\n\n“Former President Donald Trump did not succeed in overturning his election loss to Joe Biden. But he did succeed during his lame-duck period in knocking Fox News down a peg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the past few months, Trump repeatedly derided Fox News while promoting upstart rivals like Newsmax and One America News Network (OAN), both of which more reliably pushed his conspiracy theories about the election being stolen. Fox News responded to this very public post-Election Day rift<\/a> with Trump \u2014 and the sagging ratings that came with it \u2014 by purging its newsroom and doubling down on grievance-soaked punditry.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n ” Though it\u2019s obviously silly to get mad at a cable news channel for accurately calling an election result, that\u2019s exactly what Trump did. In the weeks following his defeat, he routinely blasted the network for its sagging ratings, describing its daytime quasi-news programming as \u201cnot watchable\u201d as he promoted further-right alternatives like Newsmax and OAN.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Earlier this month, two executives involved in the Arizona call \u2014 Bill Sammon, senior vice president and managing editor at Fox\u2019s Washington bureau, and politics editor Chris Stirewalt \u2014 were forced out<\/a>. Diana Falzone and Lachlan Cartwright reported<\/a> for the Daily Beast that those moves were part of a broader \u201cpurge\u201d to \u201cget rid of real journalists.\u201d” <\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “If the goal of these moves is to win back viewers who are now opting for Newsmax and OAN instead of Fox News, they haven\u2019t so far worked. Twice since the election, including once earlier this month, Newsmax has bested Fox News in a key demographic during an hour of programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Newsmax and OAN have carved out niches as networks especially willing to spread right-wing conspiracy theories and misinformation. In the weeks leading up to the January 6 Capitol riot, for instance, former Trump national security adviser and key QAnon figure Michael Flynn went on Newsmax and floated the idea of Trump declaring martial law to overturn his election loss and didn\u2019t receive any pushback at all.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Nonetheless, Fox News seems willing to give its audience more conspiracy-theory-based programming. On Tuesday night, the top-rated anchor on Fox News, Tucker Carlson, platformed another Trumpist figure facing a defamation lawsuit<\/a> for spreading fake news about the election \u2014 MyPillow founder Mike Lindell \u2014 and allowed him to push more conspiracies about voting machines.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n