Up until recently, Fox News has been considered the go-to news source for conservatives in a field filled with left-leaning news sources like MSNBC and CNN. However, recent scandals such as the firing of long-time favorite Tucker Carlson and reports of the company’s trans-affirming policies have left the company on shaky ground with some conservatives, particularly Christians. Rumors abound that Carlson was fired due to his faith, with some speculating that Fox Corp chair Rupert Murdoch disliked Carlson’s religious speech he gave at The Heritage Foundation. Fox’s standing amongst conservatives is even shakier after The Blaze’s Glenn Beck revealed that whistleblowers had informed his Director of Programming, Rikki Ratliff-Feldman, that the company matches donations up to $1,000 to companies such as Planned Parenthood, The Satanic Temple, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC has recently been in a battle with the conservative group Moms for Liberty, which it recently labeled as an “extremist” organization. The report included a screenshot of what appears to be the company’s employee portal, with Planned Parenthood being an option to donate to. The portal described Planned Parenthood as “a respected leader in educating Americans about reproductive and sexual health.” Many Christian conservatives have pushed back against Planned Parenthood as the biggest performer of abortions in the US. Ratliff-Fieldman confirmed that he had watched an employee login and seen the list of questionable charities.

One employee, who remained anonymous due to fears of retaliation, stated, “Our business model has turned into ‘just tell the audience what they want to hear.’ It’s about appeasing and assuaging the audience even though most people in the C-Suite disagree with their audience’s values. It’s manipulative.” Fox News did not respond to requests for comment from The Blaze or other news sites, but after outrage from Beck’s exposé, it was revealed that the company had quietly removed The Satanic Temple from its list of matching donation organizations. It had also added The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association after receiving criticism for that group not being on the list while The Satanic Temple was. Lucien Greaves, founder of the Satanic Temple, called the reporting “fear-mongering” in a tweet response. “A more accurate headline would be that Fox simply employed an app that allows people to give to any charity of their choice, but selling fear to the ignorant at least shows an understanding of your market.” It is unclear if Planned Parenthood and The Southern Poverty Law Center remain on the list. 

Glenn Beck stated that the move showed Fox News is not as conservative as it pretends to be. “It is incredible how far Fox has fallen. Here’s one thing we don’t do: We don’t give money to Planned Parenthood…or The Satanic Temple. We don’t do that,” he said. Despite the criticisms, however, Fox News continues to dominate TV networks, with its latest primetime lineup crushing competitors MSNBC and CNN.