Regular viewers of Fox News should have ample reasons by now to wonder why so many respected news presenters and analysts have decided to abandon the network. It’s not that those journalists and commentators, who lent the network a significant level of credibility over the years, have suddenly gone soft and liberal. Rather, it’s the decision by Fox executives to embrace blatant misinformation over truth that is causing real news professionals to get as far away as they can from the network.
The warning signs began in October 2019 when news host Shepard Smith used his show to openly challenge the megaphone the network was lending to then-President Donald Trump’s daily blizzard of misinformation. “Why is it lie after lie after lie?” Smith stated on one newscast. He later told CNN: “When people begin with a false premise and lead people astray, that’s injurious to society and it’s the antithesis of what we should be doing: Those of us who are so honored and grateful to have a platform of public influence have to use it for the public good.”
On Sunday, respected journalist Chris Wallace announced that he, too, was leaving Fox. Wallace didn’t specifically cite misinformation, but he reportedly had complained about an absurd show, dubbed a “documentary,” by host Tucker Carlson that stretched the bounds of credulity regarding the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. The online streaming show, “Patriot Purge,” asserted that the riot was part of a black-helicopters government conspiracy to besmirch conservatives.
Both Wallace and colleague Bret Baier complained to two senior Fox executives, who took the complaints to Lachlan Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of Fox Corp., according to National Public Radio. Two other respected conservative commentators, Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes, quit in protest, specifically citing “Patriot Purge.”
Wallace was noteworthy for his refusal to pull punches, even when he was fully aware of Trump’s popularity among Fox viewers. He wouldn’t allow Trump’s most blatant lies to go unchallenged, which so angered the president that he attacked Wallace on Twitter and in interviews with other Fox hosts. Trump was doubly upset when Fox called Arizona for Joe Biden on Election Night.
Goldberg complained that Carlson’s show “traffics in all manner of innuendo and conspiracy theories that I think legitimately could lead to violence.” He told NPR: “That for me, and for Steve, was the last straw.” Goldberg’s columns regularly appear on the Post-Dispatch op-ed page.
There came a point when attachment to Fox undermined the professional integrity of people like Wallace, Goldberg, Hayes and Smith. Good for them for having the courage to leave. But the sad news is that Fox viewers don’t seem to care, nor do they appear to draw a clear distinction between misinformation and fact. What else would explain Carlson’s persistent ratings as the most-watched personality on cable news?
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