Serious dissonance on Fox News
by digby
For those who don’t spend a lot (any) time watching Fox, the following may surprise you. It surprised me:
Fox has been bragging that their daytime ratings are number one while doing wall to wall coverage of impeachment hearings. pic.twitter.com/JJHW2sLFh5— Madeline Peltz (@peltzmadeline) November 21, 2019
They can’t spin it. It’s happening live. The GOP’s defenses are falling apart https://t.co/vTtS3hVrje— Madeline Peltz (@peltzmadeline) November 21, 2019
During prime time they reverse course and try to clean up. You’ve got Tucker apologizing for his own network’s coverage. https://t.co/58gfdS7WDC— Madeline Peltz (@peltzmadeline) November 21, 2019
And then you’ve got Laura Ingraham, whose absolutely batshit coverage resulted in Lt. Col. Vindland’s lawyers issuing a formal request for a retraction because her guest’s claim that he’s a spy is putting him in physical danger. https://t.co/XALGTyhyMi— Madeline Peltz (@peltzmadeline) November 21, 2019
During the night, it’s a Soviet style witch hunt, sorry we’re covering this, he’s a spy. Corporate still goes to the press and brags about their ratings.— Madeline Peltz (@peltzmadeline) November 21, 2019
She concludes with this:
TL;DR Fox News has no long term strategy for damage control after getting too close to president crimes so they’re throwing it all against the wall to see if advertisers don’t notice
This is important. A very large part of the Fox audience is retired people. They’re home all day and they’re watching Fox. (The president is one of them.)
I don’t know if they feel dissonance over this but it’s notable that there are two different storylines emerging on Trump TV. It affects Trump, who sees this and reacts to it. And his cult is seeing just a bit of reality. I’m sure they self-sooth with a triple shot of Hannity Carlson and Ingraham at night, but real facts and information are, at least, in front of some of them.
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