The imminent end of the Trump presidency has presented a challenge to the enormously popular, enormously profitable Fox News Channel, reports The NY Times. FNC is the crown jewel of Rupert Murdoch’s American empire — whose conservative stars yoked themselves to Donald Trump more tightly than any other mainstream pundits over the past four years.
Prime-time hosts like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity spoke darkly of possible voter fraud and irregularities. But privately, senior figures at the network acknowledged a struggle to thread the needle between the president’s bogus fraud claims, and the demands of an audience that was increasingly confused at the discrepancies between Mr. Trump’s lies and the reporting on Fox News, which declared Joseph R. Biden Jr. the president-elect on Nov. 7.
Executives at Fox News are unfazed by the lamentations of liberal critics, but the defection of conservative viewers to fringier pro-Trump outlets like Newsmax was more concerning, according to the Times.
Now, in the wake of violence at the Capitol and Trump’s increasing isolation within his own party, Fox News is finding a path forward: sympathize with the grievances of a Trump-adoring audience that has finally acknowledged its tribune has fallen. Become a MAGA safe space.
“Tens of millions of Americans have no chance; they’re about to be crushed by the ascendant left,” Carlson claimed. “These people need a defender. You need a defender.” It was not hard to deduce whom he had in mind.
Anyone expecting an about-face from Fox News — or an apology, as some liberals might daydream — has not studied its history or that of its owner, Murdoch, whose ability to adapt to political change is matched only by his reluctance to kowtow to critics.
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