The construction of Fox reality

Now that Fox seems to have settled -- OK, sorry, air quotes, "settled" -- on a primary identity for the Alleged Ivy League Radical Leftist Accused Killer Suspect, let's look a bit further at the construction of Fox reality. Of particular interest in Wednesday morning's top three stories (captured around 7:30 Eastern US) are the issues that Fox manages to loop the seemingly isolated events into.

First off, congratulations. Some lucky Fox employee gets to use Lachlan Murdoch's parking space tomorrow for working OBAMA!!!! into the headline on the morning's top story. And we can point to authority for the idea: "former FBI Agent." How clearly might the text make the connection?

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's alleged killer, once a private school valedictorian and an Ivy League graduate, may have been triggered by his age and an ObamaCare provision, according to a former investigator.

... "He's 26 years old, which is the year you get kicked off your family's insurance claim," retired FBI agent Scott Duffey told Fox News Digital. "Was he well insured or was he not? Those are the things that I would be asking as an investigator."

ObamaCare, also known as the Affordable Care Act, requires health plans that offer dependent child coverage to make the coverage available until the adult child reaches the age of 26, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

"I'm not so sure he has remorse," Duffey added. "I feel like whatever took place in his life relatively soon… he made a conscious decision to go down this road."

I suppose it's some consolation that someone, somewhere, is training a large language model on this stuff. Anyway, even if our expert hasn't said the O-word yet. at least we know that the nonretired cops have thought some of the same things:

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione may have sustained a back injury on July 4, 2023.

"He was posting an X-ray on his social media. Some of the writings that he had, he was discussing the difficulty of sustaining that injury," Kenny told Fox News on Tuesday. "So we're looking into whether or not the insurance industry either denied a claim from him or didn't help him out to the fullest extent."

But back to the magic 8-ball investigator:

Duffey said he wonders when Mangione made the "turn" that led to his downfall, adding, "was it when he got into some sort of physical ailment and then perhaps medication … realized just how people are suffering and then got this guilt trip that… 'I've got to change the world?' Or did he suffer some sort of mental break?"

He could go on (and, indeed, he does). But if you're wondering why this particular fount of wisdom was chosen to illuminate this particular shooting, you might ask how often he's provided a similar service for Fox in the past six months:

Rachel Morin murder: Former FBI agent reveals how capture of illegal immigrant suspect in killing went down (June 16)

What FBI searching Trump shooter's phone and laptop at Quantico are looking for: Fmr. agent (July 16)

Trump assassination attempt: Suspect Ryan Routh played 'cat and mouse' with police, expert says (Sept. 20)

The good luck of an Obama-adjacent quote is the result of persistence.

The passive "Anti-Trump DA's decision-making questioned" is an easier reporting lift; Fox contributor Andrew McCarthy has already done the work for National Review. If "Nothing to 'Bragg' about" looks familiar, it should. The same hed has adorned stories among the top 10 on March 10 (the Daniel Penny case), April 16 (asking a judge to hold Trump in contempt) and June 26 (facing a "formal ethics complaint"). There's also a "He'll 'Bragg' about it" (May 30, taking a "victory lap" after the Trump verdict) and a "Humbling 'Bragg'" (Feb. 2, an "immigrant attack on cops").

Through mid-November, "Follow the money" had appeared among the top 10 headlines on the homepage on Jan. 10, March 10, April 22, May 5, May 12 and Oct. 7. The subhed on that last case sums things up well: "Video nukes WH defense as Americans left short after funds spent on illegal immigrants."

Events have to clear certain hurdles to turn into stories, and stories in turn can't turn into issues by themselves. Your chance at that coveted execurive parking space could depend on how quickly you can slot a story into the most congruent slot.