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We analyzed 17 months of Fox & Friends transcripts. It’s far weirder than state-run media.

How the Fox morning show evolved into Donald Trump’s posse.

By Alvin Chang@[e-mail] Updated Feb 9, 2018, 11:39am EST

The president and his posse. Alvin Chang

https://www.vox.com/2017/8/7/16083122/breakfast-club-fox-and-friends

It was 6 am, just a few weeks after Donald Trump had moved into the White House — and there was a light on in the East Wing. It was possible that Trump, notoriously an early riser, was in the residence watching Fox & Friends. It was his favorite morning show, one that he praised publicly, often tweeting about a segment right after it aired.

But the hosts of the show wanted to know for sure.

So they told the president: If you're watching, flicker the lights to let us know.

There was no movement.

The hosts wondered if maybe Trump needed time to run down the hallway from his bedroom, where he was watching the show. Surely that's why the president of the United States wasn't playing with the light switch for them.

But lo and behold, about eight minutes later, co-host Steve Doocy said, "Let's see if the lights are flickering at the White House." On cue, the lights in the East Wing turned on and off.



The hosts burst into joyous laughter.

"Thank you, Mr. President," co-host Ainsley Earhardt said.

Soon thereafter, Doocy admitted it was a prank: "It's a video effect. We didn't actually do that." What might've been one of the more astounding moments in cable news was actually fake. Still, this gag was prescient, giving us accurate insight into how Fox & Friends would evolve in a Trump presidency.

Since Trump was elected, Fox & Friends has taken a special place in the media landscape. It’s clear that the program is in something of a feedback loop with the president. But contrary to what CNN president Jeff Zucker says, this isn't state-run television "extolling the line out of the White House." Scholars tend to say state-run media usually aims to keep the rank and file in line, while demobilizing the populace and deflating political opposition. Most of it is very boring. Watch some live Chinese state-run media and you'll immediately understand.

We analyzed 17 months of Fox & Friends transcripts, which captures nearly a year before Trump was elected president and about six months after. (More on the methodology at the bottom of this piece.)

What we found is that Fox & Friends has a symbiotic relationship with Trump that is far weirder and more interesting than state media. Instead of talking for Trump, they are talking to him.

The regular hosts — Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade, and Ainsley Earhardt — and their rotating cast of guests increasingly view their role as giving advice to the president. They prognosticate on what the president, his staff, or his party should do. And it’s all couched in language that makes it seem they are on his side — that the damning news reports from mainstream media were unfair obstacles to his presidency.

That is in contrast to what Fox & Friends was before Trump. In 2013, media scholar Jeffrey P. Jones argued that Fox & Friends creates an ideologically homogenous community and reinforces it by creating a high school-like atmosphere. "The show is designed to thrust the viewer into a common-sense groupthink, complete with all the rumours, smears, innuendo, fear-mongering, thinly veiled ad hominem attacks, and lack of rational discourse they can muster — you know, just like high school," he writes.

But in the 2016 election, the man who loves their show and listens to their political and cultural ruminations became the leader of the free world.

Fox & Friends went from being the bully on the periphery to the prom king’s posse.

Subtle signs they want to be Trump’s BFF
Before Trump became the Republican nominee for president, Fox News had a somewhat adversarial relationship with Trump. He was an outsider, a former Democrat, a reality TV star — and not always good at getting in line with the Republican Party. In fact, one of his signature moments in the primary was taking down Jeb Bush, the establishment candidate.

But Fox & Friends was always friendlier to Trump, a frequent caller to the show, and its coverage was a preview of how the rest of the network would evolve.

The show’s hosts were always good at making Trump feel like they were on his side, but once he won the presidency, Fox & Friends ramped up this rhetoric, whether consciously or not.

They started using “we” statements with a lot more frequency, hinting that his goals and his identity were somehow tied to theirs.