Tipsheet

Fox News Under Fire for Pro-Trans Children Segment

Mia Cathell
Mia Cathell  |  June 15, 2022 5:00 PM

After parroting the brainwashing propaganda of LGBTQ+ activists, right-leaning news outlet Fox News is under fire from its conservative viewership and prominent pundits for airing a glowing segment Friday profiling the "journey" of a 14-year-old transgender teen named Ryland Whittington, who "came out" at five-years-old and "managed to tell 'his' parents" that their biological female baby is a boy before the child could even speak.

The programming block was televised last week as part of the network's "America Together: Celebrating Diversity" advertised Pride Month series, highlighting in a sympathetic light Ryland's story of transitioning at age five, as told in a family YouTube video seen by over 8 million viewers. Fox News national correspondent Bryan Llenas presented the TV package during "America's Newsroom" and told the program's audience that Ryland "managed to tell 'his' parents that 'he' is a boy" before words were even uttered from the kid's mouth.

This so-called revelation and "coming out" inspired Ryland's parents to abet gender experimentation on their child. "It was truly painful for 'him' to have to wear feminine clothing and for us constantly telling 'him' that 'You're a girl,'" Ryland's mother Hillary Whittington told Fox News with the family assembled on the couch for the "Raising Ryland" taping. Images of a toddler-aged Ryland sucking on a pacifier and wearing pig tails were flashed on the screen. "Children actually do recognize their gender identity very young," Hillary continued. "But they listened to Ryland..." Llenas remarked. Fox News then showcased statistics from the radical Trevor Project, which argues that sex change is a preventative measure against gender-dysphoric youth self-harming or committing suicide. "I'd rather have a living son than a dead daughter," Hillary stated during the interview, although there's no proven evidence that gender transitioning alleviates suicidal ideation.

In the section's conclusion, Llenas commended the family of four's "extraordinary courage" and thanked the Whittingtons for appearing on the weekday morning Fox News show, "particularly at a time when transgender issues have been politicized." Llenas asserted: "People are afraid of what they do not understand."

Critics pointed out that the segment failed to mention the irreversible, long-term damage of childhood transitioning to the body disguised as "gender-affirming care," such as infertility, genital mutilation billed as surgery, and chemical castration masqueraded as hormone treatment. The piece also didn't include the personal testimonies of de-transitioners suffering with life-long regret. In contrast, Fox News staple and network maverick Tucker Carlson's primetime Monday evening show previewed "Transgressive: The Cult of Confusion," a Tucker Carlson Originals documentary that props up well-known de-transitioner Helena Kerschner. "There's a lot of propaganda in the trans agenda," Carlson tweeted, teasing the interview.

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Additionally, on Wednesday morning, "America's Newsroom" co-hosts Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer discussed a new Washington Post-University of Maryland poll that shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans, 58 percent, believe that biological male athletes identifying as "transgender women" should not be allowed to participate in female sports, whether collegiate or professional. 55 percent of respondents said the practice shouldn't be permitted in high school sports and 49 percent said it shouldn't happen in youth sports.

"Dana and I were just talking. We both kind of think that number should have been higher," Hemmer said of support to protect girls and women's sports. Perino mentioned how they had welcomed Southern Utah College runner Madisan DeBos on the show Thursday to take a stand for fairness in female sports being dominated by transgender competitors. "Here's this young women, who's one of very few people who is brave enough to be able to get up and say something and stand up for herself, where is everybody else?" Perino asked.

The hot button issue of "Trans-ing the Kids" has become the latest battlefront in today's culture war as Republicans are fighting at the state level to protect innocent children from the Left's perverted agenda. It was what one expected from progressive mouthpiece CNN, which had profiled Ryland back in 2015 with similar framing. So how did this land on Fox News airwaves? The segment's apparent endorsement of minors undergoing social and physical transitioning feels wildly out of touch and at odds with the network's beliefs at large. It's prompted many to question how this ideological train wreck, an antithesis of modern conservative values, was green-lighted in the first place. Llenas, who later promoted the four-minute, 19-second clip on Twitter, revealed his segment was also the work of Fox News senior field producer Melissa Chrise.

