![]() Like almost every television network, it charges advertisers to run commercials during its programs. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”įox News has two primary sources of revenue that both hinge on viewership numbers. “He’s the undisputed world champion of that. “What ’s good at is destroying things,” he replied. One of Tucker Carlson’s producers texted him that “it’s a hard needle to thread, but I really think many on our side are being reckless demagogues right now.” Carlson, an expert in demagoguery, agreed. (That network is also facing a major lawsuit from Dominion and was recently dropped by DirecTV.) As the loyalty of longstanding viewers seemingly began to fray after the election, Fox’s hosts began to panic. The Arizona call appeared to briefly threaten their hegemonic hold as viewers flocked to Newsmax, which was even more willing to tell them what they wanted to hear. According to the filing, one Fox reporter told executives “we are taking major heat over the AZ call” and that “our viewers are also chanting ‘Fox News sucks,’ something that I have never heard before.”įox had enjoyed unchallenged supremacy in right-wing media circles for more than two decades. Trump’s top allies sent blistering messages to Fox owner Rupert Murdoch and many of the network’s top personnel. Not only had a network forecast that Trump would lose one of the states he had won in 2016, thereby imperiling his Electoral College majority, but it was from the one network that couldn’t be readily dismissed with claims of liberal bias. Trump planned to declare an early victory on Election Night and then describe the incoming votes as fraudulent.īut Fox’s Arizona call torpedoed that plan’s viability. That led to a situation that analysts described as the “red mirage,” where early Trump leads could eventually become Biden victories once all the mail-in votes were counted. As a result, it was widely expected that his supporters would disproportionately tend to vote in person on Election Day compared to Biden voters. The former president had spent months attacking vote-by-mail options that had proliferated during the pandemic. Trump’s post-election plans hinged on how votes would be counted. Within Trumpworld, the response was explosive. Biden eventually won the state by 10,457 votes. The Associated Press followed soon thereafter. Donald Trump had captured the state in 2016, making it the first projected flip of the election. EST, Fox News’ election desk projected that Joe Biden had won Arizona. The story begins on Election Night with what is, at least in hindsight, one of the most quietly important moments in recent American history.
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