War On Halloween! Fox News Wants To Cancel Holiday In Latest Right-Wing Freakout
Fox News has found its latest thing to panic over.
The right-wing network is warning viewers about drugs disguised as candy ― especially Halloween candy. Some Fox News personalities are even calling for a halt to traditional Halloween activities.
See this clip posted by The Daily Beast:
Taking the next logical step in the rainbow fentanyl panic, Fox News is now literally telling viewers not to let their kids go trick-or-treating this year. pic.twitter.com/ubjodQD13J
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) September 27, 2022
The topic of drugs has been frequently featured on the network, even more so with the approach of the midterm elections. The Washington Post even noted a jump in references to fentanyl on Fox News when compared to CNN and MSNBC.
The network’s warnings are based in part on a DEA bulletin issued last month about “rainbow fentanyl” that looks like candy and which the agency described as “a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults.”
"Every mom in the country is worried, what if this gets into my kid's Halloween basket? The rainbow fentanyl." -- Ronna McDaniel pic.twitter.com/fzIioFrXQY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 20, 2022
Experts are skeptical.
“I don’t think people will be giving these pills out as Halloween candy,” Joseph Palamar, an associate professor in the department of population health at NYU Langone Health, told CNN. Palamar, who has studied trends in illicit fentanyl, said the colorful pills have been around for years and that the real concern isn’t Halloween. It’s that the people who use the pills may leave them around at home, where children may find and take them.
Rolling Stone also reported that the colorful pills were neither new nor aimed at children.
“The idea that because [the pills] are colorful means that [cartels] must be trying to force fentanyl or ply children or their Halloween candy is markedly ridiculous,” Mariah Francis of the National Harm Reduction Coalition told the magazine.
The new scare fits in with years of largely unfounded reports and urban legends about hard drugs being distributed as Halloween candy.
Twitter users called out Fox News for its over-the-top response and accused the network of bringing right-wing cancel-culture to a beloved holiday:
Fox in 2021: If you aren’t taking huge deep breaths in crowded elevators during COVID you hate America
Fox in 2022: cancel Halloween because we saw on Facebook that hippies are going to use expensive drugs to kill white children https://t.co/DDxaanB0vX— FullAndAccurateHat (@Popehat) September 27, 2022
conservative in 2020: grow up, we can’t live in fear of covid forever. we have to be able to go outside
conservative in 2022: rainbow fentanyl WILL be handed out in every suburb in america, do NOT go trick or treating with your kids this year— transgender marx (@JUNlPER) September 28, 2022
The same network that endlessly claims liberals are terrified of their own shadow, kids aren't allowed to do anything anymore, and the left wants to cancel everything wants to cancel Halloween because they're terrified some random pillhead is going to kill kids. https://t.co/CJCaWdHq1e
— Mike Rothschild (@rothschildmd) September 27, 2022
Wait until they hear about guns hahaha no haha never mind. https://t.co/6qvNtPXGXh
— A.R. (Actually Republic) Moxon (@JuliusGoat) September 28, 2022
But it's a mortal sin to ask kids to wear a mask in school so they don't spread a deadly disease. https://t.co/PLAw6y7r6e
— Bob Cesca (@bobcesca_go) September 27, 2022
The crew that mocked ppl who took reasonable steps in a once in a century pandemic with “you can’t live in fear!!!” Are now saying “have Halloween in your basement” because of this year’s“razor blades in apples”. And I’m not even mildly surprised https://t.co/1QcJInVAgY
— ryab 🌻🏳️🌈 (@atdotcomma) September 27, 2022
Pro-tip:
No drug dealers give away free drugs for a gag on Halloween. Or any other time. I mean, I’ve heard… https://t.co/zIW4SsN3EK— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) September 28, 2022
I am sick and tired of Republicans cancelling Halloween. It's like Americans can't even walk down the street and wish someone a "Happy Halloween!" or "Nice skeleton!" without woke Fox News cancelling them. Millions of Americans cancelled just because they enjoy bats and cobwebs.
— Joel Ingersoll 🥌 (@FlyoverJoel) September 27, 2022
Fox News is trying to cancel Halloween? https://t.co/4HbyUBeARc
— K-State Turk (@KStateTurk) September 28, 2022
The War on Halloween https://t.co/07tDNMBMUd
— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) September 27, 2022
Meanwhile, rainbow fentanyl panic has made it to FoxNews just in time for early Halloween drugged candy panic symbiosis https://t.co/vz3txVu6rR
— Marina Galperina (@mfortki) September 22, 2022
I look forward to @JimmyKimmelLive doing a segment of “Parents tell their kids they’ve taken away their Halloween Candy because Fox News told them it’s fentanyl.” https://t.co/Az9ejOW5SY
— Panda Bernstein (@J4Years) September 28, 2022
[Fox News producers flip calendar from BORDER INVASION to HALLOWEEN DRUGS] https://t.co/D5S1ERdmqN
— Bradford Pearson (@BradfordPearson) September 20, 2022
Fox News, bitching and moaning about the “woke” cancelation of Columbus Day, is doing its best to cancel #Halloween. https://t.co/16bPye52my
— David Spiegel (@David_Spiegel) September 28, 2022
Just a reminder that the original “poison candy” story was actually a man who poisoned his own kid for insurance money & others to cover it up, and the copycats that followed were all incited by sensationalized media coverage like this. https://t.co/eseWdmYlsg
— dell cameron (@dellcam) September 27, 2022
"Rainbow fentanyl" exists - it's just pills in different colors - but there's no evidence it's being marketed to kids. DEA doesn't even pretend to have evidence. (Drug dealers like money, and adults have more of that in kids.) https://t.co/g6vppcN0od
— David Weigel (@daveweigel) September 27, 2022
This Halloween we've moved past THC edibles being handed out to children to being on the lookout for "rainbow fentanyl." (Forget the cops telling us just a brush could kill you.)
There is no dumber, more gullible fool on earth than the dumb, gullible fool who watches FOX News.— Padraic Duffy (@paddybrendan) September 20, 2022
Remember how they attacked liberals for not trick or treating and doing other activities re covid https://t.co/sE5xBJOH8B
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) September 27, 2022
Fox News likes to blame young people for cancel culture….and they’re the ones making shit up to cancel Halloween 🙄 https://t.co/NpOlvEZFCN
— Sarah Barnard (@sarah_augostini) September 28, 2022
This myth takes hold every year and it somehow gets more ridiculous each time.
To believe this, you have to accept that drug dealers are giving away fentanyl/weed edibles/whatever for free—when they could sell it—to play a prank they’d never get to witness. It is so silly. https://t.co/doFSK1sJkN— Billy Binion (@billybinion) September 27, 2022
How do people still fall for this stuff
"Drugs in the candy" has been a trope for decades
For the last time, no one is spending that much on drugs to target your children, they are not that special https://t.co/09JF4fGo8y— Jeff Veillette (@JeffVeillette) September 27, 2022
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.