Fox News remains the leading cable news channel on television by a wide margin — but conservative news competitors like Newsmax have gained ground fast in recent months.
And on Monday, Fox was hit by three scandals it could ill afford.
Star anchor Chris Wallace was criticized for his glowing praise of White House press secretary Jen Psaki. Wallace, a controversial figure on Fox News, called her “one of the best press secretaries ever” — and got immediate blowback.
He also praised Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy for asking the tough questions.
“Honestly, as somebody who’s spent six years in the White House, my immediate reaction was, ‘Those are two people at the top of their game. I think that he has become the Sam Donaldson of this White House press corps,” Wallace said. “And since I was working in the press corps when Sam Donaldson was there, that’s a very grudging compliment on my part.”
“And Jen Psaki, I think, is one of the best press secretaries ever,” he said.
“I don’t know that anything was particularly accomplished, but they both gave and got pretty good.”
Conservative critics slammed Wallace as “a clown” that was “protecting Democrats” and called for viewers to “turn off Fox News.”
That was just the first of three scandals on Monday. Former President Donald Trump also went after the network in a press release, condemning Fox News’ willingness to run paid political ads that helped the Democratic Party.
“What good is it if FOX News speaks well of me when they continually allow horrible and untruthful anti-Trump commercials to be run — and plenty of them,” Trump said in a blistering statement.
“In the good old days, that would never have happened and today it happens all of the time,” he continued in the press release from his Save America PAC. “Ratings-challenged CNN and MSNBC would never run a positive Trump ad — never. With so many forces against us, Big Tech, the Fake News Media, the Radical Left, the RINOs, and more, we are at such a disadvantage, but we will win anyway!”
Trump was likely responding to an ad targeting him by far-left political PAC MeidasTouch, which gloated on social media about his response and asked for donations —
Yes, it’s true. Here is the ad we currently have on the air on Fox News at Mar a Lago humiliating Trump. pic.twitter.com/zmXqglcOsu
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) October 25, 2021
Even former President Ronald Reagan’s family joined the pile-on and condemned Fox News on Monday.
Michael Reagan, the 40th president’s son, told Newsmax that Fox News’ new Weather Channel service was “all about the money” — not science — when it comes to climate change.
“It’s not about a belief system as much as it is follow the money. And, if the money is going to be in that, then what we’re going to do is: We’re going to put together an app, we’re going to put together a show, dealing with weather, dealing with what’s going on with global warming, and see if that’s going to generate any more funds for Fox News,’ he said.
FOX Weather is a 24-hour, 7-day a week free service that gathers data through a partnership with NOAA and WeatherSTEM, which gathers data at nearly 600 professional and collegiate stadiums across the country.
“Utilizing WeatherSTEM’s network of sensors, FOX Weather meteorologists will have the exclusive ability to access live information from a footprint of nearly 600 WeatherSTEM stations including collegiate and NFL stadiums across the country. Key stadium locations include Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Raymond James Stadium, Pittsburgh Steelers Heinz Field, University of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium, Louisiana State University’s Tiger Stadium and Texas A&M’s Kyle Field, among others,” a press release from Fox News said. “The high-definition camera network will also enable instantaneous access to real-time weather conditions, spanning lightning, wind speed and temperature, for a hyper-local approach to weather coverage. Combined with FOX Weather’s innovative data systems, the partnership will further enhance the platform’s weather display technology, giving viewers a complete picture of the weather story.”
The Horn editorial team