Former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt is reveling in the recent controversy surrounding his former network and believes some of the information surfacing backs up his claims he was fired in 2020.
In his book Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back, Stirewalt claims he was fired by Fox News for the network’s decision desk calling the state of Arizona for now-President Joe Biden before any other network.
Fox News has continually denied those claims. The network maintains he was laid off due to a restructuring inside the organization. “Chris Stirewalt’s endless attempts at regaining relevance know no bounds,” a network spokesperson told Barrett News Media as his book release approached.
During its defamation lawsuit against the cable news channel, Dominion Voting Systems has uncovered evidence that Fox News Chairman Rupert Murdoch suggested that CEO Suzanne Scott fire the network’s Washington Bureau Chief Bill Sammon after he signed off on the network calling Arizona for Biden.
Murdoch allegedly said the firing would “be a big message with Trump people”, as the channel attempted to smooth its relationship with the then-President’s team. Sammon ultimately exited the network — purportedly of his own accord — in January 2021.
“It feels really good to be vindicated in this way,” Stirewalt said on The Fifth Column podcast earlier this week.
“We knew that we were isolated inside the company at that time, but we did not know how isolated we were, and we didn’t know the pressure that was being applied internally against us…. I think what those filings reveal, and what I read about at Fox, are people making short-term decisions to try to maintain artificial sugar-high levels of viewership from an election season after the election was over, and not being willing to suffer the consequences of being a news organization.”
Stirewalt added he believes more cable news viewers should self-examine their relationships with media outlets and media personalities.
“If you do not like what is on Fox News, do not watch Fox News. If you do not like what is on MSNBC, do not watch MSNBC. Do whatever you want to do, consume whatever you want,” Stirewalt said. “But the amount of time that people spend obsessing over what strangers are talking about and doing is not healthy, and it keeps them from addressing normal basic things on their own side.”
