Conservative elected officials and media personalities have for months decried President Joe Biden for pandemic and holiday-induced supply chain issues.
Weeks ahead of the holiday season, hosts on the conservative Fox News network likened Biden to the Grinch who stole Christmas, anticipating widespread delays in holiday gift deliveries.
While supply chain issues haven't simply evaporated, Fox's hysterical forecasts never materialized. Ninety-nine percent of USPS packages were delivered on time in the weeks ahead of the holiday season. Wal-Mart's U.S. CEO publicly thanked Biden for actions taken to offset bottlenecked imports, such as expanding the Port of Los Angeles' hours to 24/7, securing commitments from top importers to expedite shipping container removal, and signing off on 100 day reviews of vulnerabilities in the supply chain.
Nevertheless, Fox News continues to broadcast pictures of empty store shelves, but they've done so deceptively.
Recently, guest host Rachel Campos-Duffy anchored alongside a graphic of "Empty Shelves Joe," that featured Biden—yet again—with a background of empty store shelves.
There's just one problem: the empty shelves in the graphic were from a store in Japan, taken more than a decade ago.
Uhh is this the same picture? pic.twitter.com/NzYkWrAAFc
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 13, 2022
The photo comes from a 2011 NPR story about the mass exodus of Japanese citizens near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which had suffered an explosion.
People weren't surprised to see Fox grasping at straws.
Another FAUX NEWS con. https://t.co/eOquc1gGox
— Dhobi-Roon (@DhobiRoon) January 13, 2022
Of course they lie…. They are the official propaganda station. https://t.co/f5CMv7X651
— Jeanie (@jeanie31199) January 13, 2022
Constantly lying is part and parcel. https://t.co/CuRFNtbWpf
— __LDK__ (@LarryKness) January 13, 2022
Fox Propaganda are using photos from Fukushima Nuclear Rector Meltdown in Japan 2011 to show mythical “Empty Shelves” in the U.S. in 2022.
Over 25,000 People died and 250,000 lost their homes in that disaster.
There in No Low with State Run TV. https://t.co/coFlGx0btl
— Mikel (@LaukMikel) January 13, 2022
Same pic, but of course Fox viewers will never know (or care). https://t.co/sRCwFwwxpX
— Lola Gayle (@LolaGayleC) January 13, 2022
Hahah. Definitely the same. Fox News never quits with the lies. https://t.co/PRrzPKoTCL
— Lauran (@DunganLauran) January 13, 2022
Many used the picture to justify opposition to Fox being labeled a "news" network in the first place.
FOX news: bringing you the best in fake news https://t.co/vhppHqO3Dc
— James Frye (@JamesFrye) January 13, 2022
Absolutely the same empty shelves picture. Another reason Fox should not be allowed to include "News" in their logo! https://t.co/XUg9J2i80s
— Donald Meyerson, Sr. Der Alte (@boppersan) January 13, 2022
Fox "news" really should change their name to eliminate all possibility of it's pretense of delivering factual information or "news" to the public. https://t.co/ksGtIG5cij
— ᗷoneyardDEM Voting matters (@BoneyardDem) January 13, 2022
UPDATE: In a later broadcast, Fox issued a correction for the error:
A quick word before we go during last night's broadcast we aired a graphic that was believed to contain a current image of empty shelves here in the U.S. It was not and we regret the error.”
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