Michael: Alright Kevin, quick pop quiz. What do you think was the most used word on Fox News in 2020, besides the obvious ones like 'Trump' or 'election'? Kevin: Oh, that's a good one. I'm going to guess something like 'freedom' or maybe 'socialism'? Something that really gets the base fired up. Michael: Good guesses, but not even close. According to the book's analysis, the word was 'hoax.' It was uttered over 1,500 times on the network in that one year. Kevin: Whoa. 1,500 times? That’s more than four times a day. That's not just a word; that's a deliberate strategy. It's a lens for viewing the world. Michael: Exactly. And that strategy is the central, terrifying theme of the book we're diving into today: "Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth" by Brian Stelter. What makes this book so compelling is its sourcing. Stelter, who was the chief media correspondent at rival network CNN, managed to get over 250 insiders to talk, including more than 140 people who were currently working at Fox News. Kevin: Hold on, current employees? So these are people speaking out from inside the machine, while it's still running at full speed. That’s incredible. It’s one thing to have former employees talk, but current ones? That adds a whole different layer of credibility and risk. Michael: It absolutely does. And it helps answer the fundamental question the book poses: How did a major news network and a sitting president effectively merge into a single, powerful propaganda apparatus?

Kevin: That's the question, isn't it? Because it didn't just feel like favorable coverage. It felt like they were operating as one entity. Where does a story like that even begin? It couldn't have just started on Inauguration Day 2017. Michael: You're right, it started decades earlier, with the parallel rise of two master media manipulators: Roger Ailes, the founder of Fox News, and Donald Trump himself. The book paints them as two sides of the same coin. Both were obsessed with public relations, both believed in leadership through fear, and both saw the media not as a tool for truth, but as a weapon to be wielded. Kevin: It’s like they shared the same operational DNA. Michael: Precisely. Stelter tells this amazing story from Trump's early real estate days in the 80s. To get favorable press, Trump would call reporters pretending to be his own publicist, a fictional character named 'John Barron.' He'd feed them glowing stories about himself. Kevin: Come on. He actually did that? He pretended to be someone else to praise himself? That sounds like something out of a comedy sketch. Michael: He did. And it worked. Meanwhile, you have Roger Ailes, a brilliant but deeply paranoid political operative, building Fox News. His famous slogan, "Fair and Balanced," was a stroke of marketing genius. It wasn't a promise of objectivity; it was a signal to a conservative audience that felt ignored by the "liberal media." It told them, "We are on your side." Kevin: So from the very beginning, the foundation wasn't journalism, it was marketing to a specific tribe. Michael: It was about creating a safe space for a particular worldview. And no show exemplified this better than Fox & Friends. This is where the symbiotic machine was truly forged. Long before his presidency, Trump became a regular weekly guest. The segment was literally called "Monday Mornings with Trump." Kevin: Wait, a weekly segment? So he had a recurring spot on a national morning show to just... talk? Michael: Not just talk. To road-test his political identity. This is where he pushed the racist birther conspiracy theory, questioning Obama's citizenship. The hosts didn't just give him a platform; they actively encouraged him. One of the hosts, Steve Doocy, even told him on air, "They’re trying to paint you as the mayor of Crazytown for bringing this up," essentially framing Trump as a brave truth-teller, not a conspiracy theorist. Kevin: That’s a huge distinction. They weren't just interviewing him; they were validating him. They were basically co-creating the narrative with him. Michael: And that created the feedback loop that defined his presidency. A former Fox & Friends producer is quoted in the book saying something absolutely chilling: "People don’t care if it’s right, they just want their side to win. That’s who this show is for." Trump would watch the show in the morning, see what topics were generating outrage, and then tweet about them. Kevin: And then the show would cover his tweets as breaking news. Michael: Exactly! It became a closed circuit. He was essentially getting his daily intelligence briefing from a morning talk show, and the show was getting its agenda from him. It was a perfectly engineered, self-perpetuating reality distortion field. One anchor even admitted to Stelter, with remorse, "We surrendered to Trump. We just surrendered." Kevin: So basically, the network that was supposed to be covering the president was, in reality, being produced by him, and in turn, was producing his presidency. That's a mind-bending concept. Michael: It's unprecedented in American history. The book details how Sean Hannity became an informal chief of staff, talking to Trump on the phone almost every night, giving him advice, and then echoing that same advice on his show hours later as if it were his own independent analysis. The line between state and media didn't just blur; it completely dissolved.

