Fox News covered the arson attack on its "All-American Christmas Tree" as a major news story across two days

The Washington Post

"For more than 36 hours after a 50-foot-tall Christmas tree outside Fox News’s Manhattan headquarters was set on fire, the cable news channel covered the event as a major story worthy of intense reporting and heated commentary that frequently cast the bizarre crime as an example of growing lawlessness, left-wing violence, hostility toward religion or the chaos caused by underfunded police departments," says The Washington Post's Jeremy Barr. "On Wednesday, every Fox News show referenced the attack on the company’s 'All-American Christmas Tree,' a metal frame covered in branches and decorations — 10,000 glass ornaments, 100,000 lights — that took over 21 hours to assemble. Police quickly arrested a 49-year-old man they described as homeless, and the city’s police commissioner offered mental illness as a possible motivation. From its early reports, though, Fox News’s on-air team framed the tree burning within the context of a broader story that has been a continuous theme on the network, particularly during the Biden administration: an argument that criminality is on the rise in the United States." As Barr notes, Greg Gutfield on The Five tried to argue that the incident “represents the kind of random violence that is fueled by mental illness that has become pretty much part of every day city life,” as well as proof that “we have abandoned the deranged.” But fellow panelist Jeanine Pirro shut him down. “Everybody wants to say, ‘Oh, they’re mentally ill, they’re crazy.’ I think they’re evil,” Pirro retorted. “The bottom line here is: the left is lying to us, and that’s why this is happening.” ALSO: Jimmy Kimmel mocks Fox News, saying: “Fox desperately wants this to be a political thing.”