A key player in Fox News’ decision to call Arizona by Joe Biden on election night, who was criticized by Donald Trump before losing his job, defended his role in the drama.
“I was proud to be the first to project that Joe Biden would win Arizona,” wrote former Fox News policy editor Chris Stirewalt to the Los Angeles Times, “and very happy to defend this call in the face of a backlash. public instigation by former President Trump.
“Being right and winning the competition is not an act of heroism; it’s just fulfilling the job description that I love. “
He added: “The rebellion on the populist right against the results of the 2020 elections was partly a cynical effort on the part of political operators and their exaggerations in the media to steal an election or at least get rich by trying. But it was also the tragic consequence of informational malnutrition that afflicts the nation so much.
“When I defended Biden’s call in the Arizona elections, I became the target of a murderous rage from consumers furious that their opinions were not confirmed.”
Stirewalt left Fox News last week. The company said it “has realigned its business and reporting structure to meet the demands of this new era”. In the LA Times, Stirewalt referred to “my resignation last week”.
Trump, as was widely publicized, reacted furiously to the call on election night, which Fox News made first, surprising even its own anchors, and did not retract despite pressure from the White House. The Associated Press appeared hours later, but other media did not call Arizona in search of Biden for days. By that time, Pennsylvania had given the Democrat victory in the electoral college.
Arizona has become a state subject to Trump’s efforts to overturn the announced results – efforts repeatedly rejected by the court, but in support of which a pro-Trump crowd attacked the U.S. Capitol in Washington on January 6.
Graffiti including “Murder the Media” was found inside the Capitol, where some protesters sought out lawmakers to kidnap or kill. Five people died, one was hit by a policeman with a fire extinguisher.
“The lie that Trump won the 2020 election was not as directed at the opposite party as it was at the media that declared the fact obvious and indisputable,” wrote Stirewalt.
He said he was “confident that the current depredations of the digital revolution will pass, as well as those of the telegraph, radio and open television”.
But he added: “What strikes my mind after seeing a multitude of enthusiastic ignoramuses plunder the Capitol, however, is whether that sophistication will come quickly enough when the establishments have the means to meet all their customers’ unhealthy desires. “