Republicans suffered major losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections, with Democrats taking control of both the House and the Senate. But if you’ve been watching Fox News since then, you might have noticed that one of its favorite topics has been a WNBA player.
The network has run multiple segments on Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham in the days since the election, including several built around a post she shared on social media. Political journalist Aaron Rupar called the coverage “beyond parody.”
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Fox News and Sophie Cunningham
Fox News has been fixated on Cunningham ever since she told ESPN in July that she wants to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.” The network ran at least 206 WNBA segments over the summer, according to a Media Matters for America report, via Awful Announcing, with many of them focused on anti-trans rhetoric after her interview.
Cunningham has insisted that her own political views are “right in the middle.” But she has become a hero for many conservatives, and Fox didn’t waste any time turning back to her after Republicans’ losses on Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning, Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt and contributor Brett Cooper spent a segment gushing over Cunningham instead of breaking down the election results.
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“You see Sophie Cunningham, who is defending women’s sports and fairness in women’s sports, and she has so many followers. She has gained more followers than any other of the top 49 WNBA players combined,” Earhardt said.
“Well, I think that politics aside, Sophie Cunningham is hot, and she’s funny,” Cooper responded. “I think that being an attractive woman and actually being a joyful person, loving your sport, loving what you do, loving the opportunities that are in front of you, she’s not biting the hand that feeds her.”
That was one of four Fox shows that praised Cunningham on Wednesday, according to Awful Announcing. Later that day, Cunningham shared a lengthy post on her Instagram story that was written by supplement company CEO Andy Frisella, arguing that “politics is downstream of culture.”
‘Beyond parody’
The coverage continued on Friday morning, when Fox & Friends aired two more segments on Cunningham’s post. Rupar, who tracks Fox News coverage closely, shared clips of both.
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“‘This message isn’t cope’ — you can’t make it up — Fox & Friends is coping with Republicans’ historic midterm destruction by having daily Sophie Cunningham segments, including treating her social media posts like they are news. Sophie 2028!” Rupar wrote on Bluesky.
“Beyond parody — Fox & Friends this morning had not one BUT TWO lengthy Sophie Cunningham segments based on her cliche-packed social media post that was vaguely meant to cheer up conservatives,” he added.
As Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder noted, Cunningham has become Fox’s “version of the Dallas Cowboys to ESPN.” Yoder also pointed out that the network has spent its airtime on Cunningham rather than bigger stories like the war in Iran and the economy.
This is certainly a bizarre pivot for the right-leaning network, but Election Day seemingly proved that speaking out against trans women in women’s sports might be one of the only winning issues for conservatives right now.
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The post ‘Beyond parody’: Fox News can’t stop talking about Sophie Cunningham after Republican midterm losses appeared first on The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions.
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