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As Joe Biden is assuming the responsibilities of the presidency, his press operation is already in demand to face a perpetual debate: what exactly should he do with Fox News?
The cable news giant has upset previous Democratic administrations, rushing between acting as the voice of the opposition and legitimate media with the country’s mainstream audience.
But a series of recent developments – including growing animosity between President Donald Trump and some of Fox News’ more direct figures – has changed the dynamics of this particular political-media connection. And it sparked a new argument among Biden’s allies and White House veterans over how and if he should engage the network more fully.
For a cadre of senior party leaders, the answer is obvious and made all the more evident by the disappointments Democrats have suffered during the poll this cycle.
“Everyone on our side is wondering how 70 million people could have voted for this president with their eyes open,” former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg said in an interview with The Daily Beast. “If they believe these 70 million people are bad, then our country is not going to make it. If, on the other hand, you think they are largely working on different information, or so-called information, from that of the rest of us, then the real issue is not the character of the people. voters, because it is the nature of the information that is getting to them. Then we have the responsibility to try to change the information they receive. “
Among Democrats who speak out on Fox News, Buttigieg may have the most directly personal experience. As a presidential candidate, he shaped a ubiquitous approach to media successes into a pitch for his own election. As Biden’s surrogate, he was sent by Campaign HQ as their primary voice on Fox, precisely because of his supernatural ability to stay on message in the face of conflicting questions.
Buttigieg wasn’t pollyannish about the impact of these often viral clips or Fox’s editorial underpinnings. He clarified that he did not think it was wise to participate in the evening opinion broadcasts. But he also rejected the idea that Democrats shouldn’t hire Fox for fear of legitimizing her.
“The train has largely left the station to find out whether Fox News will be seen as legitimate by tens of millions of Americans,” he explained. “It’s over. And it happened without us. The time to deprive him of oxygen is long past.
And yet, those who have been in the White House press offices in the service of a Democratic president are not so sure. In an article circulated in Democratic circles, former Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor pleaded with Biden’s team not to simply “put aside” Fox, but to treat them as an extension of the Republican Party. In a follow-up interview with The Daily Beast, Vietor explained that this doesn’t mean to never engage with the network. But “I don’t think Joe Biden should sit down with Bret Baier,” he added, “it’s an insane waste of time.”
“You go there knowing that it is not an information network and that it is a Republican propaganda channel,” he explained. “They could play well in the daytime lineup. Chris Wallace could do a decent interview once every few years. But three weeks before an election, you must realize that it will be wall to wall. ‘ISIS is coming, the trailer is on the street and they are going to kill your family.’ ‘
Vietor’s advice grew out of his time in the White House ten years ago, when the Obama administration periodically chose fights with Fox only to soften his stance when criticism came from other networks. Vietor’s perception of Fox has hardly changed much. No more than that of his former boss. In interviews promoting the release of his new book, Barack Obama has frequently lamented Fox’s influence, arguing that his programming has calcified the partisan stalemate in Congress and deepened political divisions in America.
But the solution suggested by Vietor is more nuanced than a simple Fox News blackout. Biden’s press workshop, he argued, should use its perch to work with progressive and non-traditional media and elevate them, either by nurturing those outlets or creating its own content to get through. various social channels.
Others in the trenches had different suggestions.
Angelo Carusone, chairman of the liberal watchdog Media Matters for America, has said that while Democrats should avoid appearing on Fox News for the reasons Vietor exposes, they would be wise to try to neutralize local conservative programming, including through stations run by Sinclair.
“Most people who watch Sinclair don’t watch Sinclair because it’s Sinclair,” he said, distinguishing with Fox. “They watch it because it’s their local CBS.”
Representative Conor Lamb (D-PA), who won a hotly contested race for his second term, said the party must find a way to denationalize its media strategy. Too much of the conversation, he argued, was happening through the prism of Donald Trump and presidential politics when in fact voters often ignored this kind of speech.
“Something you need to take in your own media appearances is, ‘Am I going to be able to talk about my own job, my ideas, and my neighborhood, or will it all be a Trump related question?’ “He told The Daily Beast. “It’s a tough call, whether you’re on Fox News or MSNBC, to see if you can get anything from your own work.”
Biden’s campaign has made extensive attempts to adopt the Lamb approach. During the final months of the election, the candidate went heavy on local news interviews and light on national and cable channels. The relationship with Fox was strained but not icy. Biden answered questions about the network integration in addition to sitting down for an interview with Chris Wallace’s Sunday news program in March. But there was no follow-up, despite repeated persistence by Fox News staff members who became frustrated with Biden’s refusal to appear on the network.
The network now finds itself in a much more uncertain space. The willingness of his daytime hosts and reporters to implicitly concede Biden’s election angered Trump. The president has angered at Fox’s decision to call Arizona for Biden on election night. And his son-in-law Jared Kushner even called Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch to try and turn the situation around.
The network’s much more popular opinion leaders have supported the president as he attacked the legitimacy of the election and launched crazy theories about electoral fraud. But that was not enough to calm the waters. Trump sent flares that he could create or join a rival media network or company if he leaves office. He’s reveling in what he sees as a “ratings crash” for Fox’s daytime programming, and his supporters have literally protested at the network’s headquarters.
“It just shows you how far we’ve come if Fox News is too reasonable and moderate for today’s Republican Party,” Buttigieg said.
The friction hit some Democrats as a potential opportunity – the kind of conditions that could force Fox to adopt a more nuanced editorial posture. But longtime Fox critics have said it would be foolish to suspect that he wouldn’t go back to the same hedging formulas that have always worked. Even so, they argued that throwing a lifeline to the network in the form of bipartisan legitimacy would be a massive strategic error given its current situation.
“Go on the canal right now and flood the area, I know [some Democrats] thinks Trump will be angry to see them. But the problem is, it will give the host an opportunity to call them up and beat them, ”Carusone said. “They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. Trump is rock, for sure. But we are the most difficult place.
If an editorial course correction arrives at Fox, it is not yet obvious. Primetime host Tucker Carlson insisted that the heads of the network want more from his programming. And her fellow prime-time occupants, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, have fully boasted Trump’s narrative efforts, even though the preponderance of evidence shows this to be an abject failure.
At the Fox Business Network, Trump’s allies have gone even further. Lou Dobbs, the network’s most-watched anchor, has snorted at guests who are friends of Trump for not being proactive enough in trying to overturn the election results in Trump’s favor. And last week, Maria Bartiromo, one of Trump’s main allies in the financial media world, gave airtime to a false conspiracy theory against electoral fraud and continues to regularly promote debunked claims about it. electoral integrity in his program.
–Sam Stein is an MSNBC contributor.
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