“Fox spends more time defending Dumocrats, and putting on their views versus their Republican opponent, than at any time in the History of FoxNews. It’s ridiculous! FoxNews is trying too hard to be Politically Correct! Watch my big Kansas Rally today on RSBN.”
That’s President Donald Trump posting yet another attack on Fox News in a Monday morning Truth Social missive. But if you actually walk through what Fox News put on the air the past few days, you’d come away with a much different view than the president.
Saturday afternoon Senator Ted Cruz sat down with Aishah Hasnie and said the Russia sanctions waiver “was a mistake” and that “the current path unfortunately just benefits Putin.” Sunday morning Shannon Bream read Fox News legal contributor Andy McCarthy’s “aid and comfort” column to Senator Dave McCormick, and McCormick said, “I would not be in favor of giving the reprieve on the sanctions. We have got to keep the pressure on Putin.” An hour earlier, Speaker Mike Johnson told Larry Kudlow that “Putin cannot be trusted” and that he’d asked the White House to “carefully consider the unintended consequences.” At noon, the network debuted Ruthless, a show hosted by three Republican consultants that played a game called ‘Democrat or journo?’ And at 7:37 this morning, Ainsley Earhardt introduced President Trump’s decision to waive sanctions on Russia, which had Senator Roger Wicker writing, “Mr. President, please take this win.”
Bream did interview Democratic Senator Tim Kaine on Fox News Sunday right after McCormick. And Fox & Friends replayed a clip of Dana Bash’s State of the Union interview with Senate candidate Troy Jackson this morning so the hosts could mock his posture. That's the sum total of "defending Dumocrats" that I could find, but I’m sure I missed some other examples. But everyone that I saw disagreeing with Trump about Russia in those hours was a Republican. I think that's what he can't stand and can't say.
Trump and his White House minions have been desperately trying to gin up a fight with Fox News for a couple of months now. And I’ve written a number of times how Fox News holds all the leverage in this fight. And that the leverage is what it chooses to cover. This weekend is the cleanest example yet. The network booked the people who were against lifting of the Russian sanctions, and they happened to be senators from Texas and Pennsylvania and the Speaker of the House. The Wall Street Journal, which lives under the same corporate ownership umbrella, offered its own editorializing: “To Russia With Love, Signed Donald,” with a line about a shiv in the back of Lindsey Graham’s legacy. Harsh.
Now look at the rest of what he’s calling “politically correct” programming on Fox News.
Sunday at noon, the network debuted Ruthless, a podcast-turned-cable-news program hosted by three Republican consultants that played a game called “Democrat or Journo?” This morning on Fox & Friends, Lawrence Jones openly mocked Troy Jackson’s interview with Bash, saying “sit up straight and answer the question!” and “You expect more from your 4-year-old.” Brian Kilmeade went off on the riots in France, saying, “This is organized chaos. These people I’m sure... being paid.” He followed a reading of Ro Khanna’s post with “What is wrong with you!?” Reince Priebus went long on Abdul El-Sayed’s sister-in-law and the terrorist watch list. There was a Melania Trump exclusive, an Elon Musk tribute, and the O.J. Simpson informant was mentioned twice.
The Russia story got two minutes. Morning Joe said the word Russia 81 times between six and eight. Fox & Friends said it 16 times, mostly in Ainsley’s package. If this is the most pro-Democrat Fox News in history, then it’s a remarkably ineffective history.
What’s going on is no different from what was going on on Oct. 6, when he was mad that Martha MacCallum gave a tough but fair interview with El-Sayed, and on Thursday, when he posted that Karl Rove “shouldn’t be allowed to spew his jealousy on Fox News.”
The most recent Fox News Poll has Trump’s approval at 36 with likely voters. The Washington Post had him at 33 yesterday. NBC has him at 34, and perhaps more notably, 56 percent of Republicans in that poll now call themselves traditional Republicans rather than MAGA. Fox News programs for all of their viewers, and every time it reflects them back at him, he attacks a network her prefers to see as a mirror. Trump still seems to think Fox News should solely program for the Oval Office. He’s wrong.
Two weeks ago he had a big problem was a MacCallum interview. Thursday it was Rove. On Friday, asked why his press secretary lasted five days, he brought up Hannity’s bar-exam question on his own and said “Sean was a little bit tough.” This morning it’s the whole network.
The most revealing part of this Truth Social post is the last line: “Watch the rally on RSBN,” he wrote in promotion, a lowly streamer to the highest-rated and most influential network he’s complaining about. This is the complaint of someone who’s finally figured out the network won’t carry the rally live because he no longer rates, and he’s pretending that he’s still got the juice. He doesn’t.
He wanted a network that put on his people. Fox News put on his people, but they just didn’t agree with him.