CNN commentator and Washington Post syndicated columnist Catherine Rampell said Sunday that Fox News' coverage of a number of topics, including the immigration crisis, a "senile" President Joe Biden and critical race theory "brainwashing kids," were "invented out of whole cloth."
During a Sunday morning segment on "Reliable Sources," host Brian Stelter showed rolling footage of several chyrons that have appeared at the bottom of the screen on Fox News. He claimed that a person watching the network may think that America had "gone to hell."
CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy said that Fox News' coverage was like an "Instagram filter," arguing that, while the story may initially be accurate, the presentation makes it appear distorted.
Stelter, referring to recent polls showing that the majority of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, said "most Americans are filled with doom and gloom" before arguing that "we need to link it back to the media coverage."
Rampell responded by suggesting that Americans' outlook on the current state of the country is dictated based on the media coverage they consume, and said that COVID-19 and climate change are more dangerous "mortal threats" than the "exaggerated" Fox News coverage on immigration, Biden's mental state and the impact of critical race theory on children.
.@crampell to @brianstelter: Fox News' coverage of the border crisis "and the senile president and Critical Race Theory brainwashing your kids, and things that are, you know, if not just exaggerated, invented out of whole cloth." pic.twitter.com/fWbGl51ZV3
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) January 23, 2022
"Obviously they're getting that messaging from the media they consume," Rampell said. "That set of headlines that you just scrolled through, I could feel my blood pressure rising just reading those. That's the goal, right? The goal of this kind of coverage is to freak people out, to cause them to live in fear."
"Ironically a lot of the fearmongering is about the things that are not actually mortal threats and then there is ignoring the things that are mortal threats, you know, COVID isn't real and climate change isn't real," she continued. "I would argue that, to me anyway, those things are a little scarier or have been scarier at various points in the past couple years. Instead it's about the immigrant hoards and a senile president and critical race theory brainwashing your kids, things that are if not just exaggerated, are invented out of whole cloth."