Ilana Berger at MMFA:
Fox personalities are promoting a false narrative that Democrats and left-leaning organizations are primarily responsible for nationwide opposition to fast-tracking construction of large and energy-intensive data centers. Both Fox News and Fox Business have pushed claims that protests against data center projects are being led by “far-left activists” and politicians who are working to “make sure we lose the AI race” with China — with some on the networks also accusing data center opponents of having ties to China or Chinese-linked funding networks themselves. In reality, experts are skeptical of “claims that Beijing is directly and intentionally involved in the US data center discourse,” according to WIRED, and Fox was forced to apologize after repeatedly boosting claims that opposition to a proposed data center in Utah was being funded by China. Meanwhile, polling increasingly suggests that both Democrats and Republicans are concerned about the negative impacts of data centers — a recent survey from Heatmap Pro found that “at least seven in 10 Americans would now oppose a data center being built near their home,” including 78% of those who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 and 63% of those who voted for President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, right-wing media are divided over the impacts of the technology and the infrastructure that supports it. As Fox has leaned into supporting the Trump administration's AI ambitions, the technology is seeing significant pushback, with many calls for regulation coming from other right-wing media figures and Republican politicians ahead of the midterm elections.
Many Faux Noise hosts play the blame the “far-left activists” and China cards to gin up support for data centers, which are highly unpopular regardless of ideology or party loyalty.
