The news of Jon Stewart is not having it.
Fox News and Trump have had a fairly complex relationship, with the right-wing news channel originally holding him up as the savior of America during his first electoral campaign, and during much of his presidency. However, things cooled off a little in recent months, with Trump’s name barely mentioned on its channels. This could have been down to the current legal battle the network finds itself embroiled in over the $1.6 billion defamation case brought to it by Dominion, the voting equipment company.
However, Fox hosts were quick to get back on the horse when the news dropped that Trump had been indicted, and what was initially a shock turned quickly into a lambasting of the decision and all those behind it. Despite having known for weeks that this was underway, presenters were stunned it had actually happened, but once the news settled in, they defaulted straight back to defending him.
When it was Tucker Carlson’s turn to comment on the events, the notorious right-wing host went straight to conflating this supposed “attack” on Trump as an attack on the American people. This was made even more evident in Laura Ingham’s segment featuring a banner that read “Hunting Trump, destroying America” according to The Guardian. Some even speculated that a mug shot would lend a certain level of bad-boy charm to Trump in the presidential race, for which he is the front-runner for the Republican party so far.
With such rhetoric being used by Fox News, it isn’t a far stretch to see how it may rile up Trump ers, leading Stewart to post this on Twitter.
Fox News trades in sensationalism, often taking overly-charged topics and debates and running at them all pistons firing. This kind of reporting is known for raising the temperature in a political landscape that is already boiling over. During Carlson’s segment, it was sports commentator Jason Whitlock that finally gave the host the sound bite he had been waiting for, as he claimed “They are agitating for unrest … I’m ready for whatever’s next. And I hope that every other man watching this is ready for whatever’s next.”
It’s as if an insurrection wasn’t enough for them, a civil war would pull in fantastic viewing figures though, right?
Published: Mar 31, 2023 01:28 am