NEW YORK (AP) – Brian Stelter knows that critics accuse Fox News of bending the truth to maintain its firm support and closeness to President Donald Trump. As a CNN media reporter and host of “Reliable Sources”, he is probably one of them.
He was not prepared to hear the extent of concerns about the direction of the network by people working there.
It was one of the reasons he wrote “Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth”, which will be released on Tuesday. The book shot from no. 340 to no. 1 on Amazon’s bestseller list following Stelter’s appearance with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC Friday.
Several people at Fox expressed their private concerns about the growing power of prime-time opinion hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham at the expense of Fox’s news operation, he said.
“There’s a real resistance in Fox News,” Stelter told The Associated Press. ‘Nobody there would use that term. But there are many people who are not comfortable with the lies of Sean Hannity and the xenophobia of Tucker Carlson. It’s just that they are powerless, or feel powerless, and the prime-time stars have all the power. There are true believers in Fox at Fox, but there are many others who are concerned about the damage being done and do not feel they can speak in public. “
After being presented Thursday and Saturday on details of the book and phone calls, a Fox News spokesman said the network was declining comments.
While Stelter calls on Insider accounts for some juicy details – including that Hannity has expressed private doubts about Trump despite his biggest fans on air – much of the disruptive content in “Hoax” did not require special access. He reported what was said on the air and how it resonated or was echoed by Trump’s Twitter feed.
Stelter is particularly concerned about the response to the coronavirus epidemic: how it was curtailed by both Fox and the president, how the drug hydroxychloroquine was shot, even when studies showed it was ineffective against the virus, and the early cheerleading for reopening society.
“It’s easy to see Fox failing her viewers at key moments in the pandemic,” he wrote.
“This story is about a rot in the core of our politics,” he wrote. “It’s about a persistent attack on the idea of a free and honest press. It’s about the difference between news and propaganda. It’s about the difference between state media and the fourth estate. ”
Fox News is a money machine, and although stores like One America News Network, NewsMax and Sinclair Broadcasting have tried it, no one has made a serious dent in Fox’s dominance with conservative viewers and Trump fans. New Fox CEO Suzanne Scott has been praised for her financial stewardship.
However, Stelter’s report makes it clear that from an editorial point of view no one is really in control – that Hannity, Carlson, Ingraham and the ‘Fox & Friends’ morning team can essentially do what they want. The three prime-time hosts have personally advised Trump on policies, something that would be unthinkable at other news organizations.
Stelter was surprised by internal longing for Roger Ailes, the former chief executive who was fired in 2016 for sexual abuse and died less than a year later. No one doubted that Ailes was in the lead.
“When Ailes was forced and when he died, the channel was still being produced for an audience of one – but now it’s Donald Trump,” he said.
Stelter said concern over the direction of the network was a factor in the decisions of at least a dozen people who have left Fox News in the past four years, even if some have not said so publicly.
Shepard Smith broke a contract to leave early weeks after a public tiff with Carlson. Megyn Kelly was stunned by Bill O’Reilly’s question about the ‘loyalty’ of people like her who made public accusations against Ailes; the loud booing she received from the public at a Trump rally in 2016 made the consequences of questioning him clear.
Catherine Herridge, a respected Washington reporter who went to CBS, told colleagues that Fox management was “afraid of the news,” Stelter wrote. Political reporter Carl Cameron has been public about his dissatisfaction. The book discusses the outcomes of several others, including Jenna Lee, Abby Huntsman, Conor Powell, Clayton Morris and Ellison Barber.
Sean Graf, a researcher who started at Fox in 2016 and left earlier this year, told Stelter that “Fox’s editorial voice, and contempt for the facts, is rejected by many of those within the organization.”
As a frequent critic of Fox and a rival of CNN rival, Stelter is unpopular with many conservatives, said Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the conservative watchdog Media Research Center. They will probably consider his book with suspicion, he said.
Graham also noted the reliance on accounts of unnamed people, saying, “I do not trust anonymous sources if the author is hostile to the subject.”
But Stelter said there is such a fear in Fox to speak to the press – a culture that dates back to Ailes and is reinforced by agreements that are not made public – that even some people who r years have not worked do not want to be identified.
“I’m just as skeptical of anonymous sources as anyone else,” he said, “but there was no other way to tell a story in Fox News.”
While now working for CNN, Stelter said he’s treated Fox since starting a cable news blog as a college student through his years at The New York Times. He considers the book an extension of that reporting.
He blames potential attacks.
“Tucker Carlson called me a eunuch and Sean Hannity called me Humpty-Dumpty,” he said. “That I do not know what else they might have said about me.”
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