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What caused the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank? You may think the disastrous bank run that led to the implosion of SBV was spurred by the effects of deregulation, rising interest rates, and panic among customers—and actual economists would agree. But over at Fox News the demise of the country’s 16th largest bank was actually the fault of their favorite boogeyman: Diversity.
On Monday night, Fox host Tucker Carlson blamed the death of SVB, a California bank that catered to tech startups, on “diversity, equity, and inclusion standards” imposed on the financial sector by the Obama administration. Carlson alleged that policies aimed at diversifying Wall St. included in the 2010 Dodd-Frank act, were used to “kill American meritocracy” and foment incompetence among financial institutions.
It should be noted that Fox News has its own diversity and inclusion program. We’re sure Carlson absolutely adores it.
Carlson was not alone in blaming wokeness for the collapse of a bank whose very own CEO lobbied against increased regulations that would have enacted more robust safeguards against potential losses. Fellow Fox host Jesse Watters claimed SVB was “a woke Biden bank” too distracted with “lesbian visibility day” seminars to notice trouble on the horizon.
Across the network, actual economic analysis flew out the window in favor of blaming esoteric company culture. Martha MacCallum hosted Fox Business host David Asman to give his view on the matter. Asman claimed that SVB was “the first bank failure that was caused by adherence to woke beliefs and policies.”
Host Harris Faulkner played a montage of Fox guests blaming diversity, equity, and inclusion standards for the mismanagement at SVB.
Faulkner’s guest, former Trump Economic Advisor Steve Moore pointed the finger at “woke” investments in green energy as a cause of the bank’s economic troubles.
So vacuous is the network’s coverage of SVB’s collapse that some anchors have simply decided to encourage their audience to start a run at their own bank. On Monday’s edition of Fox & Friends, hosts Ainsley Earhardt told viewers that “we need to go to our banks and take our money out.”
In fact, it was consumer panic and a mass withdrawal of deposits that ultimately caused SVB’s failure, one that was in part triggered by conservative billionaire and investor Peter Thiel. If the goal is to avoid more collapses like the one we witnessed this week, one should avoid telling their audience to run to the bank and pull all their cash.
