On MSNBC, Angelo Carusone explains why Fox News gives in to Trump's threats and remains a pro-Trump network
Carusone: At every flash point, “Trump has won this tug of war with Fox News and the rest of the right-wing media and then pulled them along” ... “It's actually about who's going to control the levers of political power on the right”
Published
Citation From the August 20, 2023, edition of MSNBC's American Voices with Alicia Menendez
ALICIA MENENDEZ (HOST): Let's unpack that with the president of Media Matters, Angelo Carusone. When I saw that clip, Angelo, I was like I have to talk to you about it. One just because there is no subtext. It's all text. It's right there, right? The fact that they are now feuding.
ANGELO CARUSONE: Yeah, I mean, this is, you know, I'm hesitant to call it a feud. There is a little bit of tension, and Trump is working the refs, he's been through the cycle before.
But here is why I'm hesitant to call it a feud. Fox is still a pro-Trump network. So if you look at the coverage of candidates, so far this summer Trump is leading it. They've been given 22 hours of total coverage to the candidates so far, live coverage, or interviews. Trump has gotten four-and-a-half of those hours, so he's getting 25%, 20%, leading any other candidate by far. This is part of the sort of back-and-forth that Trump has had. We saw this in '16 and again in '20. What happens is as Fox tries to move themselves to a position where they can exert and execute their agenda, Trump then attacks them by harnessing the Fox News audience, because he's obviously captivated that part of it, and then Fox then moves in order to respond to these attacks and these threats. This is how we got into that whole quagmire and the insurrection with Dominion, and the election lies. Fox was in total line for a couple days until Trump pulled them along by sort of harnessing the Fox audience. That's what you're seeing play out here.
So I think, when you look beyond this, when I look around the bend, every single time this has come up, there has been one of these flash points or tension moments, Trump has won this tug of war with Fox News and the rest of the right-wing media and then pulled them along. And the consequences have been bad for all of us and for our democracy.
MENENDEZ: That's where I want to go with this, I don't care actually about where they are or not doing as it relates to the ratings, the point is, in a thriving democracy, you have a multi-party system, in which the party, the political parties are robust. You have multiple media entities that are stand-alone and robust. The fact that he is calling the shots is part of what we need to get into.
CARUSONE: Yes, it is extremely significant because this moment is unlike any moment we've had in more than a quarter century. So 2022, that was the first election in nearly a quarter century where Rush Limbaugh was not the single largest get-out-the-vote operation in the country. And when you think about political power on the right, the Republican party, it's one and the same with their right-wing media apparatus, their echo chamber. And Limbaugh and Fox sort of served as the conductor for the echo chamber for almost a quarter century. And then when Rush Limbaugh died, and there was sort of this tumult, Tucker stepped into the void, and sort of filled that role, and became that center of gravity. He is no longer at Fox, so he's lost that perch.
There is no center of gravity within the right-wing media right now, and so whoever functions as that sort of assignment editor, that sort of fills that center of gravity, it doesn't just get amplification, they get an enormous amount of political power. That is where all the right-wing political power comes from, that's how Trump got into office, he harnessed the power of the right. But now he is eliminating the middle ground, the middlemen, and he is trying to grab the reins for himself. That's what's actually unfolding right now, so your point is really important. It's what we are seeing, it's not just a fight or internal fights about ratings or business. It's actually about who's going to control the levers of political power on the right, and by extension, all the consequences that come with that. And right now, it looks like Trump is about to grab the reins.