What ‘The Morning Show’ and ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Learned From Fox News to Craft Right-Wing Media
After “The Morning Show” began its third season last fall, showrunner Charlotte Stoudt received a text message from “a very well-known anchor on a national news network” with some constructive criticism.
This unnamed person had seen Episode 3, in which June Diane Raphael makes her debut as the anchor of Eagle News, a fictional conservative news network that is seen reporting on an internal scandal at UBA, the network that employs Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon’s characters. With a smile on her face, Raphael’s anchor reads incriminating emails sent by the UBA board president (Holland Taylor). While she’s enjoying this news more than an objective reporter probably should, she doesn’t say anything inaccurate. That’s what Stoudt’s mystery texter took issue with: “She’s not telling enough lies,” they texted her.
“It was a great moment,” Stoudt tells Variety. “I never thought anyone would accuse me of being too nice to Fox News
While Eagle News isn’t exactly Fox News, Stoudt appreciates the reaction, good or bad, because there is an art to creating fake news — not the kind that is ruining the minds of voters every day, but rather the fictional news networks on TV series. In this case, Eagle News is a thinly veiled stand-in for right-wing networks like Fox News. But legally, “The Morning Show” can’t speak for that real entity, even on fictional matters, so it creates its own version.
It just felt like we wanted a Greek chorus to comment on how messy UBA was this season,” Stoudt says. “You want the mean girl in high school to shine the least sympathetic light on everything you’re doing, so I think that was the energy we went for.”
Raphael only fleetingly appears in Season 3 of “The Morning Show,” returning in the season finale to drop buzzwords like “woke” paired with a photo of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — hallmarks of Fox News’ coverage that would be more recognizable to Stoudt’s mystery texter. But Max’s new political dramedy “The Girls on the Bus” had a much taller order in creating its own fake news network.
The series is based on Amy Chozick’s book, “Chasing Hillary,” which chronicles her experiences covering Hillary Clinton’s 2008 and 2016 presidential runs for the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, respectively. None of the real people she encountered on the campaign trail are featured in the show. Instead, a general lineup of Democratic presidential hopefuls is covered by roving reporters, including Kimberlyn (Christina Elmore), a Black conservative working for Liberty Direct News, another fictional Fox News stand-in.
What ‘The Morning Show’ and ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Learned From Fox News to Craft Right-Wing Media
After “The Morning Show” began its third season last fall, showrunner Charlotte Stoudt received a text message from “a very well-known anchor on a national news network” with some constructive criticism.
This unnamed person had seen Episode 3, in which June Diane Raphael makes her debut as the anchor of Eagle News, a fictional conservative news network that is seen reporting on an internal scandal at UBA, the network that employs Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon’s characters. With a smile on her face, Raphael’s anchor reads incriminating emails sent by the UBA board president (Holland Taylor). While she’s enjoying this news more than an objective reporter probably should, she doesn’t say anything inaccurate. That’s what Stoudt’s mystery texter took issue with: “She’s not telling enough lies,” they texted her.
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“It was a great moment,” Stoudt tells Variety. “I never thought anyone would accuse me of being too nice to Fox News.”
While Eagle News isn’t exactly Fox News, Stoudt appreciates the reaction, good or bad, because there is an art to creating fake news — not the kind that is ruining the minds of voters every day, but rather the fictional news networks on TV series. In this case, Eagle News is a thinly veiled stand-in for right-wing networks like Fox News. But legally, “The Morning Show” can’t speak for that real entity, even on fictional matters, so it creates its own version.
“It just felt like we wanted a Greek chorus to comment on how messy UBA was this season,” Stoudt says. “You want the mean girl in high school to shine the least sympathetic light on everything you’re doing, so I think that was the energy we went for.”
Raphael only fleetingly appears in Season 3 of “The Morning Show,” returning in the season finale to drop buzzwords like “woke” paired with a photo of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — hallmarks of Fox News’ coverage that would be more recognizable to Stoudt’s mystery texter. But Max’s new political dramedy “The Girls on the Bus” had a much taller order in creating its own fake news network.
The series is based on Amy Chozick’s book, “Chasing Hillary,” which chronicles her experiences covering Hillary Clinton’s 2008 and 2016 presidential runs for the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, respectively. None of the real people she encountered on the campaign trail are featured in the show. Instead, a general lineup of Democratic presidential hopefuls is covered by roving reporters, including Kimberlyn (Christina Elmore), a Black conservative working for Liberty Direct News, another fictional Fox News stand-in.
If anything, it’s a reminder why people watch the real thing.
“It is kind of a show,” Chozick says. “When Kimberlyn calls out our hosts, Nellie and Mike, they are kind of stoking rage, but behind the scenes, they admit they are doing it for ratings. We wanted to portray this kind of theater of it all with Liberty.”
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