Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey: How Fox works

Need a nice ripped-from-the-headlines example of how securitization theory interacts with the Rules of Journalism to tilt the public your way? Take it away, Fair 'n' Balanced Network!

As of this writing (around 12:30 p.m. Eastern US on Thursday), Fox's top homepage presence on the (ahem) "Sin City Scare"* was posted at 9:08 p.m.  Wednesday:

... Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said during a press conference on Wednesday that investigators know who rented the Cybertruck, which was acquired in Colorado, though they are not prepared to identify that person without 100% certainty.

McMahill also said investigators were able to trace the truck through Tesla charging stations. License plate readers in Las Vegas first detected the vehicle at about 7:30 a.m., and McMahill said it traveled up and down Las Vegas Boulevard before pulling into the Trump hotel valet area.

Within 15-20 seconds of pulling up to the hotel, the sheriff added, the vehicle exploded.

Which is certainly better than "nearly** 20 seconds after pulling up to the Trump International Hotel," but that's not the timey-wimey issue at stake here. Consider this, posted at 3:32 a.m. from the (hem) corporate stablemate (kaff) New York Post:

The driver of the Tesla Cybertruck who was killed when the vehicle blew up outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas has been identified as a Colorado resident and Army veteran.

Law enforcement sources confirmed to The Post that Matthew Livelsberger, 37, rented the electric pickup truck that went up in flames New Year’s Day in the valet area of the hotel.

Livelsberger was behind the wheel of the Tesla truck, which was packed with fireworks-style mortars, camping fuel and canisters, during the explosion, News5 reported early Thursday, citing law enforcement sources.

The AP updated its story at 10:46:

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The person who authorities believe died in the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel was an active-duty U.S. Army soldier, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Two law enforcement officials identified the man inside the futuristic-looking pickup truck as Matthew Livelsberger. The law enforcement officials spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.

I would have gone with "iconic dumpster-like vehicle" for the full Elongated Yellow Fruit effect, but that might be just me. Anyway, here's Dear Leader himself at 9:08 a.m.:

What does all this have to with the Rules of Journalism? From somewhere in the cradle or shortly thereafter, we learn the elements -- conflict, oddity, proximity, timeliness and so forth (the Mizzou acronym was actually A COP TIP) -- that go into moving an event up or down the scale of news. These don't stand in a predictable scalar relationship; they interact with each other, with events themselves and with assorted other news priorities to produce the hierarchy you see on the front page or the homepage.

The factors been with us literally since the days of the Elizabethan balladeer. Because one good murder or beheading is often hard to tell from another, timeliness or proximity is a good way of drawing attention to your product and away from the newsboke at the stall next to you. Variations in how the factors interact are one way of teasing out the ideologies that drive a particular news agenda.

Fox is just like the rest of journalism, only more so: A shark attack that kills one person in Australia is bigger news than anything*** that kills one person in the US, because SHAAAAARK; an outbreak of the War on Parents in Europe brings predictable cries of THaNkS BIdEN even if it's six time zones away. Timeliness, the factor that has the newsboys in the movies shouting EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT, is traditionally a big driver in competitive news situations -- so why is it a decidedly secondary element in Veteran Parks Exploding Tesla At Trump Hotel? (Especially compared, say, with the live video that topped the page around 11:45: "LIVE: FBI stresses Bourbon Street bloodbath was an 'evil' act of terror, confirms maniac was a lone wolf.")

Think in terms of what Fox doesn't want you to prioritize. Dear Leader says it's OPEN BORDER fueling RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISM, so you're totally not going to be in the right frame of mind if the news tells you it's someone named Matthew Livelsberger from Colorado who probably wasn't even posted to Fort Bragg**** at the same time as the Lone Wolf Maniac from Texas.***** The core of securitization theory is the sense of uncontainable, existential threat, which -- just conceptualizing here, mind you -- an incoming head of state could use to claim justification for extraordinary measures that will remain in place until he, and he alone, tells you it's safe to come out from under the bed. If that sounds like a War on Terror, congratulations.

* The difference between "scare" and "horror" is more than just arithmetic. In addition to the New Orleans attack Wednesday, Fox has used "Holiday horror" on a July 4 shark attack that injured four people and the Magdeburg Christmas market attack that killed five people.
** Adverbs aren't interchangeable, kids.
*** Except an immigrant
**** Still waiting for Fox to blame the WOKE NAME CHANGE for the recent events.
***** Fox does address its headline question -- are the two events linked? -- in the 21st paragraph: "McMahill said he did not know whether the two were connected but would not rule it out. He also said the Cybertruck did not have an ISIS flag like the truck in New Orleans, but every aspect is being investigated."