[ad_1]
NEW YORK (AP) – The only constant with President Donald Trump's more and more frequent attacks on Fox News was the network's refusal to respond, even as the president complains that "Fox is no longer working for us" .
In recent days, however, some Fox personalities, such as Bret Baier, Juan Williams and Brit Hume, have stopped looking in the face.
Fox is filled with pro-Trump commentators such as Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro and Laura Ingraham, and the president is a hard-working spectator. Shepard Smith, White House correspondent John Roberts, commentator Williams, contributor Donna Brazile and network pollsters, all targeted this summer. He lamented on Wednesday that news anchor Sandra Smith proposed a "zero respite" campaign in an interview with Democratic Communications Director Xochitl Hinojosa.
A tweet Wednesday at the heart of the existence of the network.
"The new Fox News drops millions of great people," he wrote. "We have to start looking for a new scrum. Fox does not work for us anymore. "
Fox's official response? There was none.
Fox's current leaders have refused to speak publicly about the strategy. They are not necessarily alone; NBC News does not respond to tweets either. Some who have heard the president's complaints compare him to a basketball coach "working referees", and at best stoic while receiving a listening ear. It is feared that the answers will only get more attention Trump comments, and attacks on Twitter are just the white noise of this administration.
The calculation is also different in Fox because it is there that gravitate many supporters of Trump. If their favorite politician is perceived as being attacked by his favorite network, how would these viewers react? Trump did not like the questions asked by Fox's Megyn Kelly during a debate in 2015, and the rumor hit her when she later appeared in front of an audience gathered for a television show on Hannity.
"I do not think Fox cares about Trump's attacks," said Alex Conant, a Republican communications consultant at Firehouse Strategies. "They just care about their audience."
Nevertheless, Trump's claim that Fox "works for us" is damaging to a network when this perception has made it more difficult to cover the Democratic presidential campaign. Trump did not distinguish between Fox's opinion and the press employees, which the network has long been doing to counter the argument that its purpose is to advance a point of view.
"It's so scary that the President of the United States thinks it's a media organization," said commentator Williams, invited to give a Liberal point of view, on Fox radio. "You know, it's not good."
Former Fox State Man Hume tweeted in response to Trump on Wednesday : "Fox News is not supposed to work for you."
It should be noted that even though Trump attacked Fox, he still looks for his audience more than any other outlet. He granted an interview Thursday to Fox's Brian Kilmeade.
Fox News is regularly the most watched cable network, with an average of 2.33 million viewers in prime time last week.
Williams is one of the few Fox employees who responded directly to a Trump attack through a column he wrote this week for The Hill. Trump, last week, called Williams "pathetic," "naughty," and "bad," but "he could not be nicer asking for a picture of him and his family."
Williams said that when Trump was a candidate, Fox's Ed Henry met him in the lobby of the network headquarters in Manhattan. A Fox maintenance officer asked if he could get a picture with Trump and Williams took it. The man then offered to reciprocate by taking a picture of Williams and Trump; Williams stated that he had never asked for it or brought his family to the conversation.
When he was a Washington Post reporter covering the administration of Mayor Marion Barry, Williams' house was broken into and his wife found a butcher's knife left on their bed. He was fired by National Public Radio for a comment after September 11, 2001, after stating that he was worried about getting on planes with Muslims.
"These attacks are a step in the blitz" launched by Trump supporters after the president's tweet, he said.
Baier, on his show last week, defended Fox's pollsters against the attacks. "The Fox has not changed," Baier said. "We have a new side and an opinion side."
After a hostile tweet, Smith spoke to a television viewer on Wednesday, looking at the camera and saying, "Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. It's good to have you with us.
To a certain extent, answers such as Baier's make a comment on the network unnecessary, said Conant. Fox may also reap the evil benefits of some Trump attacks – they point out that the network is not limited to Hannity's boundless love, he said.
"This could be an opportunity for Fox to boast," said Carl Cameron, a long-time Fox News Washington journalist who left the network. If Fox published an announcement highlighting moments that reporters had under the skin of the president, it would help the morale of the remaining journalists. "This is what information divisions are supposed to do," he said.
Silence sends its own message, Cameron said.
CNN and The New York Times, two new news agencies frequently targeted by Trump, ignore many attacks but react to some. The Times tends to be strictly informative. The Times has countered the nickname of the "failed" newspaper awarded by Trump by publishing statistics on "successful business." When Trump questioned an article about missile site construction in North Korea, the Times said it was "based on satellite images analyzed by experts."
CNN was more aggressive in noting in November 2017 that "it is not up to CNN to represent the United States in the world. It's yours. Ours is to report the news.
After a verbal confrontation between Trump and Jim Acosta last November, CNN tweeted that "the president's ongoing attacks on the press have gone too far, they are not only dangerous, they are bothered by a non-American."
[ad_2]
Source link