Kevin: Okay, so the machine is built. It's powerful, it's seamless. But a powerful machine can be used for good or ill. What happens when you point this 'reality distortion field' at something real and deadly, like a global pandemic? Michael: That’s when the 'hoax' strategy had its most devastating consequences. The book lays out a timeline that is just jaw-dropping. In early March 2020, as the virus was silently spreading across the U.S., Fox News executives were taking it very seriously behind the scenes. They were canceling events, drawing up work-from-home plans, and preparing for the worst. Kevin: That sounds responsible. That’s what any major corporation would do. Michael: Yes, but what was happening on their airwaves was the complete opposite. While executives were planning for a lockdown, their biggest stars were telling millions of viewers it was nothing to worry about. Greg Gutfeld joked, "The thing that’s going to end this is the warmer weather. Thank God for global warming." Kevin: Wow. And their medical analyst? Surely he knew better. Michael: On March 6th, Fox's medical analyst, Dr. Marc Siegel, went on air and told the audience that the coronavirus, "at worst, at worst, worst case scenario, it could be the flu." All of this was happening while Trump was echoing the same message, saying it would "disappear... like a miracle." Kevin: That's just chilling. They knew internally how serious it was, but they broadcast a message of denial to their audience, which, by the way, skews older and is in the highest-risk demographic for this very virus. The disconnect is staggering. Michael: It's a profound betrayal of trust. And this same dynamic, this same machine, was then aimed squarely at the 2020 election. After spending months priming the audience with claims of fraud, we get to the ultimate, ironic conclusion of this feedback loop: the January 6th Capitol riot. Kevin: I feel like I know where this is going, but lay it out for me. Michael: On January 6th, as the Capitol is being stormed by a mob fueled by the very election lies his network had been pushing, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is hiding in a secure location. He calls Trump, begging him to call off the rioters. But Trump, according to reports, is more interested in watching the "show" on TV. Kevin: So the president won't listen to one of the most powerful leaders in his own party. What does McCarthy do? Michael: This is the climax of the entire book. McCarthy does the only thing he can think of. He calls Fox News. He goes live on the air with anchor Bill Hemmer, not to report the news, but to send a message to an audience of one: the President of the United States, who he knows is watching. He's practically begging through the television, "This must stop now." Kevin: Hold on. Let me get this straight. The very network that spent months telling its viewers the election was a 'hoax' and a 'steal' is the same one a top Republican leader has to call to try and put out the fire they helped start? The arsonist is being asked to lead the fire brigade. That's insane. Michael: It's the perfect, tragic illustration of the book's thesis. The propaganda machine they built had become so powerful that it was the only way to communicate with its own creation. A guilt-stricken Fox News veteran texted Stelter after the riot, "What have we done?" They knew they had been a radicalization engine, and on that day, the engine exploded.

Kevin: It’s hard to even process the scale of this. The book isn't just about media bias. It's about the complete fusion of media and power in a way that feels... fundamentally broken. Michael: That's the core insight. The title, "Hoax," is so brilliant because it's not just about individual lies. It's about the promotion of a worldview where objective truth itself is a hoax. The goal wasn't to convince you of a different set of facts; it was to convince you that no facts are reliable, that everything is a partisan attack, and that the only people you can trust are the ones inside the bubble—Trump and Fox News. Kevin: It creates a sense of nihilism. If you can't trust anything, you'll just stick with your tribe. Michael: Exactly. Stelter quotes an expert on Russian propaganda, Peter Pomerantsev, who makes a chilling comparison. He says Trump's constant use of the word 'hoax' is uncannily familiar to anyone who has studied Vladimir Putin's tactics. The goal is to dismiss all criticism as an 'information war,' which makes evidence-based, rational debate impossible. It's a direct assault on the foundations of a deliberative democracy. Kevin: When the president himself tells you, "What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening," and points you to a single news channel for the 'real' story... that's a profound level of gaslighting. Michael: And Stelter concludes that this was the biggest hoax of all. The idea that you should abandon your own eyes, your own reason, and just trust in the Fox News president. Kevin: It makes you wonder, how do we rebuild a shared sense of reality when some of the most powerful media voices in the country are so heavily incentivized to tear it apart? Michael: That's the billion-dollar question the book leaves us with, and it's a terrifying one. There's no easy answer. And it's something we'd love to hear your thoughts on. What do you think? How do we combat this kind of dangerous distortion when it’s so profitable and politically powerful? Let us know your thoughts. Michael: This is Aibrary, signing off.