Of course Fox News hired Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Even at the White House, she was already effectively a Fox News contributor

Written by Matt Gertz

Published

Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

In perhaps the least surprising news of the year, Fox News has hired former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a contributor. 

Sanders’ White House tenure was characterized by the total contempt in which she held journalists and the public at large. She shamelessly lied from the press room podium and constantly belittled the reporters who tried to pry actual information away from her. In the end, she stripped them of access and eliminated the press briefings altogether. 

Even as White House press secretary, Sanders was essentially already a Fox News contributor. Instead of appearing before the White House press corps to take their questions, Sanders retreated to cozy interviews with her new employer’s propagandists.

According to Media Matters' internal database of weekday programming, from August 2017 through the end of her tenure in the position, Sanders appeared on Fox News 67 times, compared to just six interviews on CNN and none on MSNBC.

White House reporters eventually began keeping tabs on the network’s coverage so they could ambush Sanders and her colleagues as they wrapped up Fox interviews and try to press her for answers on the White House lawn.

At Fox, her work attacking the press and lying for the president will simply be moved to a different payroll. 

By drawing a salary from the network, Sanders will also be able to keep herself in front of President Donald Trump’s base while keeping her options open for a future run for political office. 

Her hiring is the latest evidence of the unprecedented merger between the Trump administration and Fox. Former White House communications director Hope Hicks, Sanders’ former deputy Raj Singh, and several other former Trump administration aides have similarly jumped to the network or its parent company, while at least 17 current or former administration members had Fox on their resumes.



She will reportedly make her debut September 6 on Fox & Friends, the insipid network morning show beloved by Trump. You can expect him to be cheering her on from the White House residence.