Fox News under fire for absurdly equating Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Beyonce concert tickets with Clarence Thomas’ $4M in gifts

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: This month, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas came under scrutiny when a watchdog organization disclosed that he had received over $4 million in gifts throughout his career. However, instead of focusing on this staggering amount, Fox News chose to spotlight a far less expensive gift: Beyonce tickets given by the singer to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

According to a June 6 report from Fix The Court, which compiled data from news articles and the justices' latest financial disclosures, Clarence Thomas received $4,042,286 in gifts, significantly more than any other justice.

Fox News falsifies equivalence between Jackson’s small gifts and Thomas’ $4M in lavish benefits

Over the years, Clarence Thomas has received gifts valued at more than the combined total given to all other Supreme Court justices.

Thomas's gifts amounted to over 450 times the $8,960 worth of gifts received by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court's newest member who joined in 2022, decades after Thomas in 1991.

On average, Thomas received nearly $125,000 annually, while Jackson received less than $4,500 per year.

Fox News, however, focused on itemizing Jackson's gifts, neglecting to highlight the much larger sums received by Thomas. Their coverage repeatedly mentioned Jackson's gifts alongside Thomas's in a way that seemed to draw a false equivalence.

Additionally, Fox News omitted the context of the public outcry following an April 2023 ProPublica report, which revealed lavish vacations funded by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow. The network described Crow merely as Thomas's "friend."

A search of Fox News broadcasts on SnapStream from June 6 (the publication date of the Fix The Court data) to today reveals only three mentions of Thomas.

None of these broadcasts mentioned the astonishing total value of gifts Thomas had received. However, all of them included references to Jackson and the Beyoncé tickets.

Instances of Fox News making false claims

During the June 6 episode of 'America Reports,' co-anchors Sandra Smith and John Roberts discussed the financial disclosures of Supreme Court justices, omitting the value of gifts received by Justice Clarence Thomas while emphasizing those given to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

On the same day, 'Special Report with Bret Baier,' hosted by senior national correspondent Rich Edson, framed the story around Thomas filing "amended" financial disclosure forms and highlighted that Jackson received concert tickets from Beyonce, placing emphasis on the celebrity's name.

In the early hours of June 7, during a replay of the episode of 'Hannity,' overnight anchor Chanley Painter reported live on Supreme Court justices "filing financial disclosure reports," noting Thomas's luxury trips with a megadonor and Jackson's receipt of thousands of dollars worth of concert tickets and artwork.

In contrast, a June 8 Fox News tweet and article headlined 'Beyonce gave SCOTUS Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson concert tickets valued at nearly $4,000: report' described Jackson's gifts as "eye-popping" despite their relatively modest value compared to Thomas's luxury trips.

Fix The Court reacted to the Fox News coverage with a tweet that sarcastically asked, "So $4,000 in gifts is the same as $4 million in gifts, right?"

Netizens rip into Fox News' 'propaganda'

Fox News received significant backlash from its viewers for disseminating false information.

A particular viewer expressed, "The artice is factual and NOT opinion based. Fox lies directly, indirectly, by omission, by conflation, and BY FOCUSING ON BS and commiting to yellow dog/fox journalism. GBA 🇺🇸." [sic]

Following suit, another observer added, "The most significant thing about the gifts… is that it kept him on the Court. As he had previously said 'the job isn’t worth what they pay.'"

Additionally, a viewer pointed out, "That's some Grade A Fox-level deflection right there."

A user said, "Fox News ignored the millions given to Justice Clarence Thomas and instead highlighted the Beyonce tickets given to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Of course, they did. Their job is to make viewers stupid." [sic]

A comment underscored, "'Black people are getting free stuff!!'- Faux News." Another comment echoed, "Frequent consumers of Fox 'News' are more poorly informed than people who consume no news at all. This story is Exhibit A in support of that fact." [sic]

An individual elaborated further, saying, "Fox News is very good at propaganda but very poor at math."

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