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Trump's Fox News criticism shows he does not understand the essential con at the heart of the network, which risks upsetting the delicate equilibrium between Fox's advertisers and audience in a very dangerous way for the outlet: mediamatters.org/fox-news/trump…
Fox's model requires convincing advertisers that the network features both right-wing opinion programming and "straight-news" reporting.
This is largely a farce, but the network does feature several hours each day in which, if you squint at the screen and don't listen to the words, you might think a normal news show is happening.
Fox is constantly talking about those hours to advertisers, who have been abandoning their most-watched programs. If network execs can't push back on the idea that they are airing pure propaganda, advertisers will flee the network altogether.
Trump doesn't seem to understand the crucial role that the appearance of impartiality plays for Fox. He wants 24 hours of Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs, pure unadulterated sycophancy.
And if he convinces enough of the audience that that is what they want too, Fox is screwed. They either give Trump what he wants and risk their advertiser relationships, or refuse and risk their audience relationships.
tl;dr Trump thinks Fox works for him, the audience probably does too, and that's a huge problem for the network.
