Fox News programming appeared to crash three times in 36 hours, each time while discussing Vice President Kamala Harris’ debate performance or record.
The first instance was noted by Cowtown Caller’s X account, which is run by The Dallas Express‘ Kellen McGovern Jones.
“Never seen this before @SeanHannity,” Cowtown Caller tweeted on September 11.
Attached was a 15-second video of Hannity describing Harris’ platform. The video begins and ends mid-sentence: “Free housing, healthcare, education, now taxpayer-funded …” Then there was an audible click from the television, and Hannity’s section of the screen went black.
Never seen this happen before @seanhannity pic.twitter.com/2Bn6QdMACE
— Cowtown Caller (@CowtownCaller) September 12, 2024
Stock footage of a Harris speech playing next to the host continued running. Eventually, Hannity’s box drops off the screen, and then, with only Harris on the screen, the program cuts to commercial.
When Hannity returned after several commercials aired, he quipped that if he were a conspiracy theorist, he would think he had been knocked off the air for criticizing Harris. Like Cowtown Caller, the Fox host noted that he had never seen that happen.
The following day, September 12, a nearly identical outage occurred on Greg Gutfeld’s eponymous Fox program.
X user Joe Latini noticed this and mentioned it in the comments of Cowtown Caller’s post about Hannity.
“This also happened during a segment of Gutfeld tonight. 1st amendment? Facts seem to interfere with apparently the chosen narrative,” Latini said.
Jones retrieved the Gutfeld episode. He posted it to Cowtown Caller, confirming Latini’s observation.
The 41-second clip begins with former-White House press secretary and current Fox personality Kayleigh McEnany describing how an undecided voter in Milwaukee who watched the Trump-Harris presidential debate said, “I guess I am learning more from his facts than her vision.”
Editorializing, McEnany added, “Donald Trump has facts, he has a record. She has a vision? I guess. But you know who he is, and you know he will fight for you. And that never changes.”
Gutfeld started to respond but was momentarily interrupted by cheers from the show’s studio audience. When he resumed his thought, the audio and visuals of the entire show were lost for 5-6 seconds. When the audio and visuals were regained, it was unclear exactly what Gutfeld had said.
Like Hannity, Gutfeld went out too while discussing Harris's debate performance @seanhannity @greggutfeld https://t.co/2eLfWbTBVU
— Cowtown Caller (@CowtownCaller) September 13, 2024
“Like Hannity, Gutfeld went out too while discussing Harris’ debate performance @seanhannity @greggutfeld, ” Cowtown Caller tweeted.
The Hannity clip has been seen several hundred times at the time of this writing and has garnered a score of comments. Most of the comments feel there was foul play in the outage.
The third outage came in the afternoon on September 13 while former President Donald Trump was giving a speech in Palos Verdes, California, on Harris’ alleged ineffective crime policy. Trump was speaking about the murder of San Francisco policeman Isaac Espinoza and Harris’ choice not to seek the death penalty for his killer.
What is going on with @FoxNews
The third loss of audio and visuals while someone criticizes Kamala Harris in 36 hours https://t.co/AI57KNulyc pic.twitter.com/2VRh5bd9Zc
— Cowtown Caller (@CowtownCaller) September 13, 2024
Shortly after Trump starts into this topic, the audio goes out. Then, the screen flickers between Trump’s speech and darkness for a period. The audio likewise cuts in and out through the roughly minute-long clip.
Neither Fox nor its hosts have commented on the peculiar happenings, aside from Hannity’s off-the-cuff remark.