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Over the last four years, the symbiotic relationship between the Trump administration and Fox News has been glaringly obvious.
Fox News gets the ratings, and Donald’s supporters get fed an alternate reality.
Ideas and personnel moved back and forth, and the president was a regular interviewee.
Indeed, on many occasions, Fox echoed, amplified, and refined Trump’s message, while on others the president took his cue from its programming, reflected in his tweets.
It was one of the few outlets that he didn’t label ‘fake news’.
Oh, how the tables have turned – well, sort of.
Fox is now trying to find a way to appease their Trumpian viewers, while also reporting on the election in a way that won’t leave them completely sidelined when Joe Biden takes office.
As The Guardian points out, Rupert Murdoch-owned conservative media outlets are backtracking in what seems like an effort to warn readers and viewers to emotionally prepare for the Biden administration.
The new messaging appears to be closely coordinated, and it includes an appeal to Trump to preserve his “legacy” by showing grace in defeat.
The message is being carried on Fox News and in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post – all outlets avidly consumed by Trump himself, especially Fox…
News coverage at Fox News has similarly shown little patience with the lies about voter fraud Trump is advancing in hopes of reversing the election.
First, let’s check out the moment that Fox realised that Biden had won:
That was a little tentative – you can see that they’re still unsure of themselves.
Then, they obviously received some new instructions, because Chris Wallace was keen to gently encourage Trump to accept that it’s all over.
Jump to the 2:10 mark for that:
Laura Ingraham, trying to juggle support for Trump while preparing her audience for his defeat:
Laura Ingraham criticizes the political consultants who blew through all the Trump campaign funds without leaving enough money for an adequate legal team pic.twitter.com/XpZVmBBQoz
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) November 7, 2020
Then there’s this from Fox correspondents about ‘voter fraud’:
Holy crap Fox News is going rogue and telling the truth.
This is amazing…pic.twitter.com/e9xDED5gbq
— Rex Chapman
(@RexChapman) November 7, 2020
Fox isn’t entirely changing its tune, though. Trump tweeted this earlier today (South African time):
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2020
What’s clear is that Murdoch is throwing some weight behind trying to turn things around in preparation for the new administration:
Top editors at the [New York] Post have “told some staff members this week to be tougher in their coverage” of Trump, the New York Times reported, citing two anonymous employees of the paper.
The Times piece said: “On Thursday, in a sudden about-face, Rupert Murdoch’s scrappy tabloid published two articles with a wildly different tone. One accused the president of making an ‘unfounded claim that political foes were trying to steal the election’. The headline on the other described Donald Trump Jr as the ‘panic-stricken’ author of a ‘clueless tweet’.”
Trump voters are extremely upset with Fox News, calling it left-leaning, and vowing to discontinue their support for the network.
More from The Guardian:
“Fox, you can’t even trust them,” said Rob Phail, 51, from South Lyon, Michigan, who had been leading the “stop the count” chants.
“They’re the worst chameleons of all. So you’re like, OK, who do you trust?”
The walls really are closing in.
I’m sure Fox will be back to slinging mud at Biden soon enough, anyway.
