conspiracy theories about the election result. We’ve now reviewed Fox’s coverage through November 16 and the grand total has more than doubled showing a steady drumbeat from network personalities.

As President Donald Trump and his legal team continue to spread baseless conspiracy theories about voter fraud in the 2020 election, Fox News has repeatedly aided the Trump campaign’s efforts to undermine confidence in the results of the 2020 elections, echoing debunked theories, pushing the idea that Democrats “are trying to steal this from President Trump,” and arguing that Trump is justified in pursuing these claims of a rigged election.

Media Matters reviewed Fox transcripts for individual claims from Fox personalities and their guests that cast doubt on or pushed conspiracy theories about the election results. (We defined each claim as an uninterrupted block of speech; as a result, an individual claim could both cast doubt and push conspiracy theories simultaneously.) In total, we found 407 claims that cast doubt and 292 claims that pushed conspiracy theories.

Claims that cast doubt on Biden’s victory included statements declaring that people decide elections rather than media outlets, encouraging Trump to contest the results through any available legal options despite Biden’s insurmountable leads in several states, and emphasizing Trump’s mantra of counting all “legal” votes. Claims that pushed conspiracy theories about the election results included statements suggesting that dead people voted, that any kind of voter fraud impacted the election, that Dominion voting machines deleted Trump votes, and that a deep state supercomputer known as “Hammer” with software program “Scorecard” fixed votes to swing the election for Biden.

On the “news” side, Fox aired 148 claims expressing doubt over the results and 100 claims pushing conspiracy theories, and on the opinion side, the network aired 259 claims casting doubt and 192 claims pushing conspiracy theories.

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[1] Url: https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-has-cast-doubt-or-pushed-conspiracy-theories-about-election-results-nearly-600

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