TFox News presenters have been furious for the past few days. The mainstream media, they say, has been “excited” about Joe Biden, offering “nauseating” coverage of the new president and “not hiding his excitement”.
Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham are some of the right-wing commentators on the conservative channel, taking advantage of Biden’s alleged flattery – but their accusations raised eyebrows among those who saw Fox News presenters spend four years functioning largely as an extension of Donald Trump’s White House.
Fox News, however, is not known as a place for self-reflection or irony, which means that Hannity – who literally campaigned with Trump – was able to censor Biden’s coverage by other journalists.
“The tingling sensation in the legs of the media mobs,” noted Hannity last week, “well, they are throbbing like never before.”
Hannity’s comments seemed hypocritical to many observers, given Hannity’s unbridled passion for the previous president.
“Promises made, promises kept,” Hannity told the crowd at a Trump rally in 2018. “Mr President, thank you.”
The sight of a journalist campaigning for a political candidate would have been strange, had it not been for Hannity’s longstanding fascination with the twice impeachment president. The host spent years praising Trump and repeatedly squirmed to support the former president when praise seemed impossible.
“You were very strong at the end of that press conference,” Hannity assured Trump during an interview with Fox News in July 2018. The press conference Hannity was referring to was the infamous and widely condemned Helsinki joint press conference by Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, where Trump sided with the Kremlin for denying interference in the elections.
A few months earlier, Hannity started a segment of his program with the words: “President Trump has already accumulated an incredible record of accomplishments.” According to Hannity, these achievements included Trump’s approval ratings. At the time, 42% of Americans approved of Trump and 52% disapproved.
More recently, Hannity compared Trump’s approval – then affected by the coronavirus – to Winston Churchill.
Hannity, however, was far from alone in his flattering attitude towards Trump – like a video montage of the Daily Show’s “before and now” illustrated on Tuesday.
“Well, get ready, it’s going to be four years of nauseating and foggy coverage,” thundered Laura Ingraham on Fox News this week. “The guard dogs? Well, they are just lap dogs. “
Ingraham, host of the Ingraham Angle Fox News program, is something of an expert in this field.
“I don’t see anyone else on the horizon who is fighting for the American people like him,” Ingraham said of Trump in 2017, while she also suggested that Trump will be seen similarly to Ronald Reagan, which in Republican circles is considered a compliment. In December 2020, Ingraham even dedicated a segment to Trump’s “triumphs”, while in granting an interview with Trump in 2017, she posed questions that brought new meaning to the term softball.
“Are you having fun at this job?” Ingraham asked Trump, later asking the president: “Look at the economy. Are you getting credit for this economic revival? “
Two years later, Ingraham used an interview with Trump to praise his “incredible trip” to France and to criticize Nancy Pelosi, asking Trump: “How do you work with someone like that?”
Another clip from the Daily Show captured Jesse Watters while he used his program on Fox News to present allegations of bias in the media. “They continue to flatter this guy like he’s Jesus Christ!” said Watters, who outside the world of right-wing media is best known for presenting a segment in New York’s Chinatown that has been widely condemned as racist.
Like his hosts, Watters did his fair share of flattery, including Trump’s sloppy response to the coronavirus and the former president’s warmth towards North Korea.
Tucker Carlson, whose professionally infuriated shtick – and proximity to Trump – made his program the most watched cable news program in the United States, was also upset by Biden’s treatment, as the TV presenter set in a heavily sarcastic segment on January 20.
“It will fill the void where our empathy should be. He’s a medicine, ”was Carlson’s recap of the inauguration day, after he aired a selection of clips of people on TV suggesting that Biden could be a curative presence in the White House.
In the past few days, Steve Doocy, host of the Fox and Friends program, has also taken action and proclaimed “The mainstream media loves you!” of Biden. Doocy had previously used an interview with Trump to praise the then president’s “beautiful hotel”.
Doocy’s colleague Jeanine Pirro was also upset about Biden’s treatment, in contrast to her own interactions with Trump. “Given his ability, his successes,” Pirro told Trump in an interview during his presidency that functioned more like a campaign huddle, “How are we going to convey this to the American people?”