Both she and Llenas have remained radio silent on social media, except Chrise has retweeted warm admiration from her colleague Fox News senior correspondent Alicia Acuna, who is based in the network's Denver bureau.

Townhall reached out to Llenas, Chrise, and members of the FOX News Media team to find out why the pro-trans segment was assembled and then aired. All are declining to comment on the matter.

The trans-friendly piece, titled "California transgender teen, family hope to be an inspiration to others," evoked widespread backlash from outraged Fox News viewers and political commentators for its one-sided, "outright promotion" of child transitioning, specifically drawing criticism from familiar faces on top Fox News shows.

Daily Wire host Matt Walsh, a frequent Fox News guest, said on Twitter in response to the controversial video that he knows "for a fact that many people at Fox do not approve of this and never would have agreed to air radical far left trans propaganda." Walsh called for "everyone involved" to be "fired immediately."

"I appreciate the platform they've given me. If what I'm about to say ruins that relationship, so be it. We have to call this evil lunacy out wherever we see it. Especially on our own side," tweeted Walsh, who has exposed the insanity of pro-trans extremism in his "bestselling LGBTQ+" children's book and new film "What Is a Woman?"

"Fox viewers must demand that Fox publicly retract and apologize for the horrendous, dangerous propaganda it aired today and fire the people responsible for it," Walsh added. "Accept nothing less than full accountability."

Walsh's colleague Ben Shapiro, a conservative firebrand and high-profile Fox News regular, called the segment's editorial direction "a complete betrayal of anything remotely resembling conservatism or decency." In a Daily Wire column Friday, the Nashville-based outlet's editor emeritus said that Fox News is "too important to conservatives to be weaponized on behalf" of far-left gender identity theory that "victimizes" young kids and is a destructive force that "aims directly at the mental and physical health of children." Shapiro joined Walsh in urging the company to "terminate whoever is responsible for this agitprop abomination."

Conservative stalwart Dan Bongino, a notable Fox News contributor who hosts "Unfiltered" and "Canceled in the USA" on FOX Nation, had retweeted Shapiro's and Walsh's commentary on Twitter opposing the segment.

BlazeTV podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey, who has authored Fox News op-eds and often offers commentary on Fox News, chastised the segment for its "absolutely maddening" and "depraved" stance Friday.

On Monday's episode of "Relatable," she stated, "If [Fox News] goes down this path, if it destroys itself from within because it is latching on to the most toxic and radical parts of progressivism, which is gender ideology afflicted on children, then I will not be sad. I will not be sad if it combust." Stuckey said of cancellation efforts facing off with Fox News: "I will not be sad if it goes away. It deserves everything that it's going to get."

In addition to on-air talent, Fox News viewers fiercely lambasted Friday's take. Fox News has gone "full groomer," detractors declared, observing that Ryland's heartbreaking tale is a broadcasted case study of parents foisting radical gender ideology upon their own confused pre-pubescent child, now in the turbulent throes of adolescence. Others called out the sugarcoated evil for what it is: "child abuse" of a vulnerable teen who can't consent to sexual activity and has the fleeting attention span of a TikTok influencer but apparently has the full bodily autonomy to make life-altering decisions (horrifyingly with parental consent).

According to the webpage for the network's "America Together" series description, FOX News Media is "celebrating diversity" in a special cross-platform editorial series, profiling key figures with unique backgrounds and success in entertainment, science, and business sectors. Under the LGBTQ+ Pride Month category, the network says it celebrates the contributions that the LGBTQ+ community has made to America. Other checklist categories include FOX News Media touting the historic achievements of Asian Americans and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders for AANHPI Heritage Month, American women for Women's History Month, influential black Americans for Black History Month, and Hispanic Americans for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Last year, Llenas was also the network's storyteller for Pride Month. Llenas, who is gay and Dominican, has talked to the media about minority representation in journalism. "People that look like me are underrepresented in news," Llenas told People Magazine in September 2020. "I am fully aware of how important it is for people who look like the rest of society to be on the news every single day." Llenas added: "I have a responsibility to open the doors to other people in my community."