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“I say this,” Kotto offered. “I’d rather have a president who sometimes stutters than one who spews conspiracy theories and racist nonsense and has dinner with Nazis.”
Conservative radio host Tammy Bruce disputed the statement.
“We just heard him call a lot of Republicans Nazis and racists,” she said, “so we put him in a category where we’re willing to go there. I think you can.”
There was some back and forth, with Mr. Kott defending his claims. In the end, Faulkner expressed her disappointment in Cotto, lamenting that “sadly” he was calling the other side names, which she said she was grateful he didn’t do. It was just.
But Mr. Kott did not simply draw out the blame. Contrary to Bruce’s claims, he was referring to a specific moment in time. That happened in November 2022, when Trump had dinner with rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) and white supremacist Nick Fuentes. He did not call Republicans racist or Nazis, the former being a term that describes some of Trump’s rhetoric and the latter referring to specific individuals.
But if Bruce’s main news source was a right-wing outlet like Fox News, she might never have heard of the dinner. In November 2022 and the first half of December 2022, this incident was mentioned in 89 of her segments on CNN and more than twice as many as hers on MSNBC. But on Fox? It was only mentioned seven times in total.
This is very consistent with long-standing patterns in the channel. News unfavorable to President Trump will be suppressed or limited, including polling numbers from the network’s own pollsters.
Consider the House Select Committee established to investigate the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. CNN and MSNBC regularly reported on the incident. Fox News almost never did. In fact, the network refused to broadcast the committee’s prime-time hearings, at one point instead allowing Tucker Carlson to run an undercover show with conspiracy theories about the Capitol riot.
Or consider the lawsuit E. Jean Carroll filed against Trump. MSNBC has covered her relentlessly in recent years, mentioning the writer and her case in just over 4,800 15-second segments. CNN doesn’t do it that often and the number of segments is her 2,000. As a result, despite the huge settlement reached against Trump, Fox News mentioned Carroll in less than 240 corners.
Trump’s indictment in Fulton County, Georgia, follows a similar pattern.
This is most evident in competing news channels’ handling of classified document investigations into Presidents Trump and Biden. President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was raided by the FBI in August 2022, raising concerns about the handling of classified documents. Months later, Biden’s lawyers turned over some of the documents they had discovered.
CNN and MSNBC have mentioned the Trump incident in an average of about 4,900 segments since August 2022, while Fox News has mentioned it less than a fifth of the time.
But what about Biden? CNN and MSNBC mentioned the case in an average of about 1,000 segments, including last month when Special Counsel Robert K. Hur announced he would not press charges. Fox News mentioned this in about 1,700 segments.
There are clear differences between the Trump and Biden cases (as Herr pointed out), so it makes sense that the former will receive more attention. Trump and others were indicted. But Fox News mentions Biden’s situation nearly twice as often.
To be sure, it’s not just Biden’s classified documents that Fox News is outperforming. You’ll recall that MSNBC has been particularly passionate about the Carroll case, mentioning the writer in more than 4,800 segments since the beginning of 2021.
Now, FOX News mentioned President Biden’s son Hunter in more than 4,200 segments. One month. Since January 2021, the channel has mentioned Hunter Biden in more than 38,000 segments.
Apparently Tammy Bruce has heard of Hunter Biden.
Defenders of Fox News argue that the channel only serves as a counterpoint to organized left-wing discourse, and therefore its focus is on CNN and MSNBC (which they present as equivalent). claims to be different.
In 2022, we may remember the words of host Jesse Watters.
“I work for Fox!” he said then. “I want to see chaos on the left! It’s good for America! It’s good for our ratings!”
As a result, neither he, his employer, nor his audience have any interest in watching the right-wing chaos. Therefore, they often ignore it.
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