Fox News: The Engine of Disinformation That Shaped and Shattered America

In the summer of 2001, while President George W. Bush was enjoying a break at his Texas ranch, America’s future was buried in a stack of ignored intelligence reports. Among them, the now-infamous “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” memo. The negligence was catastrophic, leading to 9/11—a tragedy that would forever alter the world. But as the dust settled from the Twin Towers, another kind of threat was taking shape—not through terror, but through information, or rather, disinformation. Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News wasn’t merely informing the public; it was systematically bending reality, reshaping the world one half-truth at a time.

From the moment it launched, Fox News wasn’t interested in being a conservative counterweight to the so-called liberal media. It set out to create an alternate universe where facts were malleable, and the truth was whatever kept its audience hooked. Think of it as a political reality show, except instead of roses, viewers were handed fear, outrage, and lies. It wasn’t about keeping the public informed; it was about keeping them addicted.

The WMD Lie: Fox’s Role in Selling a War

Fox News wasn’t just reporting a war—it was crafting one. Doubt the WMD narrative? Question the invasion’s morality? You weren’t just wrong—you were unpatriotic, even traitorous. Anchors like Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly weren’t journalists; they were war salesmen, packaging an invasion as a righteous crusade against evil. Fox’s “Countdown to Iraq” segments, complete with ominous music and dramatic flag imagery, reduced a complex geopolitical conflict into a high-stakes episode of 24. Saddam Hussein wasn’t just a dictator—he was the villain America had to vanquish. And the viewers? They weren’t asked to think; they were told to feel. Fear. Anger. Patriotism.

The results were as predictable as they were deadly. Research confirmed that regions with heavy Fox News consumption saw disproportionately higher support for the Iraq War, a direct result of the network’s uncritical amplification of flawed intelligence. But these aren’t just numbers on a page. These are human lives—neighbors, family members—lost to an ideological war where ratings mattered more than responsibility. Over 4,000 American soldiers died. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis perished. And the war, a ratings bonanza for Fox, became one of the most disastrous foreign policy decisions in American history.

And the cost? A destabilized Middle East, the birth of ISIS, and a war on terror that left deep scars on the global stage. Fox didn’t stop at reporting—it manufactured consent. As former producer Alex Bronkowski admitted, “We weren’t in the business of informing. We were in the business of fear. Fear sells.” And sell, it did—like a dark rerun of America’s longest-running horror show.

COVID-19: The Deadly Cost of Disinformation

With lessons learned from Iraq, Fox turned its attention to a new battlefield: the global pandemic. In 2020, as the world locked down to fight COVID-19, Fox was busy opening the floodgates of misinformation. This time, the enemy wasn’t a foreign dictator—it was science. Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, the network’s stars, led the charge against masks, vaccines, and lockdowns. Carlson, with his trademark smirk, called lockdowns “the greatest infringement on personal liberty since slavery” (yes, really), while Ingraham downplayed the efficacy of vaccines, even as body counts rose.

Behind the scenes, Fox’s hypocrisy was breathtaking. Inside their own offices, strict COVID protocols were enforced. Rupert Murdoch quietly got vaccinated—one of the first to do so. The very people spreading vaccine skepticism to millions of Americans were protecting themselves, leaving their viewers to roll the dice with their lives. The result? The regions most loyal to Fox News saw higher COVID-19 deaths, with vaccine hesitancy rampant.

Take Joe Joyce, a Brooklyn bar owner who took Fox at its word, dismissed COVID as media hype, and refused to wear a mask. He died from the virus not long after. His daughter said, “He trusted them. Now he’s gone.” Stories like Joe’s never made it to air. Instead, Fox promoted figures like Robert LaMay, a Washington state trooper who refused the vaccine and became a folk hero for defying mandates—until COVID took his life. After he died, Fox moved on. His defiance was useful; his death, not so much.

But these aren’t just tragic anecdotes. Research confirmed that COVID death rates were higher in counties dominated by Fox News viewers. Once again, Fox had blood on its hands—not because of bombs, but because of lies.

The Big Lie: How Fox Fueled an Insurrection

From weaponizing fear during wartime to stoking deadly pandemics, Fox’s disinformation machine was far from finished. Its most dangerous act of all was perpetuating the Big Lie following the 2020 election. As Donald Trump railed against the results, Fox amplified his baseless claims of voter fraud. Internal communications revealed during the Dominion lawsuit showed that Fox knew the election wasn’t stolen. But truth? That didn’t matter. Ratings did. Rupert Murdoch said it himself: “It’s not about red or blue—it’s about green.”

Fox turned Trump’s lie into its central narrative, legitimizing conspiracy theories and whipping up anger among Trump’s base. They weren’t just reporting on the election—they were laying the groundwork for the January 6th insurrection. Trump supporters, radicalized by months of disinformation, stormed the Capitol in a desperate attempt to overturn the results. And Fox? They had the audacity to report on it as if they hadn’t been complicit in inciting it.

Former Fox News analyst Chris Stirewalt later testified, “Fox didn’t just mislead the public—they weaponized the truth, and we all saw the result on January 6th.” This wasn’t just a crisis of political legitimacy—it was a reality crisis.

Undermining America: Fox’s Legacy of Mistrust

Fox News isn’t just a media outlet—it’s the sharpest cultural weapon ever wielded in American politics. It didn’t just fracture families; it reshaped the very DNA of the nation, turning neighbors into enemies and citizens into foot soldiers for disinformation. Fox News has left an indelible mark on America’s psyche, undermining trust in the very institutions that hold the country together. Scientists? They’re shills. The government? Corrupt. The media? The enemy of the people. Fox has turned collective action—whether it’s tackling climate change or improving healthcare—into a dirty word, equating it with government overreach and the loss of personal liberty.

And here’s the thing: Fox knows exactly what it’s doing. It has conditioned an entire segment of the population to live in a state of perpetual grievance and distrust, tuning in night after night for their daily fix of outrage. America’s real problems—like wealth inequality, systemic racism, and the existential threat of climate change—take a back seat to the latest culture war Fox chooses to manufacture.

And for what? As Rupert Murdoch himself admitted during the Dominion lawsuit: “It’s not about what’s true—it’s about what sells.” And Fox, in the end, is in the business of selling fear.

Conclusion: The Fight for Truth

The fight for truth in America isn’t just a political battle—it’s an existential one. Fox News, from its earliest days, has waged a war on reality itself. It has turned half-truths into profits and misinformation into power. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Stronger fact-checking, transparency, and accountability for those who knowingly spread lies are the bare minimum steps forward.

Rupert Murdoch’s legacy isn’t that of a media mogul. It’s that of an architect of a disinformation empire, a man who wielded the power of the press not to inform, but to deceive. And the fallout? We’re only beginning to see the full cost. The next battlefield won’t just be in Washington or Baghdad—it will be in the minds of Americans, where the line between truth and fiction grows ever thinner.