Report - Fox News amplified false claim that Target was sexually grooming kids while devoting only one minute to allegations of actual sex abuse

The report from Media Matters for America is further proof that the "leave the kids alone" narrative is a lie in which bigots place their building blocks of homophobia and transphobia upon. Fox News went all out implying that Target was grooming kids with its Pride merchandise that the network paid very little attention to a scandal which actually saw children being sexually abused. 

 Fox News aired more than 2 hours of coverage of the backlash to Target’s Pride Month displays, while running less than a minute of coverage on a new report detailing sex abuse in the Catholic Church in Illinois. Fox added to the right-wing media backlash against Target’s LGBTQ Pride displays as part of a recent crusade against corporate Pride Month campaigns. The company decided to pull some merchandise celebrating Pride Month from store shelves after receiving threats against the safety of its workers. 

 From May 23 through 9 a.m. ET May 30, Fox aired over 2 hours and 12 minutes of coverage of the Target controversy. In comparison, Fox reported for just 22 seconds on the Illinois attorney general’s recent report that Catholic Church clergy members and lay religious brothers had abused nearly 2,000 children in the state since 1950. 

 Much of Fox’s extensive coverage of the Target boycott included expressions of outrage that children were exposed to clothing with positive messages about the LGBTQ community. While Fox repeatedly fearmongered about this supposed threat to children, the network almost completely ignored the reports of sexual abuse in the Illinois Catholic Church, airing only one segment on the attorney general’s report.

Just like the social media influencers exploiting the issue for their own gain, no one at Fox News gives a damn about actual child sex abuse. They only care about what they can gain by appealing to people's bigoted notions about just who the abusers are.