No, Fox Business didn't air graphic about Tim Walz's 'communist agenda' | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·2 min read
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The claim: Image shows Fox Business graphic about Tim Walz's 'communist agenda'

An Aug. 8 Threads post (direct link, archive link) shows a graphic supposedly aired on Fox Business labeled, "Tim Walz's Communist Agenda." The list includes bullet points such as "unsupervised female health decisions" and "believes in 'climate change' hoax."

Part of the post's caption reads, "That doesn’t sound like Communism. It sounds like decency."

Other versions of the claim were shared on Threads and X, formerly Twitter.

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Our rating: Altered

The image doesn't show a real graphic broadcast on Fox Business, a spokesperson said. It was created as satire and is now being misrepresented as being authentic.

Fox Business image created as satire

Former President Donald Trump and his allies labeled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz a "radical leftist" and said he was part of "the most liberal presidential ticket in history" soon after Vice President Kamala Harris named him as her running mate. Trump's campaign has criticized Walz's policies on border control, climate change and more.

The image showing Fox Business supposedly reporting on Walz's "communist agenda" isn't authentic, however.

Connor Smith, a Fox News Media spokesperson, told USA TODAY the network didn't air the graphic shown in the post.

The image was previously shared on a Reddit forum titled "r/PoliticalHumor" and tagged as satire.

It’s an example of what could be called “stolen satire,” where images created as satire and presented that way originally are reposted in a way that makes them appear to be legitimate. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.

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The image resembles a graphic labeled Walz's "economic scorecard" aired by Fox Business on Aug. 7. The real graphic doesn't include the term "communist agenda" or any of the bullet points shown in the Threads post.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Snopes also debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Viral Fox Business graphic about Walz created as satire | Fact check

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