Posted on 12/14/2017 9:49:30 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
The most important poll number to come out this week had nothing to do with defeated Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. It had to do with Fox News and Donald Trump. We'll get to the numbers in a minute.
First: some disclosure. I'm a Fox contributor and a Trump skeptic (aka a former "Never Trumper"). That makes this an awkward column to write, for reasons that should be fairly obvious.
Regardless, I don't think I am revealing any state or corporate secrets that Fox is the president's favorite news network. He says as much all the time. According to CBS' Mark Knoller, as of last October, President Trump gave more than three times as many interviews (18) to Fox and Fox Business as he has to NBC, ABC and CBS combined (5). He's given two to religious networks and zero to CNN.
Some Fox defenders would say this is understandable because the other networks are so hostile toward the president. They certainly have a point.
Fox critics would say that Trump favors Fox because the network is exceedingly friendly to the president. Some even call it Trump's "state TV."
The critics have a point, too, though an important distinction needs to be made.
Most of the president's interviews haven't been with the news side -- which I think usually does a very good job of covering the news honestly and fairly -- but with the opinion side. Sean Hannity, probably Trump's favorite host and, reportedly, an informal Trump adviser, explained in April 2016, "If I'm interviewing Hillary Clinton, it's gonna be a hundred times harder than any Republican, because I believe the Republicans ... have a far better vision, one that I agree with ... I'm not a journalist, I'm a talk show host." (Hannity recently revised this, telling the New York Times he's an "advocacy journalist").
Many other cable hosts pretend that they are dispassionate journalists when any reasonable viewer can see that they are ideological and political partisans. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow touts her show as covering the news "without fear or favor." I don't know about the fear part, but any remotely objective viewer would see an awful lot of favor -- to Democrats, liberals, Trump critics, etc.
Still, the same objective viewer simply must concede that Fox, particularly "Fox and Friends" (which Trump watches to the point where many in Washington now call the program the "president's daily briefing") and the primetime line-up -- with Hannity at the forefront -- is objectively and intensely pro-Trump.
The news side is a different animal (which is probably why President Trump won't sit down with news anchors Bret Baier or Chris Wallace). But even here it's fair to say Fox doesn't follow the path forged by other news organizations, which often appear so determined to hurt Trump that they fall for bogus stories which my National Review colleague Rich Lowry calls, "too anti-Trump to check." Whether that makes them biased toward Trump is ultimately in the eye of the beholder. That Hannity & Co. bend over backward to cast Trump in as favorable a light as possible really isn't up for debate.
But there's a difference between favorable and helpful. Much of the opinion stuff essentially involves mirroring Trump's Twitter feed, attacking Trump critics and railing about the "rigged system," "fake news" and the "deep state." It's so much muchness, as the British say.
The focus on the reality show drama and cult-of-personality stuff is distracting from the more straightforward, if more boring, case for the White House. That may not be evident in the ratings, but it is in the polls. Trump has been hemorrhaging support among key demographics for months, despite a much improving economy, victory over ISIS and mostly excellent judicial appointments.
Which brings me to those poll numbers. Suffolk University and USA Today released a poll this week which found that among people who trust Fox News the most, the president's approval rating has been sinking. His favorability among Fox devotees in June was 90 percent. In October, it was 74 percent. This week? Fifty-eight percent. If that trend continues, he will be underwater with the Fox audience long before the 2018 midterms.
You can cry "fake polls," as Trump often does. But was the same poll fake in June? Or are the same trends that led to Trump's historically abysmal approval ratings now reaching even the Fox faithful?
From Virginia to Oklahoma to Alabama, establishment and anti-establishment GOP candidates alike have lost in large part because Democrats, Independents and a significant number of Republicans disapprove of Trump more than they approve of him. His pander-to-the-base approach still does wonders for Hannity & Co.'s ratings, but ratings aren't votes.
Jonah Goldberg you say??? Was he the guy who wrote “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” about the French??? Yeah - that’s who that was!!!
Whatever happened to him???
Also, I wonder if centrists and mildly-lean-Left types who have never been Trump supporters, are now becoming so disgusted with the fraudulence of the other networks that they are switching to FOX in desperation, to be able to hear something other than nonstop blood libel lies.
Non-Trump supporters switching to FOX so that they can actually hear any kind of news at all regarding the Deep State scandals, the Hillary scandals, and so on, would simultaneously increase Fox's overall viewership while decreasing the percentage of Fox viewers who are strongly for Trump.
>>Sorry Jonah. The last thing you ever did that I agreed with is when you wrote Liberal Fascism.
He even went Deep State on that by not correctly identifying the fascists as Transnational Progressives.
Exactly right. I limit my viewing overall. I still like Neil..but I’m on the business channel more. Maria, Lou,etc. The 7pm hour is the tough choice..I like Martha..and competes in that slot with Lou.
But the 5,nope, 6 pm., etc. I can read online
Btw, there’s a newer analyst I see on Fox..Kiron Skinner. I like her. I can get her pieces on her FB and Twitter pages. She’s good.
Jonah still is a Never Trumper. Nothing former about him.
Fox News has never been in Trump’s corner, only a couple of opinion shows and Fox & Friends. And Jonah is lying...again. He loathes Trump and never stops taking nasty shots at him. And Jonah - do me a favor: get a shave and a haircut and a bath. And stop blinking at the cameras as if you have something to hide.
So Trump owns Fox now and is driving viewers away? Who knew?
I’ve taken up with Lou! What I love is when someone mildly disagrees with him about Trump and he immediately gets angry. He started to blow up at Andrew McCarthy this week and he once kicked Ann Coulter off the air. He’s hilarious!
I first heard about Free Republic watching an interview with his mom. She was pimping her then new website and complaining about the lack of civility here, which caused her to leave.
Are you not aware Neil is a vehement never Trumper?....he can’t stand the guy.
I like Fox Business too...
...but Neil comes on, Fox goes off
You got that right. Fox want desperately to be part of the MSM and as such, has sold out their birthright.
I don’t know any Trump supporters who’ve bailed on Trump.
But I do know many who’ve turned off FNC. Me included.
Rachael MadCow is number one again today according to story at Drudge.
Ummm, the so called 'news side' of FOX is 100% liberal. Telling...
Drivel......
Maybe Fox News lost some Trump supporters.
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