Fox News this week surprised everyone by fact-checking US President Donald Trump on live television in a twist that is akin to a Republic TV prime-time segment criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi..
The topic? Petroleum (gasoline or gas, as it’s called in the US) prices. The verdict? Not what Trump claimed.
During an April 22 interview, the US President continued his tradition of reimagining reality, saying: “I see that we had a couple of states where gasoline was at $1.98 a gallon. Nobody thought they'd see that for years maybe.”
According to CBS News, the national average gas price in April hovered around the same mark as when Trump returned to office.
No sudden plunge to $1.98 — unless one was driving back to early-pandemic lockdowns when demand tanked.
Enter Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News, not known for pressing the right-wing on data, policy or facts.
A host questioned: “When you look at gas now at $3.18 a gallon, but since inauguration day, the prices are actually up. Gas prices since January are up by 2.6 per cent — when are those gas prices going to come down?
Energy secretary Chris Wright said: “Oh I think, you will see it, you will see it. There is a supply chain lag of oil going in and refined products. Also, we have seen some growth in gasoline demand, you know people drive more, travel more, the demand pushes it up. But I feel you will see gasoline prices will drift down in a few months.”
All this as America begins to feel the pinch of tariffs and trade spats initiated under Trump's economic policies, with certain imported goods now carrying price tags that have more in common with luxury items than kitchen staples.
The irony of Fox News fact-checking Trump — the network that once doubled as his unofficial campaign headquarters — is too rich to ignore.
It’s like Arnab Goswami holding up a placard saying, “Modi, where’s the data?”
Fox News is not the first right-leaning news outlet to take on Trump. He has accused The Wall Street Journal, once the voice of “right first”, to be the mouthpiece of Europe.
With Trump’s rating dropping is Fox News slowly clearing up its act? It may be a little difficult because Fox has a partisan viewership, much more than WSJ. The WSJ still carries the obligatory anti-Harvard article, but in the main is fair unlike, say, The New York Times which makes no bones about which side it is on.