On the November 26 edition of Fox News Sunday, Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson declared, “The oldest president in U.S. history also continues to face questions about his age, even here in Nantucket,” followed by video of President Joe Biden reacting to a yelled question — “Mr. President, are you too old to be running for reelection?” — which was clearly Tomlinson’s own voice. In reporting the story to his Fox audience, however, Tomlinson did not make it clear that he was the one who asked the question.

Fox News anchor Shannon Bream soon concluded the segment, “All right, Lucas, on the road with the president in Nantucket, thank you very much,” again confirming that Tomlinson was the reporter following Biden around for the Fox team.

Tomlinson had previously appeared Saturday night on Fox’s The Big Weekend Show, in which he and the co-hosts discussed that he had asked Biden those questions. But by Sunday morning, Tomlinson’s depiction of the event on Fox’s flagship “straight news” show had become that Biden “continues to face questions” that Tomlinson himself had been asking.

Numerous commentators and media critics on X (formerly known as Twitter) called out Tomlinson’s report from Sunday morning, including describing it as the “epitome of astroturfing a political attack.” The ridicule piled on further against Tomlinson:

• Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi wrote: “It’s kind of a perpetual motion machine: 1. Report that X ‘continues to face questions;’ 2. Continue to ask those questions; 3. Report that the questions continue; 4. Repeat…”
• The Poynter Institute’s Tom Jones wrote that Tomlinson’s behavior was “deceitful and disingenuous.”
• The conservative media outlet Newsweekran with an understated and deadpan headline, “Fox News Reporter Appears to Leave Out Key Point in Attack on Biden's Age.”
• Tomlinson’s tweet now features a community note on X itself: “This post lacks context. The reporter that asked the question is this reporter, Lucas Tomlinson.”

On Monday, Fox anchor Dana Perino briefly played the clips of Tomlinson’s questions to Biden, with Perino declaring that Biden was “finding no escape from his dismal polling during his Nantucket getaway” — again, with Perino failing to acknowledge that the clip was of a Fox reporter.

Fox anchor Harris Faulkner later played the video clip again, presenting a seemingly new spin from the network on what had just happened by declaring that “the president was not happy about some of the questions from our very own Lucas Tomlinson.” (In fact, people are mocking Tomlinson for the dishonest manner in which he’d presented his question to viewers.)

Tomlinson’s actions over the holiday weekend (followed by Perino and Faulkner’s public obfuscation) should serve as a reminder that Fox is not a news organization at all, but is instead a partisan propaganda organ that exists to spread the network’s chosen political narratives.

Tomlinson’s conduct also needs to be placed in the context of double standards by Fox News — and indeed, a lot of mainstream media outlets, as well — which have sought to portray Biden as too old while simultaneously downplaying or ignoring former president and likely 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump’s numerous misstatements. Moreover, the two men are nearly the same age, a fact that news outlets also tend to ignore.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters