Bulwark Takes: "Fox News Got Duped by AI—and Lied About It"
Date: November 1, 2025
Host: Tim Pool (The Bulwark)
Theme: How Fox News reported as fact a series of racist, AI-generated videos, failed to properly retract or clarify, and what this incident reveals about partisan media, misinformation, and the dangers of rapidly advancing AI technology.
Episode Overview
In this episode, Tim Pool of The Bulwark unpacks a jaw-dropping media failure: Fox News reported viral AI-generated videos—purporting to be Black women angry over losing their SNAP benefits—as if they were real news. Fox News then issued a weak correction that failed to grapple with the gravity of their mistake. The episode explores the broader implications for media responsibility, the manipulation of racial stereotypes, and the perils of unregulated AI in shaping public discourse.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
How the Story Broke
- Triggering Event: Tim Pool is alerted by a friend to a Fox News article pushing a "welfare queen" narrative as a political counter to Trump’s proposed SNAP cuts.
- Fox’s Strategy: Fox attempts to revive 80s-style racialized welfare stereotypes to distract from how SNAP cuts also affect rural Trump voters.
- Quote [03:30]: "It's like, okay, well how can we, let's go back to the old playbook. Let's go back to the 80s playbook. Let's see if we can get some welfare queen stuff out there." – Tim Pool
The Absurdity of Fox’s Reporting
- Fox News runs the grievances of supposed SNAP recipients—who discuss multiple baby daddies and taxpayers "feeding their kids"—without verifying their realness.
- Key Passage [04:22]: "Fox describes this person as another user on social media. That user said, 'because of the government shutdown, now I can't get my snaps for next month. I have seven different baby daddies and none of them’s good for me.'"
- Fox commentator Brett Cooper lectures the fake woman in a video segment, compounding the blunder.
- Notable Quote [04:57]: "It is not the American taxpayers fault that you have seven baby daddies who will not step up ... like, this should be a warning sign for everyone." – Brett Cooper
The Viral Discovery: It Was All Fake
- After Pool tweets about the article, commentators like Hasan Piker point out the videos are AI-generated.
- Quote [06:09]: "Some others observing that ... this story ... is actually quoting AI Robots, not people ... fake videos of black people complaining about not getting their SNAP benefits and using kind of a series of racist tropes." – Co-host/Commentator
- These videos are created with tools like ChatGPT-Sora and spread using racist prompts that play to Fox’s intended narrative.
Media Ethics & the AI Wild West
- Fox’s gaffe is likened to forwarding obvious chain-email hoaxes, but with more sophisticated tech.
- Quote [07:14]: "We are just 100% through the looking glass." – Tim Pool
- The incident shows how easily partisans can be manipulated by AI—and how little mainstream media outlets may do to verify authenticity.
Fox’s Lame Correction and Lingering Harm
- After public outcry, Fox merely edits the article’s headline to reference “AI videos,” without any real retraction or admission of error.
- Original vs. Updated Headline [08:47]: From "SNAP beneficiaries threaten to ransack stores over government shutdown" to "AI videos of SNAP beneficiaries complaining about cuts go viral."
- Pool highlights how the new headline and story are still misleading.
- Quote [09:53]: "Actually, no. We should just be clear. ... The AI videos are fake. They're videos of imaginary people that some racist conjured and prompted SORA to create for them."
The Media’s Basic Responsibilities in the AI Era
- News outlets must verify if their supposed sources are real people—a basic standard now more urgently needed.
- Quote [12:41]: "If you're a news organization ... you need to confirm that that person exists in the world ... in 2025, the person you're watching on your TikTok might not be a person, it might be a computer."
- Fox still refers to these AI creations as “women,” a falsehood that Pool tears apart with trademark sarcasm.
- Quote [15:12]: "These are not videos of women. If they're AI generated, they're fake videos. They're videos of computers. ... The women in these videos do not have vaginas because they're not women. They are computers."
The Real-World Consequences
- Pool hammers home the cynical motive: advancing derogatory racial narratives to distract from SNAP cuts affecting white, rural (often MAGA) voters.
- Quote [17:00]: "Fox News is so far around the bend that they're literally posting articles and commentary about AI videos, pretending like the people are real because they want to advance ... fucking hurtful derogatory narratives and stereotypes about some black women who receive SNAP when the reality is ... it's actually a lot of working white MAGA poor that are receiving snap."
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
-
On media gullibility:
"Fox really is the Facebook Trump voting boomer of the news world. And they acted like one of the things that you get on a forward, forward, forward email." – Tim Pool [08:05] -
On failing basic fact-checking:
"How do you just update the story like that? Like, we got fooled. ... No, you were wrong. Like, you got fooled. You got fooled by a fake video. It shouldn't have been a news story in the first place."
– Tim Pool [09:53] -
On AI’s role:
"Now people can just create racist videos, pass them off as real, post them on social media, get viral, get a lot of attention, and then supposed news outlets will cover that and pretend as if it's a real thing."
– Tim Pool [06:55] -
On Fox’s editorial failure:
"The problem was not that you didn't note it. The problem was that you got fucking tricked and you reported like it was real. You reported the comments from imaginary people and said that this is something that real people are posting on social media ... The issue was that the entire article was fake."
– Tim Pool [16:18]
Timeline & Timestamps of Key Segments
| Timestamp | Segment | |------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:00 | Tim Pool introduces the Fox News/A.I. video debacle | | 01:45-03:14| Discussion of the welfare queen/media bias narrative | | 04:22 | Reading the Fox News article’s alleged “user complaint” | | 04:57 | Brett Cooper's on-air takedown of the AI-generated video | | 06:07 | Discovery that the subjects are AI-generated | | 07:14 | AI explainer—rise of troll videos and media manipulation | | 08:47 | Side-by-side comparison of Fox’s original vs. revised headlines | | 12:07 | Pool plays and critiques additional AI-generated TikToks | | 15:12 | Media’s repeated mischaracterization of fake people as real “women” | | 16:18 | Breakdown of Fox’s editor’s note and the irreparable damage | | 17:00 | Episode closing summary on Fox’s intentions and societal context |
Tone & Delivery
- The tone is incredulous, openly critical, and laced with sarcasm.
- Tim Pool blends sharp media analysis with deadpan humor and righteous anger, especially over the normalized racism and dangerous precedent set by media negligence.
- The language retains the “Bulwark” mix of civically engaged punditry with biting, sometimes profane commentary.
Takeaway
This episode is a searing indictment of Fox News’ willingness to propagate racist, partisan narratives—even at the cost of basic journalistic integrity—by uncritically accepting and amplifying AI-generated fakes. It highlights the urgent need for media literacy and accountability in the digital age, particularly as AI tools accelerate the production of plausible but entirely fabricated content.
If you want an entertaining yet sobering lesson in the intersection of bias, technology, and media failure, this is a can’t-miss segment.