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President Trump posted and retweeted more than a dozen tweets Thursday morning attacking Fox News, in a harsh rebuke to the network known for its supportive coverage throughout his presidency. It was the latest sign that the president could turn against his once-favorite network due to his cover of his electoral defeat.
By noon, Mr Trump had retweeted an avalanche of messages from supporters criticizing Fox for his election coverage and, as one tweet put it, for “bending to the left.” Some of the tweets promoted Newsmax and One America News Network, two pro-Trump media known for promoting false and baseless conspiracy theories.
Both media declined to declare President-elect Joe Biden the winner of the election – something Fox did on Saturday with other major news agencies. Newsmax in particular is said to have seen its ratings increase since polling day.
The president continued with his own post mocking the Fox News notes and suggesting the network would suffer without him.
“Very sad to see this happening, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there,” he wrote. “They forgot about the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 and 2020 elections is @FoxNews!”
CBS News has reached out to Fox News reps for comment.
Fox News achieved record ratings during Mr. Trump’s presidency, including the highest-rated month in cable news history in October 2020, according to Nielsen Media Research. Fox was also the most-watched news network on election night, though its ratings fell far behind CNN and MSNBC for coverage of. Biden’s victory speech November 7.
Mr Trump began publicly challenging Fox News this year on his campaign coverage, including his polls which consistently showed the president following Biden, though he continued to praise the network’s loyal opinion leaders .
He stepped up his attacks after Fox became the first network to project a victory for Biden in Arizona, a state Mr. Trump won in 2016. The Associated Press also called Arizona for Biden. CBS News did not project a winner in the state, but characterizes it as leaning towards Biden, who is ahead of more than 11,600 votes with 99% of the results reported.
Mr. Trump’s criticism of Fox spilled over to some of his supporters. People at a pro-Trump protest last week outside a Phoenix election facility were caught on video chanting “Fox News sucks!”
Fox News coverage pushed back Mr. Trump’s coverage unfounded claims widespread electoral fraud. On Monday, the network quickly interrupted a briefing where White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany repeated the baseless accusation that Democrats were trying to steal the election.
“She accuses the other side of congratulating each other on the fraud and welcoming the illegal vote,” Fox News host Neil Cavuto said after cutting. “Unless she has more details to back it up, I cannot with good countenance continue to show you this.”
But some of Fox’s prime-time commentators, including Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, continued to question the election results on their shows.
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