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Last night President Trump praised Alan Dershowitz for an interview he did on Friday night's The Ingraham Angle.
Left, Fox News, 10:47 pm Friday
Right, Trump, 10:57 pm Saturday
Left, Fox News, 10:47 pm Friday
Right, Trump, 10:57 pm Saturday
Trump has accused Fox's senior judicial analyst of asking him for both a Supreme Court appointment and a pardon for a friend, and said coverage changed when he said no.
Trump is a liar, so we don't know that this is true. But it should put Fox in an impossible situation.
Trump is a liar, so we don't know that this is true. But it should put Fox in an impossible situation.
If true, Fox has a responsibility as a media outlet to look into these allegations, because if this actually happened it would be incredibly damning from a journalistic ethics standpoint.
All of the network's options are bad.
Let's say Fox looks into this and determines that it didn't happen, that Trump made it up. Would the network announce that the president lied in order to damage one of its personalities? Or would it just let the allegation hang out there?
Let's say Fox looks into this and determines that it didn't happen, that Trump made it up. Would the network announce that the president lied in order to damage one of its personalities? Or would it just let the allegation hang out there?
The part where Andrew Napolitano is a 9-11 Truther whose word can't really be trusted makes this more difficult for the network to figure out.
If the network determines that Trump is telling the truth, it's also got a difficult call. Any network with a hint of respect for journalistic ethics would take serious action upon determining an employee was seeking favors from a president.
But if Fox does take action, it will be very clear that the network's standards here depend on whether the employee in question is favorably disposed to the president. How do you suspend or fire Napolitano while letting Jeanine Pirro keep her job?
Anyway, this is Fox, and the network barely pretends that it knows journalistic ethics exist. The most likely result is that its PR people refuse comment, we maybe get a "Fox news side shocked by impropriety" article, and the story fades away. Because Fox is a propaganda outlet.
What do I win?
Napolitano responds, unsurprisingly says Trump is misleading about everything.
I wrote about this. mediamatters.org/blog/2019/04/2…
