Two complementary reports from ProPublica published in recent days have resulted in intense new scrutiny of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Last week, the independent news site reported that Thomas had received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of trips from billionaire Harlan Crow without reporting the largesse. Then, on Thursday, ProPublica reported that Crow had purchased property from Thomas, transactions that Thomas again failed to report.
For more than a week, political observers and elected officials have parsed and discussed the interactions. Crow himself has been a subject of a great deal of analysis; his hobby of collecting souvenirs linked to Adolf Hitler has been a particular source of fascination. The more important conversations, though, center on renewed questions about the standards of behavior to which members of the nation’s highest court are subjected.
If you are a consumer of Fox News, though, you might not have heard about any of this.
It is by now well established that news that casts conservatives and Republicans in a negative light is downplayed on the right-wing cable channel. One example is the initial reporting on Stormy Daniels’s allegations about Donald Trump from 2018, allegations at the center of the former president’s recent arrest in New York City. At the time, Fox News largely ignored the story, recognizing, no doubt, that their pro-Trump viewership wouldn’t respond positively.
(Recall what prime-time host Laura Ingraham said about the channel’s decision not to air a hearing from the House select committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol: “We actually do something called, you know, cater to our audience.”)
A review of the past 10 days of coverage on CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN and Fox News shows that the latter channel has been least likely to mention the Supreme Court justice. MSNBC has mentioned him the most, his name coming up in nearly 500 15-second segments since April 4. On Fox News, he’s come up less than 50 times, less than half as often as he’s been mentioned on C-SPAN.
As a percentage of each channel’s coverage on a given day, both Thomas and Crow have largely been absent from Fox News’s coverage.
Fox News has mentioned Thomas in fewer than 50 15-second blocks since the first ProPublica story broke. It has mentioned Bud Light in 183 segments.
The channel also hasn’t dedicated much coverage to Thomas on its website, where it has more capacity for doing so. But only about a half-dozen articles about Thomas have appeared since the first ProPublica report — almost always framed as Thomas being under attack by Democrats and the left.
April 6: “Clarence Thomas report spurs new calls from Democrats for Supreme Court code of ethics”April 6: “Progressive Democrats call for Clarence Thomas impeachment after reported undisclosed gifts from GOP megadonor”April 7: “Justice Thomas defends trips taken with ‘dearest friends’ after reports say he accepted gifts”April 8: “Democrats press Supreme Court chief justice to investigate Clarence Thomas’ trips with GOP megadonor”April 9: “Report on Clarence Thomas’ travel habits is ‘politics plain and simple’: expert”April 10: “AOC doubles down on ‘ignoring’ abortion rule, Clarence Thomas impeachment: ‘abuse of judicial overreach’ ”April 10: “Senate Democrats demand Chief Justice Roberts open investigation into Clarence Thomas over ‘misconduct’”
Democrats are attacking him, wanting to impeach him, playing politics. The story isn’t about what Thomas is accused of, it’s about how Democrats are exploiting what he’s accused of — accusations that aren’t themselves robustly presented. As of writing, there have been no stories at Fox News about Crow’s buying property from Thomas. There have also been no stories about Crow’s predilection for buying and displaying Nazi artifacts.
As The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake wrote this week, Republicans are much more likely to give Thomas a pass on the new revelations than are Americans overall. Republicans are also half as likely as Democrats to say they’ve heard a lot about the Thomas story.
Not surprising, given that Fox News is the most popular cable-news channel among Republicans.