Welcome back to Media Matters’ weekly newsletter. This week:
What they don't want you to know: The president of the United States is increasingly accusing reporters and news outlets of committing “treason.” It appears tied to the outlets reporting about the faltering Iran war.
Fox News is avoiding coverage of some of the biggest stories of the moment — stories that make Trump look bad.
In March, Laura Ingraham said, “Trump has already won in Iran.” Now, she’s claiming she always opposed the war.
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This week's infighting
There are interesting things happening in Spanish-language right-wing media: A Real America’s Voice Noticias guest said that, “The Republican Party is sleeping on the job, it’s focusing too much on deporting.”
A Cada Tarde guest said that, “It causes me enormous pain, enormous, to see what I'm seeing them do to the Latino community. I have solidarity with them, I want to it to be known that today I publicly say I regret having helped President Trump, because I never would have believed I would pay for that with what they are doing to Venezuelans who are asking for protection and asylum in this country and are persecuted as though they were criminals. And they're not. They already captured Tren de Aragua members, those with criminal records can go. Those who tricked and lied in order to get asylum, they can get captured and cast out. But here we have a working and decent community, where if you travel the country as I do for my work, what you find are people working two or three jobs to keep their family afloat.”
Also this week, Trump visited New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani at Gracie Mansion. Steve Bannonexpressed frustration with this visit, saying, “I don’t see how that hooks into Mamdani’s a Ugandan Marxist jihadist.”
A guest on Bannon’s show this week said, “Trump’s credibility on the whole subject of Iran is pretty close to zero.”
The negative space in Fox News coverage
Citation
Andrea Austria / Media Matters
Fox News’ MAGA stars have spent President Donald Trump’s second term lavishing praise on him and his purported accomplishments, denouncing his opponents in vitriolic terms and telling viewers which culture war enemies to hate. But any understanding of the goals of a political outlet like Fox is incomplete without considering the stories it doesn’t cover: a list that, as of late, includes the Iran war, the Trump family’s alleged corruption and the president’s unpopularity.
This negative space in Fox’s coverage largely emphasizes the hosts’ choices, and while it’s hardly novel for Fox to dodge bad news for Republicans, the network’s hosts are going to remarkable lengths in Trump’s second term to avoid what should be important subjects.
Media Matters’ Matt Gertz wrote this great op-ed for MS NOW detailing the way Fox is avoiding key stories that reflect poorly on the president.
What they don't want you to know
The president of the United States is increasingly accusing reporters and news outlets of committing “treason.” Trump’s accusations really picked up after the war he launched against Iran on February 28 began to falter. Trump has since accused CNN, MS NOW, ABC, NBC, The Washington Post, and The New York Times of treason, singling out CNN’s Collins and Times reporter David Sanger in particular. He has described it as “treasonous” to report that the Iran war has left Iran in a strengthened position, that it has reduced U.S. munitions stockpiles to a critical level, and that he is displeased with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. And recall, as this situation has deteriorated, Fox News top shows are talking about Iran less and less.
Excuse me?
A Fox News podcast guest said, “If people in this country are like, gas is too high, man the F up.” Meanwhile, local TV news stations across the country have made a point to cover how farmers are hurting as peak harvest season approaches due to the high cost of diesel. You can check out this reporting here.
Fox News and Fox Business personalities continue to blame the Biden administration for voters’ affordability concerns translating to preference for Democrats over Republicans in regard to the economy. In reality, the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers have taken numerous actions that are making Americans’ lives more expensive.
Inside the right-wing media split on AI regulation
Citation
Andrea Austria/Media Matters for America
We’ve been talking about the growing rift in right-wing media regarding regulating the artificial intelligence industry, with some figures opposed to regulation while others support it, and voice fears about machines “running the country.” All of this comes in the context of escalating warnings about exponential AI development, autonomous digital agents, and apocalyptic scenarios. Right-wing media are split about whether or not AI could “kill us all.”
Fox News, for its part, has stayed close to Trump’s stance on the technology, questioning calls to regulate the development of AI and fretting that regulation could benefit China in the “AI arms race.” However, a handful of Trump allies and right-wing media figures, including Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and Roger Stone, have expressed concerns about AI’s capabilities, with some calling for regulatory action.
Media Matters’ Torri Lonergan and Jack Wheatley wrote this fantastic piece breaking down the split over AI in right-wing media spaces.
Laura Ingraham is rewriting her mealy-mouthed acquiescence of the Iran war into opposition from the beginning
Citation
The Ingraham Angle on Fox News, 3/2/26
Fox News host Laura Ingrahamsaid on her September 21 show that she opposed Trump’s war on Iran “from day one,” a position that would almost certainly come as a surprise to her viewers. Those who had watched her show in early March, as the Trump administration launched its war against Iran alongside Israel, heard something very different.
While it’s true that Ingraham was mildly skeptical of the war, at least by the standards of Fox News, prior to the launching of hostilities on February 28. Nonetheless, within days of the war starting, Ingraham’s weathervane had caught the breeze and her tone was markedly more hawkish. Her March 2 show was a full endorsement of Trump’s war of aggression.
Ingraham’s revisionist history — claiming to have always opposed a war she once supported — is self-serving. As public opinion about the U.S.-Israel war on Iran sinks into a quagmire and the MAGA movement lurches toward whatever form it may take after Trump is no longer in the White House, Ingraham may just be hedging her bets.
On March 2, Ingraham declared: “Only a few days into military strikes, none of the major objections to this action withstand serious scrutiny.”
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