Ross Abramson, a software engineer and recent NYU graduate, had a fairly conventional news diet until recently. He regularly checked his phone for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. And as a Jew with an interest in Israel, I would browse a handful of outlets, including The Times of Israel.
Then, on Oct. 7, the brutal Hamas-led attack on Israel took place, and Abramson found himself turning to a medium he said he didn’t trust much before: Fox News.
“Did I see him religiously before? No,” he said, adding that he found Fox’s reporting and commentary on Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip “less antagonistic, for sure” than other news organizations. “You don’t feel so attacked,” Abramson said.
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Fox News, long a favorite source of right-wing news, has recently become an information haven for American Jews who believe the media has been too hostile to Israel.
It’s a somewhat unlikely alliance. Jews overwhelmingly identify as Democrats. And as the Republican Party came to embrace more populist politics that vilified “globalist” corporate interests and wealthy liberal financiers like George Soros, which many see as coded anti-Semitism, Fox News hosts and guests promoted these opinions.
But more than any major cable news outlet, and perhaps more than any other major American media outlet, Fox News has wrapped itself in the Israeli flag in the weeks since the Hamas attack. Its coverage tends to emphasize the radical and anti-Semitic elements of the pro-Palestinian opposition, particularly on college campuses, while downplaying the civilian casualties of Israeli attacks.
In recent days, a Fox News White House correspondent has sparred with President Joe Biden’s press secretary over whether the administration would label anti-Israel protesters “extremists.” Their hosts criticized the White House for announcing this week that it would launch a national strategy to fight Islamophobia as hate crimes against Jews soar. This week he debuted a new section on his website called “Antisemitism Exposed.”
As CNN and MSNBC went live on Tuesday with the breaking news that Israel had bombed the Jabalia neighborhood, the site of Gaza’s largest refugee camp, an entirely different scene was playing out on Fox News: a segment from the South from Israel reporting that two Israeli soldiers had been killed in the battle and two more wounded.
No specific metrics are available on the religious affiliation of Fox’s audience since Oct. 7, the day Hamas first attacked Israel. But ratings data from major metro areas with large Jewish populations, such as New York, Miami and Los Angeles, show viewership growth that outpaces its rivals.
Since September, Fox News’ audience has grown by a larger percentage than CNN and MSNBC in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington and Miami. And in the New York market, the nation’s largest, Fox has recently beaten its left-leaning rival MSNBC by a few percentage points. In September, Fox drew 16% fewer viewers than MSNBC in New York.
Fox News, with the largest audience of all cable television in recent years, attracts a sizable number of Democratic and liberal-leaning viewers. Among viewers 25-54, the most important demographic for advertisers, Fox News had more people who identify as Democrats watching in prime time than CNN or MSNBC, according to Nielsen data through August
Critics of Israel have taken notice of Fox’s coverage, with some calling the network “Zionist propagandists” while mocking its coverage as turning a blind eye to Palestinian victims. (A recent Fox story that came under fire featured a puppy in need of a home after its Israeli owners were killed in the Hamas assault.)
Some Jews who paid little attention to the conservative network in the past are now tuning in and being surprised. In an interview with The Free Press, a media outlet that has criticized mainstream coverage of Israel, a liberal Jewish woman from Minneapolis said, “My friends and I are like, ‘Oh my God, we’re watching clips on Fox News.’ .”
Liberal Fox host Jessica Tarlov said in a recent appearance on “Real Time with Bill Maher” that her pro-Israel outlook put her out of step with younger Democrats, but not with many of her fellow older millennials , some of which started recently. watching Fox News.
“My liberal Jewish friends will text me and say, ‘Oh, this is where you’re going in the afternoon?’ because they’ve never seen Fox before,” he said.
Fox anchors, especially those who offer the strongest defense of Israel on their shows, insist they are shining a light on reports of anti-Semitism that other media ignore and show support for a US ally being vilified wrongly
On Thursday, Fox broadcast its morning show, “Fox & Friends,” live from Second Avenue Deli on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a New York institution that bills itself as “an authentic Jewish culinary experience.” It was the site of anti-Semitic vandalism last month after someone drew a swastika near the restaurant’s back door.
Lawrence Jones, co-host of the show, received a standing ovation from customers who picked up his corned beef hash, bagels and scrambled eggs when he said the media had not done an adequate job of reporting on the situation Israel
He highlighted coverage last month of an explosion at a hospital in Gaza. Several media outlets initially told headlines that Israel had bombed the site, citing a Gaza official. Hours later, Israel said the explosion was caused by an errant Palestinian rocket. Those early reports, he said, were a “hoax.” (Fox News initially reported that Hamas claimed Israel was responsible, but also noted that Israel had not confirmed this.)
Then, referring to criticism that some media outlets, including Fox, had been too pro-Israel, Jones said it was legitimate to pick a side in this conflict. “I think we’ve taken the side of life.”
One of the deli’s customers, Elliot Galpern, who lives in Manhattan and works in real estate, thanked Jones off camera after the segment ended. In an interview, Galpern, a registered Democrat, said he couldn’t have imagined six months ago that he would be addressing Fox News, which he said he probably would have laughed off as “fake news.”
Now, he said of Fox, “We’re very happy that they’re covering this. We don’t have enough coverage. And it’s very important to see what’s going on.”
Galpern pulled out his phone to show headlines from Israeli publications reporting various atrocities committed by Hamas, as well as the group’s vows of revenge against Israel. “These should be headlines in America,” he said.
His sister, Ariel Stern, said she found Fox’s reporting to be a counterbalance to the bias of other American media outlets. “It seems that any chance to blame Israel, the media has it.”
But Fox can also outdo itself. This week, the network was accused of Islamophobia after a host, Jesse Watters, declared, “We’ve had it with them,” referring to Muslims. A White House spokesman condemned the remarks.
Fox, as a corporation, has not only devoted extensive coverage to the Israeli perspective, but has also begun running public service announcements on Fox News and Fox Sports. A recent spot produced by the Robert Kraft Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism laments, “When hate rises, so does everyone.”
In many ways, Fox’s coverage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas is reminiscent of the way the network covered the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The Fox News anchors left little light between their comments and the policies of the Bush administration. American flags and red, white and blue graphics flutter across the screen.
“This is our 9/11,” Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said in a recent Fox News interview.
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