Fox News has been under heavy scrutiny in recent weeks for a variety of reasons, and NewsNation host Dan Abrams is the latest to question the developments.
As part of its evidence gathering in its defamation lawsuit against the network, Dominion Voting Systems uncovered text messages revealing Fox News hosts and executives privately disavowed the stances of then-President Trump’s legal team surrounding the 2020 Presidential election.
However, the hosts — namely Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham — publicly welcomed Trump’s lawyers to their programs to air the arguments the hosts privately disagreed with.
Monday, Carlson aired a portion of the more than 40,000 hours of security camera footage from the January 6th Insurrection at the Capitol he was given by Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and alleged the footage “demolishes” what had previously been reported about the event.
Carlson claimed the rioters were not there to do any harm, calling them “sightseers”. That encapsulation was criticized by many, including Republican senators and even former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly.
During Dan Abrams Live Wednesday, the host played a portion of a package aired during Special Report with Bret Baier that essentially disavowed the claims from Carlson. After the report, Baier said “and to be clear, no one here at Fox News condones any of the violence that happened on January 6th”.
“That comment can’t be interpreted as anything other than a rebuke of Tucker Carlson, who has been claiming that the entire event was peaceful chaos,” Abrams said. “Kudos to Bret Baier for speaking up and making that report, but it makes you wonder what is going on over there.
“Airing differences of opinion are a good thing, but this isn’t two-sided. Fox News hosts deceived their audience — both then and now — and it makes you wonder whether the inmates are running the asylum in a way that never would have occurred if Roger Ailes was still in charge. The question though, now, is will there be a reckoning at Fox News? Will any changes come to the network?”
Abrams’ question on whether any changes will come to the network takes place after Drudge Report claimed Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott was not at risk of losing her position with the network. However, Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies at the Yale School of Management Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld — a leading media consultant and analyst — told CNN the network has a “duty to remove” Scott and other executives or face potential litigation from shareholders.
