Fox led the opposition to Obama 12 years ago, but network execs fought that portrayal. Resisted it. In January 2009 Bill Shine told me they would "cover the news in a fair and balanced way and put on a very good product."
When I wrote about Fox as the "voice of the opposition" for NYT, Fox execs denied it: nyti.ms/3sNM65U
Nowadays Fox doesn't try to deny that it is anti-Democrat. Execs simply claim the rest of the media is anti-Republican. But the best measure of Fox, IMHO, isn't what they tell investors or reporters...
Measure Fox by its journalism. How many bureaus? How many scoops? How many reporters are being hired? How much original reporting is on the air? Sadly all those #'s are low. Lachlan is investing in opinion, not news. Fewer facts, more fights — VOICE of the opposition, indeed.
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Living through history, day by day, "it feels like you're in the middle of the ocean with with waves pouring over you constantly," @RonBrownstein says. But "history will have no trouble" identifying the "big structural factor driving the politics of our era" (1/4)
The big-picture theme, he says, is demographic eclipse – the eclipse of White Christian America, the rise of a majority-minority society, and the vicious response to this change. That's what we dug into on this week's RS podcast (2/4) podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id4…
"The fundamental dividing line in American politics," @RonBrownstein says, "is between those who welcome and those who fear the way America is changing." What some perceive as progress, others perceive as loss. (3/4)
He entered office with 20 million Twitter followers. He is leaving office with zero.
Trump granted 119 interviews to Fox News, per @markknoller. He granted zero to CNN. This chart reminds me of a middle finger.
Trump began his term with a 44% approval rating, according to CNN polling, and ended with a 34% approval rating. @FiveThirtyEight's data shows relative steadiness across hundreds of polls by scores of outfits.
NBC's @oneunderscore__ said "Please realize that in six months, there will be a part of pro-Trump media that becomes full 1/6 Truthers." I decided to turn on One America News, and I saw that it's already happening. On one of the president's favorite channels.
I watched ten random minutes of @OANN in the 10am hour and heard the pro-Trump riot sanitized as "the Capitol Hill incident;" heard it was a "very small crowd" of "troublemakers;" heard the scene was "nothing like" a war zone; and heard "there were clearly agitators in there."
"Antifa did it" lie is big on OAN. TWICE today, anchors said these exact words: "A self-described member of Antifa from New York is facing charges for allegedly stabbing 2 people during the protest at the Capitol." That happened in ALBANY, NEW YORK. But they made it sound like DC
First: @JakeTapper becomes the network's "lead anchor for all major Washington events." Translating newsroom lingo: When it's time to project the winner of the 2024 presidential election, Tapper will break the news.
>> @JakeTapper's @TheLeadCNN expands to TWO hours, 4 to 6pm ET, beginning in April. Tapper will continue on Sundays, now as the CO-anchor of @CNNSOTU, with @DanaBashCNN anchoring every other week.
If someone managed to sleep through the Trump years, and asked me what they'd missed, I'd start with "enemy of the people." Why? Because Trump's demonization of the media explains almost everything... cnn.com/2020/12/28/med…
Trump convinced his fans that the people covering him were lying. He told them to trust Fox and reject other info sources. On his very first weekend in office, he said he was in a "running war with the media." There were no "winners" in this "war..." cnn.com/videos/busines…
Many times, in many influential corners of the media, there was an impulse to ignore Trump's anti-media attacks. But the poison seeped in anyway. It's what caused some of the fractures in America and exacerbated so many of the others. And the poison was advertised as an antidote!