The Daily Beast
Fox News says it is heading towards the ‘center’. This show is certainly not.
Roy Rochlin / GettyAs Fox News tries to find its place in a post-Trump media landscape, the network claims it is moving “center-right”. A ridiculous statement, critics say – one that is easily refuted by Fox’s prime-right far-right speeches, but also by the tonal shift of an important midday talk show. Outnumbered, which debuted for the first time in 2014 as a show panel led by women (with an enigmatic “lucky guy”, chosen as the only member of the panel), has always occupied Fox’s increasingly diffuse line, dividing its “ difficult news ”and the wings of opinion. But the program has long touted its “fair and balanced” credentials, featuring a lone liberal expert on its rotating panel. However, in the past few months, and while Fox continues to struggle with a drop in ratings – at least in part due to MAGA’s diehards leaving the network after its newsroom made precise calls on election night to Joe Biden – the talk show of noon seems to have won two important liberal regulars in Marie Harf and Jessica Tarlov. with conservative voices and giving a more prominent stance to ardent provocateurs like Tomi Lahren. The resulting program is one that, like much of Fox’s programming, now seems focused on exaggerating the complaints of the conservative cultural war of the time. “The audience fell into the tank and they want more right-wing voices,” said a Fox News article. the official told The Daily Beast when assessing the new tone of the midday program, especially in light of the network’s review of much of its schedule to add more hours of right-wing commentary. The lesser prolonged absence of Harf and Tarlov – both continue to appear elsewhere on the network – notably came almost immediately after an intense air skirmish in early December between Harf and Harris Faulkner’s permanent host on the program’s coverage. deadly coronavirus pandemic. Fox News anchor explodes when a liberal analyst calls the missing COVID Death CoverageHarf, a former Obama state department official, challenged Faulkner about Outnumbered, having spent almost an entire hour talking about the Democratic deputy’s five-year-old interpreter Eric Swalwell made mistakes with a suspected Chinese spy, or complained about coronavirus-related indoor meal restrictions, all while giving the US just 20 seconds of air, surpassing 3,000 COVID-19 daily deaths for the first time. An enraged Faulkner shouted Harf, complaining that it was “offensive” that the liberal panelist “shot there”. The hostess scolded her colleague even more: “You cannot see my heart and trust me when I say that it is painful for all of us to cry for those Americans and people around the world.” Prior to Faulkner’s explosion with Harf, the liberal Fox The news contributor appeared in 11 of the previous 24 broadcasts in smaller numbers and was in rotation to appear at least twice a week. Jessica Tarlov, another regular speaker for Outnumbered, appeared four times during the same period and rotated the program once a week. After the Dec. 10 broadcast, however, Harf and Tarlov were removed from any future reservations at Outnumbered, according to two sources familiar with the situation. And since then, none of the women have returned to the program. The only left-wing speakers to appear on the midday program now are radio host Leslie Marshall, a self-styled “centrist” Democrat and Johanna Maska, a former Obama spokesman who participated in the panel program last week. Fox News presenter Lisa “Kennedy” Montgomery, self-styled libertarian, also remains a staple of the program. Otherwise, the program appears to rely more and more on incendiary warriors from conservative culture like MAGA youth leader Charlie Kirk, reactionary podcaster Dave Rubin, failed Congress candidate Kim Klacik and – much to the chagrin of Fox officials who spoke with The Daily Beast – Tomi Lahren. The career bomb launcher – best known for his quick and breathless speeches on Fox’s digital streaming service Fox Nation, his often hateful tweets (some of which were publicly reprimanded by his own colleagues) and for being fired by Glenn Beck – it suddenly became a routine presence on Outnumbered. Lahren recently renewed his contract with Fox and since December he has appeared at least 18 times on Outnumbered, co-organizing at least twice a week. Considering that his style of comment and debate was more comfortable in the decidedly right-hand hours of Fox’s prime time, some Fox News employees consider his recent rise to be surprising. “It is an absolute joke and further proof that the program should not be taken seriously,” said a current Fox employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from management. “When I was hired, I was told that [Lahren] she would never be on legitimate shows like Outnumbered or The Five, that she was just Fox Nation. I’m just as confused as everyone else. Tomi has no credibility, no experience curriculum other than shouting derogatory things on the internet. Another Fox employee suggested that Lahren is a logical choice to spice up the network’s daytime schedule amid a drop in audience. “She is good at stirring the pot … everything you need today,” said the employee. “Fox likes what it evaluates.” Can Tomi Lahren continue to fail? Fox’s ‘Hard News’ program buys the GOP’s ‘Fascinating’ effort to steal the election While the network’s actions – including programming options that include adding two more hours of right-wing commentary at 7 PM and 11 PM – indicate a change extreme right to strengthen the conservative base of MAGA, Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch somehow insisted otherwise earlier this month. “We believe that where we are targeted, to the center-right, is where we should be targeted. We don’t need to go any further, ”he said, while praising the company’s advertising revenue gains. “We do not believe that America is more certain and we are obviously not going to turn to the left. All of our important competitors are on the far left. ”After last November’s election, however, the entire calculation of Fox News’s schedule changed. Disgruntled pro-Trump viewers abandoned the network en masse after Fox’s call to President Joe Biden in Arizona on election night, a decision that undermined then President Donald Trump’s plan to falsely declare victory. With Fox experiencing a drop in post-election ratings, the network made a concerted effort to win back loyalists to MAGA, focusing more directly on conservative opinion and the battles of cultural war. An important part of this shift included his “tough news” broadcasts taking enough time to discuss and amplify the opinion monologues delivered the night before by Fox’s popular pro-Trump arsonists, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. The panic in the ratings became apparent after Martha MacCallum now The former 7pm show, The Story, was beaten in the ratings by Newsmax, the cable TV channel that directly attracted unsatisfied Fox viewers by openly embracing the false electoral maneuver “Stolen” from Trump. The loss of MacCallum to Newsmax’s Greg Kelly in the main advertising segment of viewers aged 25 to 54 scared the network’s bosses “to the core,” officials told The Daily Beast at the time. And Outnumbered’s new direction appears to be another part of Fox’s openly shift to the right to tackle audience problems. “It’s all a complete joke,” a Fox News source told the Daily Beast. “They are no longer trying to try a fair discussion.” “The symbolic liberal was just there to show off,” concluded this person. “Liberal opinion was just as useful to them as a tee on the tee ball for the rest of the gang to get the guaranteed hits that the public wants to hear. Now, in their desperation to retain the fleeing audience, they are too afraid to have even the slightest contrary opinion on the show, for fear that more people will click on Newsmax. ”Diana Falzone was a digital and digital reporter for FoxNews.com from 2012 to 2018. In May 2017, she filed a lawsuit for gender discrimination and disability against the network and struck a deal, leaving the company in March 2018 Read more at The Daily Beast. Do you have a tip? Submit to the Daily Beast here. Get our top news in your inbox every day. Subscribe now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper into the stories that matter to you. To know more.