This extremely off-brand appeal to common decency on Fox News came just as the network faces accusations of doing extremely on-brand collaborations with the Trump administration. According to The Daily Beast, a FOIA request by the Sierra Club revealed emails between Fox & Friends producers and the communications team for Scott Pruitt during his disastrous run as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Fox & Friends provided the EPA with questions and topics for Pruitt beforehand, and on at least one occasion even submitted the script introducing Pruitt's segment for the agency's approval. Per The Daily Beast:

“Would this be okay as the setup to his segment?” producer Diana Aloi asked. She wrote: “There’s a new direction at the Environmental Protection Agency under President Trump—and it includes a back-to-basics approach. This after the Obama administration left behind a huge mess more than 1,300 super-fund sites which are heavily contaminated—still require clean-ups. So why was President Obama touted as an environmental savior if all these problems still exist?”

The EPA comms shop was pleased. “Yes—perfect,” [then-EPA press secretary Amy] Graham replied.

This shouldn't come as a surprise to any objective viewer: Fox News behaves more like a propaganda arm for the Republican Party than an actual news outlet, even while it accuses other networks of journalistic malpractice. This would be an embarrassing day for the network if anyone in charge there were capable of feeling shame.

Update: This statement was sent along by a Fox News spokesperson regarding Scott Pruitt: “This is not standard practice whatsoever and the matter is being addressed internally with those involved.”