In the aftermath of the collapsed Trump revolution, Fox News has fired at least 17 long-time staffers, including the editor who “correctly called Arizona for Joe Biden long before other networks in a move that infuriated Donald Trump and his supporters,” in what the U.K.-based tabloid Daily Mail described as a “blood bath” perpetrated by a producer bent upon “remolding the network to be more aligned with” Sean Hannity’s pro-Trump views. (Read story here.)
Daily Beast characterized the personnel moves as a “purge to get rid of real journalists” in an article here. (No, I couldn’t get past the paywall, either, so all I can give you from this source is the headline. Sorry.)
The Fox network, which bled viewers to more strident rightwing propaganda outlets after the election didnt go Trump’s way, is positioning itself to become one of the Biden administration’s “chief critics,” Vanity Fair says, adding, “In doing so, the network is placing an even bigger emphasis on its opinion programming at the expense of its news division.” Read their article here.
That appears to be a bid to lure back angry Trump supporters who abandoned the network because it didn’t go as far as its competitors in propagating election lies and conspiracy theories.
It’s a retrenchment of sorts. But Fox News has long been notorious for its reactionary bias, and its audience doesn’t want real information anyway, so dropping the News from its marquee is basically a non-event. It also simplifies things for the rest of us, because we no longer have to try separating the journalists from the partisan hacks; now, those left are all hacks.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox franchise has long boasted of having the highest ratings of any news network, but that’s because it had a monopoly as the Republican Party’s public relations shop, and because the majority of Americans who aren’t subsumed by rightwing cultism divide their allegiance between several networks whose journalism is more objective.
Fox “News” lite actually had journalists?
Reporting truth, facts and evidence would get one fired from their network.
No Facts Lady network. Luring back trumpee supporters with lies, since they aren’t able to handle truth and reality based news.
When the real journalists at the other networks out of self interest come out in support of Julian Assange maybe those networks will have some real journalists too.
Just because you can’t tell the difference between real news and propaganda doesn’t mean our other readers can’t. You’re unique.