Journalism, like other professions, has standards. Don’t call yourself a new organization if you don’t adhere to them.
A new book by New York Times journalists says Fox personality Bret Baier tried to pressure his superiors to rescind Fox News’ decision desk call of Arizona for Biden in the 2020 election. Fox was the first network to call the state.
Baier was in direct contact with the Trump campaign, and told his bosses Trump’s people were “pissed” over the call, which turned out to be accurate.
The Fox reporters working on the decision desk thought there was “no serious question about Arizona,” Huffington Post says, and stood by the call; the network didn’t rescind it, but later fired two of the decision desk reporters “for being right” (see story here).
That’s not what a legitimate news organization does.
Predictably, one of the fired employees turned states’ witness against Fox News in the House Jan. 6 hearings, where he testified that Fox could have used its influence “for the good of the country” but instead “failed … to stand up to Donald Trump” and his election lies. That’s not responsible journalism, either.
Whether they did it for ratings and profits, or because they wanted Trump and Republicans to win, Fox personalities like Baier, Sean Hannity, and Tucker Carlson have peddled GOP talking points instead of objectively reporting news.
None of them are journalists, and Fox isn’t a news organization. They’re propagandists working in a Republican P.R. shop.