Donald Trump loves Fox News because, for the most part, their version of “news” is sycophantic propaganda with a pro-Trump spin, no matter what. As we’ve seen time and again, that’s the only kind of coverage Trump is interested in. That also means, though, that whenever Fox says something even mildly critical of him, Trump appears to take it as a betrayal and he makes a big deal over it.
This morning, he fumed over a Fox News poll that showed 51% of people surveyed support Trump’s impeachment and removal from office. (Another 4% say they support impeachment but not removal.) Trump said that this pollster “suck[s].”
From the day I announced I was running for President, I have NEVER had a good @FoxNews Poll. Whoever their Pollster is, they suck. But @FoxNews is also much different than it used to be in the good old days. With people like Andrew Napolitano, who wanted to be a Supreme….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 10, 2019
“@FoxNews doesn’t deliver for US anymore,” he continued in a follow-up tweet. “It is so different than it used to be. Oh well, I’m President!”
Actually, Fox News looks to be exactly what they’ve always been. Because even though this is their poll, they’re still working hard to spin it in a way that looks good for Trump. As the Washington Post notes, Fox has talked about their own poll far less than the other major networks (CNN and MSNBC) and when they do, here’s how they frame it:
“Polls are showing support for impeachment,” Laura Ingraham said on her show Wednesday night. “And the polls are not going in the way the president wants them to go. If you believe the polls, you don’t believe the polls — including a poll done by Fox News. A thousand registered voters called randomly on cellphones and home phones. Supposedly 51 percent say they want the president either impeached or removed.”
She’s just a hair’s breadth away from calling her own network’s poll fake news.
image: Fox News
Just because Fox News conducted the poll, that doesn’t mean they only surveyed Fox viewers. If they had, the poll would look very different, as there’s still a huge schism in responses down party lines. Only 12% of people who voted for Trump say they support impeachment right now. (Which is actually pretty surprisingly high.)
So what did Trump want Fox to do? Not report the news? (I mean, yes, that’s definitely what he wanted.) The network’s pundits can spin the results and throw in all the “supposedlys” they want, but what Trump is objecting to is the (reluctant) reporting of basic facts, simply because they’re unfavorable. If it doesn’t make him look like a hero, it must be fake or rigged or just “sucks.”
The man wants so badly to live in a dictatorship.
(image: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
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