Media Matters' Angelo Carusone: “We can’t really have any durable stability in our civic institutions” until Fox News is held accountable
Carsuone: “We can't really have any durable stability in our civic institutions if we have an operation out there ... that is operating and masquerading as a news network”
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From the March 22, 2023, edition of MSNBC's Deadline: White House
ALICIA MENENDEZ (HOST): I find that so interesting, Angelo, because you and I have sat here so many times talking about what this will do for their business model. And you've reminded me, "Don't worry, Pillow Guy can always float them." This is a wrinkle in that argument.
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): It is because, you know, the and this is, you know -- I think the part about all of this is no matter how you look at this -- what angle -- Fox is sort of wedged between a rock and a hard place right now and it keeps squeezing in.
When it comes to their news coverage, they're wedged because if they do anything that's too far against Trump, they'll get backlash from their audience. If they do anything that's too pro-Trump, it's gonna hurt their larger stake, like sort of status in the media, and obviously potentially their case.
Right? So they're and -- and their appeal to other Republican candidates. So, they're sort of straddling that tension with their audience.
They're doing the same thing on the business front, which is that they're trying to project power and confidence and reinforcing, you know, that, you know, that they're comfortable for advertisers, that it's safe to come back.
They have to do all these cable re-negotiations right now, with all these headwinds and all this pressure against them and so they're dealing with that. This is a really tight rope that they're walking.
And I would say, what it means from a coverage shot, I do think it means that they're going to burn brighter and hotter, but I don't think that we should neglect that -- that it's probably the first time since Fox's founding, that there's ever a real pivot point in fulcrum for meaningful change.
And what I think -- Andrew's dead right, that what's already been indicated now is going to end up hurting them legally.
But in the short term, it's going to mean that they're going to -- they get worse. And it -- it's a real -- it's a real threat. And I do think it creates the stakes and this, I think, is part of what we're seeing built up in this narrative, is that it's not just a couple of things. This is industrial scale to see.
And if Fox is not corrected now, and it isn't just about getting revenge or you know, some shade parade. I really mean this.
Not a single thing can ever get better in this country. It will only get worse because we cannot have -- potentially a democracy -- but we can't really have any durable stability in our civic institutions if we have an operation out there, a political operation out there that is operating and masquerading as a news network and is willing to pollute the stream of the information ecosystem, not as sort of a random entity online, but with the imprimatur and all of that -- the resources that go along with that of a major -- of a major news operation.
So, this is a real fulcrum point, and the money is a -- is a big part of it.