Fox News’ overtly anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and coverage of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill has generated outrage from elsewhere within the Murdoch media empire.
An employee networking and resource group for Fox Corporation’s LGBTQ staffers and allies earlier this month condemned the conservative cable giant’s “hateful” coverage of the new Florida law and issues surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity. The denunciation was in response to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) removing Fox Corp’s status as a preferred LGBTQ employer over its recent on-air rhetoric.
“Fox Pride denounces statements made regarding sexual orientation and gender identity on FOX News in the past week,” read the lengthy message posted on April 5 to the group’s company-wide Slack channel, which includes staffers from Fox News, Fox Weather, and other Fox brands. The note was verified and reviewed by The Daily Beast. “While the internal support and resources Fox Corp. offers to LGBTQ+ employees are amazing and supportive, the public facing messaging and rhetoric is the opposite. We find it disheartening and a step backward in the acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community.”
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The internal Slack message was first reported by media gossip site FTV Live.
The message, labeled as being “from the Fox Pride Board,” received dozens of positive emoji reactions from Fox-wide Slack users, including hearts and various pride flags. It is unclear when and how the note of condemnation was sent to Fox Corp brass.
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The statement continued: “FOX News is one of the most watched cable networks in the nation and we must be mindful that the impact these words have on the LGBTQ+ community—especially youth. LGBTQ+ youth have the highest rate of suicide and words matter. Hateful words and generalizations about sexual orientation and gender identity have a direct impact on people’s lives. We are working to address and make sure our voices are heard.”
As the company’s employee resource group, FOX Pride “supports causes important to the LGBTQ community and fosters a work environment where all of FOX’s LGBTQ colleagues feel 100% authentic and professionally supported.” Another message in the Fox Pride chat room invited members to participate in an “open discussion” to have a “safe dialogue” about discriminatory anti-LGBTQ laws around the country.
When reached for comment, a Fox Corp spokesperson wrote: “We are fully committed to freedom of speech and freedom of the press because we know these precious rights as well as diversity of thought and opinion benefit us all.” When reached for comment, a Fox News spokesperson referred to the same statement.
Starting last month, after Disney spoke out against the vaguely worded Florida bill banning discussion of sexuality and gender in school classrooms, Fox News hosts and commentators began melting down on air with a deceptive smear campaign targeting the Mouse House’s support for the LGBTQ community.
With the network’s wall-to-wall segments soon veering into outright homophobia and anti-trans panic as hosts claimed Disney was pushing a “progressive LGBT agenda” that supported the “chemical castration” and “grooming” of young kids, the HRC on April 1 demoted the network’s parent company from its list of top workplaces—strictly in response to Fox News’ recent coverage.
“Fox News has a history of sharing misinformation and disinformation about the LGBTQ+ community. We know from our own research, which we put out earlier this week, what their disinformation and misinformation means for the LGBTQ+ community: perpetuating stigma and marginalization of transgender and non-binary people,” HRC senior press secretary Aryn Fields said in a statement.
“We can no longer allow Fox Corporation to maintain its score if Fox News personalities and contributors continue to deny the existence of transgender people, minimize the violence transgender individuals face, refer to parents of LGBTQ+ youth as perverts, or equate leaders of LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion efforts with sex offenders,” she added. “Each of these actions happened in the last 72 hours. Enough is enough.”
While Fox News has only ramped up its anti-LGBTQ “Doom & Groom” rhetoric since then, Fox Corporation’s LGBTQ employees and allies have, indeed, made their anger known about the damage the network has done to the company’s reputation.
As one Fox insider told The Daily Beast, many of the company’s LGBTQ employees are “very outraged,” especially as the network’s personalities are “targeting Disney for doing what [Fox is] doing internally in terms of promoting inclusion.”
Additionally, this insider expressed how much Fox’s rhetoric has potentially damaged the company as a whole and angered employees across the corporation.
“The thing is, internally, the company values diversity,” explained the insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “They invest in it and foster it from a management perspective. The on-air Fox News product, however, spits in the face of it. The employees are getting sick of it.”
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