As Fox Goes…

Complainer in Chief

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, called Suzanne Scott, the Chief Executive of Fox News on Sunday.  It wasn’t just to pass the time of day; the President had a complaint.  Fox News, called “Trump News” by many in the rest of the media world, wasn’t covering him fairly, according to the President (The Hill.) 

This is the same Fox News that the President sang the praises for in his recent Minneapolis campaign rally.  There, Mr. Trump went through the Fox News schedule, praising each host by name.  From Fox and Friends in the morning, through Carlson, Ingraham, Pirro, and finally to the “holy grail” of Fox Trump support, Sean Hannity:  Trump called for applause for them all.

Straight Shooters

Except for Shepard Smith, the aberrant “straight shooter” in the Fox News stable.  Smith called out his fellow Fox hosts when they fictionalized the facts to support the President.  Attorney General Bill Barr met with Rupert Murdock, the owner of Fox News on Wednesday night.  Thursday, Smith, a founding member of the Fox News lineup twenty-three years ago, resigned from the organization. 

Suzanne Scott encouraged the President to sit down for a long interview with Bret Bair, another Fox anchor with some reputation for fairness.  While we don’t know if Mr. Trump will do that, what we do know is that he is tremendously disappointed that Fox would conduct and report a poll that showed a majority of the country favors his impeachment and removal from office.  He was also struck that they would employ Smith, or Chris Wallace (“I liked his father better than him” Tweeted Trump) or others that might “cross the line” and criticize him.

The Numbers

Trump may not like the polling data.  The Real Clear Politic summary of polling data shows that the nation is split over impeachment and removal, with 47% against and 46% for (RCP.)  But perhaps more importantly for the President, the Murdoch’s are reading the data as well.  

The phenomenon of Donald Trump is a media creation.  The Fox News network was pivotal, but they aren’t the only ones to blame.  Trump got hours of free media coverage from MSNBC in 2015, particularly on Joe Scarborough’s show. It was invaluable in establishing Trump as a credible candidate.  But the open support of Fox, and the total access the network gave Trump to their airwaves and viewership, helped place him in the White House.  

Fox continues to be the most watched cable news channel in the United States.  It averages 2.43 million viewers per night, as compared to 1.5 million for MSNBC and 1 million for CNN (Statistica.)  (Note:  for those looking for further evidence of division in America, these numbers make it even clearer. There are about 2.5 million Fox viewers, and about 2.5 million MSNBC/CNN viewers.  We are truly a nation divided.)

Fox Follows the Nation

But what happens when the Murdochs’ decide that Donald Trump isn’t good for Fox News?  If the numbers for impeaching and removing the President turn into a growing tide rather than a brief wave, will the network stick with their falling leader?

The Murdoch’s are all business when it comes to their success.  Rupert Murdoch didn’t like Donald Trump in the first place, but business was business, and Trump was good for business.  If support for impeachment continues to grow, don’t be surprised to find Fox News separating from Trump’s side.  And with Fox News goes the Trump base.  Ultimately it isn’t Fox and Friends, or Pirro, or even Hannity.  It’s the man who pulls their strings, who will determine where the Fox Network will go.  

I’ll Supply the War

In the 1890’s making money in the media, newspapers at the time, wasn’t about presenting the facts.  Two famous names in the business, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, competed to sell the most papers with headlines that grabbed the most attention.  It was called the era of Yellow Journalism.

Pulitzer’s New York World fought for readership against Hearst’s New York Journal.  Hearst determined that a crisis in the Spanish possession of Cuba was “newsworthy.”  He sent reporters to detail the unrest there, and artist Fredric Remington to draw the graphic details.  When Remington, sitting in a bar in Havana, telegraphed Hearst that there was nothing going on, Hearst famously responding:  “You furnish the pictures, I’ll furnish the war” (Medium.)

Murdoch used Trump to sell his network.  He supplied the candidate and America provided him the conflict.  And here we are.  

All Media companies, even my hallowed New York Times and Washington Post, are in business to make money.  And while the Times and the Post may be leading the way discovering the facts leading to impeachment, they are using that leadership to sell papers.

But make no mistake, when Trump supplies his own coffin, Murdoch will supply the nails.