Fox News Criticizes Broadcast Networks' Coverage of Supreme Court Redistricting Ruling

The Supreme Court’s decision to reject racial gerrymandering drew sharp criticism from broadcast networks, according to Fox News. An ABC reporter stood in front of the White House on April 29 and claimed the decision aligned with President Donald Trump’s efforts to impose additional restrictions on voting and undermine confidence in the voting system ahead of the midterms.

Fox News said these networks equate democracy and civil rights with policies that help Democrats. Both parties have pushed redistricting aggressively this year, but media coverage favors Democratic arguments. Red states in the South changed district lines before the midterms, hurting Democrats, while media framing gives them an advantage.

PBS News Hour anchor Amna Nawaz said Tuesday that the Supreme Court ruling against maps protecting black or other minority voters sparked a new wave in the redistricting war. Fox News noted that both parties have long supported majority-minority districts to ensure Black Democrats win without competition. PBS calls that protecting black voters and implies blacks lack voting rights without electing black representatives.

What happens when a majority-black district elects a white representative like Tennessee Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen in Memphis or an Indian-American like Michigan Democrat Rep. Shri Thanedar in Detroit? Fox News said every American citizen over 18 who is not a felon has voting rights.

On CBS Mornings on May 7, reporter Ed O’Keefe called Republican redistricting in Montgomery, Alabama—the birthplace of the modern civil rights movement—a power grab. Co-host Gayle King said the decision makes it harder for states to create districts favoring minority candidates. Fox News said CBS should specify minority Democrats.

CBS presented Rachel Turner as an Alabama voter lamenting the ruling: "I just felt like I have been hit by a ton of bricks. So many people gave their actual lives in order to exercise their fundamental right to vote." In reality, Turner belongs to the Alabama Resistors' chapter of Indivisible, a progressive group that organized No Kings protests against Trump.

O’Keefe later said Tennessee Republicans broke up a majority black district without noting its white Democratic congressman or a black Republican woman who ran against him. Tennessee Democrats protested by shouting at Republicans as they voted to drop the state’s one Democratic congressional seat.

State Rep. Justin Pearson yelled at state troopers: "Move the f--- back! Boy!" and "What the f--- is wrong with you? You stupid motherf----r!" Pearson called the Republican action a political lynching.

NBC anchor Tom Llamas noted Democratic lawmakers protesting after Tennessee Republicans passed a new congressional map following the Supreme Court decision.

On Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court struck down a Democrat gerrymandering ballot initiative that passed with 51.7% of the vote. Networks called it voter-approved. NBC’s Zinhle Essamuah said the Trump administration counted it as a win. CBS anchor Reed Cowan and reporter Katrina Kaufman said Democrats would lose four seats, though it meant Republicans kept theirs.

On The View, Whoopi Goldberg said nothing has changed in the South over 60 years: "We put the Voting Rights Act together because there was an issue, because they were keeping people from voting! They were literally shooting people! They were running them down with dogs to keep them from voting! OK? Let's start with that. So, when they say that problem is gone, it's not gone, because you're still doing it! You're still doing it!"

Fox News said this resistance to facts about the end of rigid segregation and systemic racism shows what’s wrong with broadcast news.