Less than two weeks after the siege of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Fox News fired political editor Chris Stillewalt, who said the network was laying off, and he was fired. Said there was.
As many media reporters and commentators have pointed out, Stirewalt defended that the network was right in calling Joe Biden to Arizona on election night, the first sign that Donald Trump would lose the race. The result was a backlash from Trump and his supporters, not only “insane anger” directed at the network, but also against Stirewalt himself. As if Walt himself was counting the votes, accusing him of a “cover-up”.
his new book Broken News: Why Media Rage Machines Divide America and How to Fight Backdelves into his dismissal, but this neither tells the full story of what happened to his former employer, nor is it very focused.
Rather, it argues that the news industry wants audience and reader engagement and is overly inclined to give viewers what they want to hear rather than what they need to know. He argues that in order to gain attention in an environment of constant division, news outlets have prioritized anger-provoking emotions (grievance, anxiety, anger) over the civic duty of informing their audiences. I’m here.
“Every day, editors and producers seek out stories that will please the outlet’s target audience, or show underlying inferiority complexes and malice on the other side,” writes Stirewalt. “Because they are bad people themselves, or because they are necessarily attuned to the slant of the story. It takes a lot of work to get it.”
Early in his career at Fox News, Stirewalt shares an anecdote when he attended a meeting with Fox News executives on Election Day 2010. At that time, Fox News head Roger Ailes wanted to know how many seats the Republicans could win that night. Stirewalt replied he was 64.
“Dick Morris says it might be 100. Why are you so low?” Ailes shot back.
Stirewalt did not say that he thought Morris’ prediction was a joke and intended to draw the critics’ attention to Sean Hannity’s guest shot. Stirewalt also didn’t walk away from the analysis, which turned out to be mostly correct. (Republicans won his 63 seats that year).
“The stories they were telling were good for ratings and frequency,” writes Stirewalt. “They wanted it to be true because they wanted the Republican Party to win, but keeping viewers enthralled with a landmark victory on the horizon is a huge threat to the Republican Party’s potential. It was a glamorous incentive to exaggerate.
There are certainly many books that delve into the same subject. Some from academics, some from politicians trying to settle scores against the “media”. Little to his career.
While admitting that he “wasn’t always on Angel’s side,” he offers some criticism of Fox News. It evokes the network’s decision to program a documentary.
“Fox is inciting vicious helicopter levels of paranoia and hatred by getting viewers of its free cable news channel to sign up for a $65 ‘Patriot’ package on its subscription streaming service,” he said. is writing
Stirewalt refutes the idea that Fox News is a Republican tool. Instead, he argues, it’s the other way around. Case in point, earlier this year Ted Cruz appeared on the Tucker Carlson show to apologize for calling the siege of the Capitol a “violent terrorist attack on the Capitol.”
“Even given Cruz’s superhuman ability to seek power and endure humiliation, it was difficult to watch,” Stillewoldt writes. “This doesn’t sound like his 1970 ‘plan to put the Republican Party on the TV news’ that Roger Nixon pitched to Richard Nixon and came to fruition 25 years later. Companies that don’t share the same goals.” It sounds like a party caught in a
A Fox News spokesperson responded to Stirewalt’s book, saying, “Chris Stirewalt’s endless attempts to regain relevance know no bounds.” is still working for the network and plans to return for the midterm elections.
Stirewalt does not confine his critique to the right, but spans all media spheres. The book begins with The Washington Post’s newsroom and its “leaderboard showing which stories readers in the digital world are clicking on most.”
He points out: Even on the day the fall of Kabul became a major international topic, the “big move” was an article headlined: A few days later he was put on a respirator. “
“Even on big news days, readers of the post are sure to plus up stories that follow a few simple tales. It is the plight of innocent people who live in poverty,” he wrote.
He suggested that the New York Times and its 1619 Project had the express purpose of “destroying the idea of the American creed” and that the January 6 attack was a “false flag”. He wrote that it was little different from what Fox News was doing. The Times wrote, “It attacked head-on the idea that America’s founding was a new birth of freedom, and made it very clear, albeit imperfectly, that the $35 book would be sold by subscription to superusers.” It was intended.” Many Times editors and Pulitzer organizations may differ in this respect.
The publisher of this book, ironically, is Center Street, which specializes in conservative titles. Despite pro-Trump writers like Newt Gingrich and Mike Lee in its line-up, Stillwalt, now the political editor of News Nation, is not going to defend January 6th. . He testified before his January 6th committee and is also a contributing editor for The Dispatch.
He warns that “apocalypticism,” that is, reporters with Trump-induced beliefs that issues like education, democracy, climate change, and democracy itself are under threat When it comes to writing about the whole idea of what you should do, it’s overdoing it. Abandon any attempt at objectivity.
“Americans need more common spaces where they can feel confident that their information is not only accurate, but that their perspectives are fairly represented,” he wrote. We have always fallen short in inclusiveness, impartiality, and the ability to hold villains to account, but if we abandon ambitious impartiality in favor of activist and dogmatic journalism, we will become entrenched. Instead of fighting power, you feed it.”
His arguments are certainly nothing new in media commentary, but at book length, they’re usually from academics and politicians hoping to settle some scores.WV From local newspapers to the Washington Examiner to Fox News, Stirewalt is a little different in that he has an insider’s perspective. In other words, he knows the tricks of the trade.
He also has a passion for history that is one of the book’s strengths. He traces the days of the Founding Fathers, a time when all news was partisan, the rise of radio where hosts regularly spouted propaganda, and other issues in the news his media. Not to be too apocalyptic, he notes that the country’s media ecosystem has faced similar turbulent times before and is still surviving.
Stirewalt shines a light on what’s broken, but focuses primarily on political reporting and less on where business is still good. Cable News He’s obsessed with ratings, even the network, has made compelling coverage of the war in Ukraine and continues to have correspondents throughout the region despite security risks. increase.
Often when people complain about the “media” and paint it with one rough brush, they are focusing on one aspect of it, usually a 24-hour news network. Evening newscasts on cooler networks are certainly not as influential as they used to be, but they regularly draw more viewers than the highest-rated cable news shows.
He also offers a range of solutions, including limiting the use of anonymous sources and treating politics as a sport. He points out that as the volume of news coverage increases, “the quality of that coverage always seems to be declining.”
That may be the case, but it’s unclear if there will be a primetime cable audience to counter sensationalism, partisanship and celebrity obsession. It was marketed as an unreliable news source, but the audience was just a fraction of its established rivals. Since then, it has attempted to transition to more personalities, including Dan Abrams, show host Ashley Banfield, and Chris Cuomo, who will appear this fall.
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