NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen: Fox is “the commercial wing of the MAGA movement that has overtaken the Republican party”
“If responsible journalism by a handful of Fox people resulted in a company crisis, that means the company is not a news company – because giving truthful news actually was a big problem”
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From the February 22, 2023, Episode of MSNBCs The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle
STEPHANIE RUHLE (MSNBC host): Joining me now to discuss Jay Rosen, NYU associate professor of journalism.
Jay, you wrote something recently, a long, pretty thoughtful Twitter thread, really detailing that Fox News isn't a news organization, but what it really is. Can you share that?
JAY ROSEN (MSNBC guest): Yeah, I see Fox as the commercial wing of the MAGA movement that has overtaken the Republican party. And what it makes is resentment news – who to resent, what's new and different to resent.
And that kind of product, resentment news, can also become a source of power. And so Fox News is kind of tricky to understand, because it presents itself as a media property. But it is equally a political machine. And the curious thing is that both the Republican party and Fox News have had to learn that this power of resentment can be turned against them.
RUHLE: How so?
ROSEN: Well, that's what the court documents are about in the Dominion case.
It's – they tell the story of how, after the 2020 election, the power that Fox News had to grip its audiences in resentment was turned around and aimed at Fox because of the Arizona call and because there were people in the network who actually told the truth on television.
And that caused a company crisis, which is so interesting to think about, Stephanie. If responsible journalism by a handful of Fox people resulted in a company crisis, that means the company is not a news company – because giving truthful news actually was a big problem.
So, that's what the court documents are so fascinating for, is this tale of the tables are being turned on Fox.