'Tragedy every day': Fox News watchdog predicts dark times ahead for right-wing network

Fox News is trapped in a hell of its own making as President Donald Trump's power and popularity plummet — and the network's ratings nosedive beside them, a top media watchdog told Raw Story.

Decoding Fox News founder Juliet Jeske described a downward spiral that began on Feb. 28 when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared war on Iran and picked up pace when a blue wave came crashing down on the Republican Party on Nov. 3.

"Really, from the war on, Fox has just gotten stranger and stranger," Jeske said. "It’s like watching a tragedy every day."

Jeske has spent the past four years monitoring Rupert Murdoch's powerful cable network for Americans who have concerns about its influence — but can't stomach watching the content.

The slogan? "I watch all the Fox News you'd never want to."

In the months leading up to the election, Fox News commentary took a "bizarre" turn as its pundits cast a spotlight on now-senators-elect Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico's races against Mike Rogers and Ken Paxton, but ignored ultimately pivotal races like the ones in Ohio and Kansas, Jeske said.

Fox News also ignored behavior from Trump that has Jeske — hardly alone in this view — worried about the president's physical and cognitive health.

"They’re downplaying the fact that he’s deeply, deeply unpopular," said Jeske. "They’re downplaying that his goofy rallies didn’t do anything and may have actually hurt Republicans."

On Election Night, Fox News pundits watched in real time as the races they'd ignored flipped blue.

“The tone was kind of panicked," Jeske told Raw Story. "You could tell that they were scared.”

Jeske said she laughed out loud multiple times that night.

A few examples: when Trey Gowdy professed himself "shocked" at the election results; when Madison Alworth reported women were praying for Sen. Jon Husted in a bathroom; and when Nate Foy, reporting from Kansas, held up a bag of M&Ms and said "Things aren't so sweet in Kansas."

"Come on," she said. "That is out of 'Anchorman.'"

But her jaw dropped when Trump himself phoned in to Fox News and declared himself the most popular president since President Abraham Lincoln.

"I was so clobbered by the stuff I covered on Election Day," she said. "But that was the weirdest, trying to act like Trump’s behavior was normal."

Fox has continued to downplay Trump's unpopularity and worked to present Democrats as evil — even as its pundits insist it’s not a big deal that they won, said Jeske.

Jeske recalled the jubilant tone Fox News struck on Inauguration Day in 2025 when Trump returned to the White House.

"They were ecstatic when he won — they were Trump State media all the way," she said. "They had arrived. They were part of the machine."

Fox News remains part of the machine, but as young viewers abandon the network and ratings begin to fall, the cogs are starting to pop, she said.

The Fox News watchdog argues the network has no other choice — it's hitched its wagon to a man who still has control of the White House and employs roughly 30 former Fox personalities, including U.S. Attorney Jeannine Pirro, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Hegseth.

Jeske predicts Fox News will easily abandon its association with Hegseth — whose officials contract with the network ended when he joined Trump's adminisration — should he face the metaphorical firing squad in Washington D.C. — citing the icy ousters of Maria Bartiromo and Tucker Carlson as proof.

But it's ultimately stuck with Trump.

"It’s just become one organism, they can’t cut the cord," Jeske said. "They know Trump’s unpopular but they don’t know what to do."

Watch Decoded Fox News' speed-through of election night on Fox below.