Fox News chose not to broadcast Donald Trump’s first speech in Washington DC since he stepped down as president. Instead, the channel aired a live 17 minutes of Mike Pence’s speech that same day.
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On Tuesday at 9 p.m. Norwegian time, Trump gave his first speech in Washington DC since he left the presidency in January 2021.
The America First Policy Institute think tank held a conference. Trump was invited to give the closing speech.
Turnout in major media outlets, The New York Times reported, but one actor was surprised at the coverage of his speech: Fox News.
On Wednesday, Aftenposten wrote that some of Trump’s former supporters in the media have turned their backs on him, but the backing of the influential Fox News talk show host remains.
As long as that’s the case, another total media turnaround won’t have the greatest consequences for him, thinks comparative politics professor Gunnar Grendstad.
– Fox News is Trump’s last bastion, but by far the most important, in the media, Grendstad said.
Showing Pence instead
On Tuesday, the channel showed clips of the speech during the day, but they didn’t broadcast it live. That same day, former Vice President Mike Pence gave a speech just a mile away. Fox broadcast 17 minutes of Pence’s speech live.
The New York Times wrote that Tuesday’s coverage matched the pattern of Fox’s recent coverage of Trump.
Two of the channel’s leading talk show hosts, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, wholeheartedly support Trump. Despite some serious information about his role during the invasion of Congress on January 6, 2021, that was only recently revealed. Fox has by far the most viewers at night, which is called prime time. Today’s broadcast is dominated by opinion stars Hannity, Carlson and Laura Ingraham. The channel’s usual news coverage, on the other hand, has become more skeptical of Trump than the three.
On Friday last week, the channel broadcast an interview with one of Trump’s potential opponents in the Republican nomination battle. This is instead broadcasting a speech Trump gave to his supporters in Arizona.
On Monday, the channel followed up by highlighting the equal candidate’s increased chances of winning ahead of future Republican primaries.
Trump used his own social media, Truth Social, to show his displeasure. He criticized the show, Fox & Friends, for going to the “dark side”.
“Fox & Friends just missed my poll results, no doubt on purpose. The show was terrible,” he wrote.
“Subtly charming web junkie. Unapologetic bacon lover. Introvert. Typical foodaholic. Twitter specialist. Professional travel fanatic.”
