Dear Friends!
I know from Substack’s dashboard that among my readers who are on-air talent, executives, and showrunners, a good number are gainfully employed by Fox News. I also know that, over more than a decade covering the top-rated network I’ve gotten to know and like many of you, which I hope is reciprocated despite past columns that have occasionally been critical of your coverage. And I know from first-hand conversations that many of you find those critiques largely reasonable and fair, though it’s very likely you say the opposite when I’m not standing directly in front of you with cocktail in hand. No worries! Such is the nature of the political media biz.
I’m writing today to give you some harsh criticism, which I hope you'll take as tough love: Your on-air handling of Trump’s banning of your colleagues at CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from White House access is a deep scar on your reputation, for a variety of reasons.
First? You look like abject hypocrites after talking endlessly about the threat of Big Tech and how it put its thumb on the scale by shadow-banning and moderating speech on Twitter and Facebook. That was a huge narrative in 2023 and 2024, and it resonated. Yet here we are: the president of the United States banning three of the biggest and most influential outlets in the country from White House access because he doesn’t like their coverage. Dudes. By the very same standard, Obama and Biden would have been well within their rights to do the same to you. Not speaking out forcefully about it is a stain.
And you know this is wrong. I know that you know it’s wrong because of the raft of courageous comments from your own top talent, posted on social media within hours of the ban Friday.
Ari Fleischer, Fox News contributor and press secretary under George W. Bush’s wrote on X, “I agree with POTUS that several media outlets covering the WH are biased and unfair. Banning them from the WH is not the solution. Open the pool and the briefing room to conservatives. Challenge liberal reporters. Argue and defeat them. Don’t ban them. Or one day they’ll ban us.”
Jonathan Turley, Fox News legal contributor, wrote, “Such a move would be an assault on long-honored principles of a free press. I have often joined in the criticism over the bias of these outlets, but barring disfavored media from the White House.”
Brit Hume, your chief political analyst, agreed with Turely, quote-replying, “100%. And if he thinks this will lead to more favorable coverage, I think he’s dreaming.”
Guy Benson, your political analyst, actually said on air during curiously titled Big Weekend Show: “The White House media ban, even if you hate the targeted outlets, is a bad idea & bad precedent. It’s the sort of thing he does when he doesn’t feel like things are going well politically.”
And John Roberts, co-anchor of America Reports, wrote, “Obama tried to exclude Fox from certain White House access back in 2009. Lasted about a half a heartbeat. I expect this one will too.”
Jacqui Heinrich is not only your White House correspondent, but she’s also the current president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, and she's leading the fight to get those badges back. She put out the WHCA’s statement Friday, quoting the president’s own Oval Office words back at him, a “ban on the free press,” and demanded the passes be restored. The network’s own White House reporter is doing courageous, laudable work as the face of the opposition to this ban, yet on Monday morning your top-rated morning show barely covered it in minimal news reads that landed somewhere between American Eagle’s brand troubles and Presley Gerber’s death.
So you know this is wrong. And I know that you know this is wrong, as your own people have said so, and your bureau chief signed a joint statement with the other four networks Monday saying so. What's missing is the part your audience would actually hear.
Your bureau chief did the right thing, but he doesn’t have a show. Fox & Friends, Outnumbered, The Five, and Hannity do, and they need to take a stand against the president banning three newsrooms over their coverage and irresponsibly calling them “a threat to our National Security” that “must be stopped, NOW!” Nobody on your air has yet said he was wrong. Forgive the bastardization, but first they came for CNN, MS NOW and Politico, and I said nothing.
I get the business you’re in, and it’s been wildly influential and lucrative. The MAGA base may very well be shrinking in size, but Trump loyalists are still a big piece of your audience. One notable viewer is the most powerful person in the world right now, and I imagine saying things on air that he doesn’t like has to be a major pain in the ass. I get why you wouldn’t want to borrow trouble, as that’s human nature. But it's also not journalism, and look at what the silence is buying you.
On the very same Friday he banned three of your competitors, he lauded Breitbart as the only news outlet that covers him fairly. For the New York trip the White House listed Real America’s Voice as the backup TV crew. He’s building a press corps with a website and a streaming outfit at the top of it, and you’ve spent the weekend protecting a loyalty he doesn’t even give you credit for, and helped a White House that just two weeks ago was starting a public fight with you following your principled ouster of the pro-Trump election-denying toady Maria Bartiromo. Do they really deserve this level of grace at the expense of your journalistic reputation?
The good news? It’s NOT TOO LATE. The rest of the week is wide open to call bullshit on a flatly alarming development, and it seems like half of your on-air talent have already made the argument. All that’s missing is a microphone, camera, and a lit ON AIR sign. Do it and be heroes!
Hugs,
Colby
PS. Do you also think Del Frisco’s has fallen off?
I think Fox has joined the fight in “no press”.