The Cost of Entertainment: Integrity

On Tuesday, April 12th at 6am, Fox & Friends opened with a panoramic view of Miami, Florida with “Diamonds” by Rihanna playing in the background. The first few minutes of programming were spent oohing and ahhing over the scenery. Ainsley Earhardt, a young, perfectly manicured blonde, wearing a blue bodycon dress points out that the weather there will be a high of 80 degrees with a low of 73, even though Fox & Friends airs from the heart of Manhattan. “No wonder people go there!” says Brian Kilmeade, an older brunette in a gray suit with a blue-button down underneath. Steve Doocy is the third host, a blonde but graying Fox & Friends veteran wearing glasses and a bright blue suit. The trio appears to have coordinated their outfits. He suddenly turns towards the camera saying, “We are here to tell you you’re not crazy,” referencing the price hikes on everyday goods. Earhardt jumps into an explanation of the impact of inflation on her Easter basket supplies, stating that the Cadbury eggs she tried to purchase were ridiculously expensive.

At the same time on Morning Joe at MSNBC, a timelapse of the Hudson River with a view of the New York City skyline plays as we hear a snippet of the song “It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” by R.E.M. The view changes to find Willie Geist, a recent addition to Morning Joe, with a green screen of the White House behind him explaining that health officials in Philadelphia plan to reinstate the mask mandate, which is beyond what the CDC recommends. There is no further opinion from Geist, but the show airs sound bites of interviews with different people in Philadelphia giving their views on the mandate. Even a few minutes in, we can already anticipate the pacing of each show. Fox & Friends does a beautiful job of entertaining us, while Morning Joe informs us. The hosts of Fox & Friends chit chat and share anecdotes, while Morning Joe immediately jumps into the news. There’s no warming up to each other or to the viewers. Even though two hosts, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough are married, they don’t flirt with one another on camera. Brzezinski has a blunt haircut that ends right at her chin and a stern face. Scarborough has a pair of professorial-looking round glasses. There’s no mention of the weather in Miami. There is no banter about the upcoming holiday weekend. The Morning Joe hosts project professionality, while Fox & Friends bashes New York and the cultural elite, even though the shows are broadcasted from the very same neighborhood. Fox & Friends is lighthearted: even when they discuss rampant crime overtaking our nation, they mix in discussion of the Country Music Awards. Morning Joe is eventoned, with no reactions that demonstrate their disgust or even pleasure to current events.

Fox & Friends talks directly to their viewers. This is especially important in their conversations about inflation. In a segment called “Inflation Nation,” the hosts chronicled their personal experiences with price raises. They discuss the impact of an 8.5% inflation increase over the past twelve months. With their network contracts and millions of viewers each day, the trio is probably shielded from economic hardship, but they make it appear as though they can really sympathize with the average American on the issue. They use “you” and “your” stating, “There’s nowhere in your life that you won’t be noticing it.” Meanwhile on Morning Joe, MSNBC’s business analyst Stephanie Rhule, was interviewed on the issue. She spoke about the impact on the population in the third person. She said, “People who are already the most economically vulnerable are going to be hit the hardest.” Those “people” aren’t seen as Morning Joe’s viewers. Instead, hosts of Morning Joe are analyzing the “other” that will be impacted, while Fox & Friends makes those struggling with economic challenges feel seen.

There is also a clear difference in who is held responsible for increased inflation. While Morning Joe expresses that the Biden Administration will have to “wrestle” with the issue, they state that it was the Federal Reserve “absolutely underestimated this.” They never place blame directly on President Biden. Meanwhile on Fox & Friends, the hosts state that Biden has promised over and over that inflation would be temporary. First he blamed the pandemic, then supply chain issues, and now the war in Ukraine. Continuing, the hosts say Biden’s only made it worse with his extreme spending. To Fox & Friends, the President made a series of excuses and has taken no action to reduce inflation except creating a bigger budget. On the subject of gas price increase, Earhardt says about President Biden, “He does not want us to be energy independent anymore, he wants you to buy a $60,000 [electric] car.” To viewers of Fox & Friends, liberals are out of touch, and while watching Morning Joe, you might agree.

One of the top stories of the day was the coverage of the lockdown in Shanghai, China. Morning Joe aired a series of clips with a voiceover showing the delivery of goods to residences from people in protective gear. They explained that amidst the largest outbreak in the country to date, the city’s streets were to remain empty. Morning Joe shows clips of children in cribs crying due to separation from parents in mass quarantine centers, robots patrolling the streets telling people to stay inside, and drones circling highrises with the message “Control your soul’s desire for freedom” playing on loop through the speaker. It is a completely dystopian scene, but the voiceover shows no emotion. One of the last videos they cut to is a clip of the city at night, where you can hear people screaming from their apartments, begging for freedom and supplies. Morning Joe lets its viewers form their own opinions, while when Fox & Friends plays the same clip of screams, they are audibly disgusted. Kilmeade describes their screams as “desperate cries for some nourishment from their oppressive government as the army walks in the streets.”

When Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, a Republican, was interviewed about the situation in Shanghai, he took the opportunity to compare the situation to when the Michigan governor told people they couldn’t visit their lake cabins in the midst of the first lockdown. He also claimed that Dr. Fauci wanted to impose similar restrictions to those seen in China, but “thank goodness” the Republicans and conservatives kept this from happening. Kilmeade also took the chance to blame China for the entire pandemic and claimed Dr. Fauci said that China “shouldn’t feel bad about inflicting the world with this horrible virus, which they still haven’t told us the origins of.” None of these statements are quoted or fact checked. They don’t show clips of Dr. Fauci requesting more drastic measures, but instead Jordan shares his opinion, comparing the wants of the Democrats to “authoritarian regimes” and Republicans as knights in shining armor.

After a commercial break on Fox & Friends, the viewer hears a suspenseful soundtrack, much like one that introduces a daytime detective drama. Pictures flash across the screen, with headlines describing shootings and the increase in violent crime, and a red graph line travels across the screen from the bottom left to top right. Finally, the title “America’s Crime Crisis” flashes into view. This is when Fox & Friends starts hitting its stride. Kilmeade introduces Scott Jones, a Sacramento County Sheriff who says his state of California is “Treating criminals like victims, and treating victims like criminals.” Jones describes a country gripped with fear, and rationalizes that blaming guns on crime instead of criminals is like blaming the car in a car crash, instead of the drunk driver. Fox & Friends take the opportunity to ridicule Biden’s new plan to ban “ghost guns,” which are DIY guns that can be easily assembled at home, using a quote from the National Rifle Association that says that the answer to this issue is to “take violent criminals off the streets immediately.” Not once is a study brought up that shows support for greater punishment of violent crimes, or the amount of repeat offenses in the United States. Nor is there further discussion of the current impact of ghost guns on crime rates and an explanation of Biden’s proposed legislation.

Late into the Morning Joe programming, hosts covered the breaking news of a shooting in a subway in Brooklyn during rush hour. As the story unfolded, they pieced together statements from police officers and witnesses to the scene. It was reported that a man, later described as a black man, 5’5,” weighing 175 to 180 pounds, entered a subway car with a gas mask, detonated a device and shot into the car at random. They describe that there is “chaos underground,” and there are sighs and a quiet “oh my god” from Brzezinski, but they don’t discuss in detail the emotions people might have experienced running to safety in their rush hour commute. They tell viewers that in the past few years, New York has experienced an uptick in crime, which the new New York City Mayor Eric Adams inherited. Still, they do not villainize the criminals themselves, or even the public officials in charge of keeping the city safe. The neighborhood in Brooklyn where the attack occurred is diverse and blue collar, what Geist describes as “very New York.” There is discussion of whether this is a terrorist act or a part of a larger plot with the possibility of more detonations. Still, there is no discussion of fear or tragedy. There is no anger in their voices as they talk about a horrible act against the city where they are based. They speak in more even toned phrases. They say that there will be a “swift response” from the New York Police Department (NYPD), and that “If there’s any police department that’s well prepared to handle this, it’s NYPD.” They don’t resort to panic, but instead are voices of calm and reason. There is no elaboration on how this is anyone’s fault. They just state the sequence of events.

On Fox & Friends, every conversation ends with the same thesis: the “limousine liberals” are responsible for everything going wrong in this country. Then, they’ll show a landscape of a Republican state with the Zac Brown Band singing in the background, making viewers imagine how much better their lives might be if they lived somewhere else. Somewhere Republican. Meanwhile on Morning Joe, when they begin to talk about states that might flip from blue to red, we begin to see hints of an ideological tilt. While describing Fulton County, Georgia’s difficult search for a new elections director the three discuss the impact of the “Big Lie,” and how “People like Trump think that they have a God given right to win this state.” To Morning Joe, a state like Georgia was reincarnated with its blue wave, but is in danger of slipping back into its red ways. Both shows, although Morning Joe is more subtle, push us to imagine their ideal world, whether that be a red one or a blue one.

Fox is incredibly concerned with the preservation of values. In one segment about California possibly instituting a four day work week, the hosts parrot expressions that today is just “Not the same as the old days.” Earhardt mentions that she will need to bring her daughter to her home state of South Carolina to learn of their “great values.” Doocy repeatedly shares his plans for Easter. While discussing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s new initiative to fund fatherhood, Earhardt interviews Fox correspondent Dave Rubin, who describes the weekend he spent fly fishing with his two sons. When asked what he loves most about being a dad, Rubin responds “Teaching my sons how to become men.” Fox & Friends is for the lovers of tradition and sameness. They are anti “woke-ness,” and anti-elitism. Morning Joe stands with its New York roots.

While both shows are advertised as morning shows that will prepare you for the rest of your day, Fox & Friends strikes the balance between a morning gossip show similar to The View with the looks of a traditional newscast. They include just enough of what looks like a legitimate news source: a correspondent in Lviv, Ukraine, infographics, and so-called experts. But, the reason people keep watching them morning after morning is their ability to empathize with their viewers. Morning Joe doesn’t talk about crime in terms of the criminals even when broadcasting breaking news from the scene of a mass shooting and doesn’t speak negatively about the current liberal administration. Fox & Friends speaks to “you” and Morning Joe speaks about “people.” Fox & Friends is concerned with creating polarizing and sensational entertainment, but in the midst of this pursuit, they lose what Morning Joe has: journalistic integrity.