Presidential candidate and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has thrown down the gauntlet on Fox News calling the network a “hate-for-profit racket”. This stems from a squabble the Dem Senator has been having with the conservative news network after she recently declined their invitation to appear for a town hall at the network. Sen Warren initially slammed Fox News saying it is an illegitimate news network that hires a few credible journalists to make it palatable to sponsors. In essence, Sen Warren argued that she didn’t want to give Fox News undeserved credibility by participating in its town hall. It’s important to point out that other Democratic Presidential candidates have participated in Fox News’ town halls.
Sen Warren said about Fox News, “Fox News is a hate-for-profit racket. It’s a racket. And much of America is starting to catch up to them, and that means that they are losing right now, sponsors. This is all about money. They lose sponsors because sponsors don’t want to be associated with the hate. I will find many ways to reach out. I will talk to Fox News reporters, but what I’m not going to do is give them a full hour of my time so they can raise money and raise credibility off it.”
It is not hard to argue with Sen Warren’s reasoning especially if you consider one of the leading lights at Fox News Jeanine Pirro, who has arguably made some of the most hateful and divisive comments ever made by a national news anchor. Jeanine Pirro, a former Judge if you can believe it, was suspended for this hateful rant against a sitting U.S. Congresswoman
Naturally the Warren-Fox News tussle has received a lot of mainstream media coverage, and deservedly so. However, lost in the mainstream media noise is the central argument Sen Warren set out to make–that Fox News is not a legitimate news network. The question as to whether Fox News is a legitimate news network is a very important question if one is to give a fair hearing to Sen Warren’s concerns. Yours Truly has raised this very question in a previous post about the obscene Trump-Fox News affair.
Bottom line, Yours Truly will not fault the mainstream media for covering the fact that Sen Warren will not participate in Fox News town halls because it is a valid news story. However Yours Truly takes great issue with the fact that some in the mainstream media are quick to attack Sen Warren’s Fox News stance without addressing her core argument that Fox News is not a legitimate news network. Reasonable people will agree that if Fox News is not a legitimate news network, then Sen Warren or any other Democratic candidate for that matter, should not be faulted for refusing to participate in the network’s charade.
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