With Trump out of her circle of attention
Fox News will face a lot of anger and difficult choices
Activists walk towards Fox News' offices carrying a banner reading "Talk the truth."
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"Fox News" presenter Sean Hannity with President Trump.
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President-elect Joe Biden.
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Fox News, the most prominent media institution in shaping conservative thought and Republican politics, remained unparalleled. The channel’s owner, Rupert Murdoch and the outgoing US President Donald Trump, held an alliance of interests, despite Murdoch’s disdain. For the former reality show host, Fox News remained one of Trump's strongest sources of support, but in the midst of the election spree and Trump's demise, the channel began to care about the fortunes of the then Democratic presidential candidate, and the now elected president, Joe Biden.
On Tuesday evening, Fox News became the first major news outlet to announce Biden’s victory in Arizona. Later on, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, called Murdoch to ask, outrageously, that he reflect the network’s coverage in favor of Trump. Perhaps what the channel has done has made supporters Trump in Maricopa County, Arizona (some are armed) shouting slogans against the channel "Fox is disgusting."
weight
For days, the network’s top opinion hosts gave weight to the president’s destructive and unfounded allegations of election fraud by Democrats, in an attempt to discredit the entire electoral process. However, the channel’s journalists, in general, tried to land quietly on The ground afterwards, to instruct their fans that Trump has lost the election.
But the stars of the network continued their performances in the interest of Trump supporters, and throughout this week, they leveled baseless, but harsh accusations against Biden and photographed him in a way that reflects to viewers that he is competing illegally.
Early on, Murdoch threw his weight and media behind Trump, although his news pages in the "Wall Street Journal" also provided strong anti-Trump investigative reports, and this alliance provided Murdoch with an expensive service, granting him full access, repeatedly, to Trump. In addition, he won presidential approval to sell his entertainment properties to Disney, despite antitrust regulations.
Trump considers several Fox News personalities to be among his closest advisers, and among these broadcasters are: Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Janine Perot, and others. Trump has chosen some media figures collaborating with "Fox News" to fill the high vacancies in the White House. Indeed, he considered them qualified to occupy ministerial positions, and they, in turn, continued to work aggressively to promote the president's unfounded allegations, and they won his frequent appearances in their programs and obtained his high evaluations.
Earlier this year, Fox News stars helped spark protests against closures related to "Covid-19" and orders to wear masks, and "Fox News" stars sparked fabricated scandals related to Biden's son, based on false reports published by the newspaper. Murdoch's New York Post, material that Fox reporters could not verify to a large extent.
note
As a small indication of the way in which the crew of "Fox" and Trump organize their programs, the radio station "NPR" published, Friday evening, an internal memo of the Republican Party, sent to senior party officials, about the appearance of the chair of the Republican National Committee, Rona McDaniel, on the program Hannity that night, and the memo pinpointed very precisely the goal of the lengthy opening segment of the show, including the guests, articles, themes, and key points that Hannity would make, and the two focused jointly on raising suspicions about election fraud.
After Fox’s Office of Election Decision Making announced that Arizona was in Biden late Tuesday night local time, the Trump campaign issued an offensive statement about the bureau chief, Arnon Myshkin, who later appeared on air to admit that he had cooperated in The past is in favor of the Democrats.
A Republican senator, Kevin Kramer, from North Dakota, accused in a radio interview with "Fox News" a cover-up, called on the network to expel Mishkin, and said, "(Fox News) owes the American people an apology," but the network stood by the office of taking Her decision.
But others say that the Murdoch family needs to do more to persuade viewers to adopt the choice of the American people. "The Murdoch family and those working for Fox are obligated to put their country above their profits," said CNN broadcaster Jake Taber, on the air. Murdoch's liberal wife, Catherine Murdoch, agrees, and is married to James, Murdoch's youngest son, who is no longer a senior executive in the family media empire, although he maintains a large stake in it.
And the cultural conflict - between the network's most prominent newscasters and its superstars, many of whom have ascended to glory aboard the Trump train - is more evident.
"The important point is that transparency and ballot control are different from the actual process of discovering the fraud responsible for narrowing the gap between competitors," said the broadcaster, Brett Bayer, directing his speech to McDaniel on the air Friday morning. "There is a lot of things that are spreading on the Internet." But when we look at it, we find that it is without evidence. ”He and the broadcaster, Martha McCallum, seemed to make an intervention in which they calm McDaniel's outburst, while objecting to the substance of her claims.
This is a major retreat from Fox News’s stances, if we compare it to Hannity’s words, on Thursday night, when he said: “Americans will never believe in the integrity and legitimacy of the results of these elections,” or Dobbs, who condemned Republican lawmakers on Thursday for not being loyal enough to Trump. When he said, “I don't even hear expressions of thanks, let alone serious participation in stopping this corruption in the polls on the part of the Democrats,” the conservative Fox stars gave their guests sufficient time without criticizing them to make baseless claims that violate the integrity The electoral system, as Trump has done for weeks.
Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, claimed that "President Trump won this election," without providing any evidence, and added: "So everyone who listens to me should not be silent about this, we cannot allow this to happen before our eyes." Later, McCarthy claimed that he was referring to Trump winning seats in the House of Representatives for the Republicans, not the White House, but that would make the rest of his comments hung in the air.
On Friday, CNN reported that Fox News broadcasters had received a note warning them against referring to Biden as "the president-elect," even if the network expected that he would win electoral votes in Nevada, because Arizona State's predictions would give Biden was enough to justify referring to him as the president-elect, and according to a Fox News employee, the producers were advising journalists on the air to wait for further instructions from the network’s office in Washington before saying so.
Later in the day, Bayer and his fellow host, Chris Wallace, did their best to indicate that Biden would be the president-elect should he win Pennsylvania or another state.
Murdoch tendency
What Trump and his supporters have forgotten is that Murdoch's conservatism is tainted by his pragmatism, that he always finds some way to conduct his business, and is very inclined to support the winner, which means, at times, that Murdoch and his possessions are highly pivoted.
On Friday, after Hannity's fiery parade, channel host Laura Ingraham encouraged Trump to leave the scene with dignity, if he turns out to be the loser.
Conservative Fox hosts - the ones who make the network the most profitable - can now be seen maintaining their loyalty to Trump as the news side of the network gently withdraws into the orbit of political gravity.
How subtly the network will succeed in this transition completely - and how quickly - will help determine how easily its viewers and fans of the president and the president himself can deal with political reality.
It seems that "Fox News" Murdoch is always seeking to have a new day, as the network has flourished during the administrations of former presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
"The news cycle will moderate," Fox CEO and CEO Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest son of Robert, also told investors this week. "We fully expect to be number one, and keep our share through that."
The question is, what will Fox News look like under the Biden administration?
Would you give potential Republican presidential candidates time to speak?
To attack Joe and Hunter Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and progressive young House stars?
Including the New York Representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
As much as Murdoch aspires to reach power, his media always confronts strong opposition.
Trump chose some media figures cooperating with "Fox News" to fill high vacancies in the White House, and even considered them qualified to occupy ministerial positions, and they, in turn, continued to work aggressively to promote the president's allegations.
They are completely unfounded, and they have won frequent appearances on their shows and earned their high ratings.
CNN reported on Friday that Fox News broadcasters had received a memo warning them against referring to Biden as "the president-elect" even if the network expected him to win electoral votes in Nevada.
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