President Trump has taken to Twitter on an almost monthly basis this year to criticize Fox News, the television network he most commonly praises.
But, unlike CNN and The New York Times, which frequently push back when attacked publicly by the president, Fox News tends to stay silent — not issuing statements or rebutting tweets.
Trump attacked Fox News on Sunday, hours after the cable network broadcast live video of a group of bar patrons in France chanting, “Fuck Trump!”
Hours later, the president ripped into the conservative network on Twitter in a series of tweets wherein he also criticized frequent targets CNN, NBC, MSNBC and The New York Times.
He did not specify exactly what prompted his criticism of Fox News.
Watching @FoxNews weekend anchors is worse than watching low ratings Fake News @CNN, or Lyin’ Brian Williams (remember when he totally fabricated a War Story trying to make himself into a hero, & got fired. A very dishonest journalist!) and the crew of degenerate……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 7, 2019
…..Comcast (NBC/MSNBC) Trump haters, who do whatever Brian & Steve tell them to do. Like CNN, NBC is also way down in the ratings. But @FoxNews, who failed in getting the very BORING Dem debates, is now loading up with Democrats & even using Fake unsourced @nytimes as….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 7, 2019
…a “source” of information (ask the Times what they paid for the Boston Globe, & what they sold it for (lost 1.5 Billion Dollars), or their old headquarters building disaster, or their unfunded liability? @FoxNews is changing fast, but they forgot the people who got them there!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 7, 2019
He followed that up a couple hours later with another attack.
Impossible to believe that @FoxNews has hired @donnabrazile, the person fired by @CNN (after they tried to hide the bad facts, & failed) for giving Crooked Hillary Clinton the questions to a debate, something unimaginable. Now she is all over Fox, including Shep Smith, by far….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2019
….their lowest rated show. Watch the @FoxNews weekend daytime anchors, who are terrible, go after her big time. That’s what they want – but it sure is not what the audience wants!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2019
The network did not respond, which did not surprise those who know it.
“My own view is that the president likes Fox News, but when he sees something he doesn’t appreciate, he hits back,” said Chris Ruddy, who runs the conservative television channel Newsmax and is friends with the president. “He does that with everybody, and I don’t think he treats Fox differently.”
One Fox News veteran suggested that Trump’s attacks on the network’s journalists could be good for business, signaling to weary advertisers and viewers a commitment to objective journalism.
A Fox News spokesperson did not respond when asked about the network’s lack of a response to Trump’s tweets.
CNN and the Times take a different approach, using their corporate Twitter accounts to respond directly to the president’s insults.
“We respond to correct the record. We supply facts to counter misinformation,” a CNN spokesperson previously told THR. “If a tweet involves the Times, we review on a case-by-case basis and decide if a response is warranted,” a newspaper spokesperson said.
On Sunday, the newspaper pushed back when Trump accused it on Twitter of “writing phony and exaggerated accounts of the Border Detention Centers.”
In response, the Times wrote:
We are confident in the accuracy of our reporting on the U.S. Border Patrol's detention centers. Here's how we reported today's front-page article on the squalid conditions at the migrant detention center in Clint, Texas. Read the story here: https://t.co/4TlleeZCTg pic.twitter.com/IrxgOR9EZ1
— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) July 7, 2019
One complicating factor is the sheer volume and frequency of the president’s criticism, even of Fox News.
This year alone, Trump has attacked the network’s polling operation (June 17), the network’s decision to hold a town hall with Mayor Pete Buttigieg (May 19), the network’s decision to host a Bernie Sanders town hall (April 16), the network’s weekend news anchors and weekday anchor Shepard Smith (March 17), the network’s handling of host Jeanine Pirro (March 17), and correspondents John Roberts and Gillian Turner (Jan. 27).
During the heat of the 2016 presidential campaign, however, the network took the unusual step of issuing a lengthy statement defending then-host Megyn Kelly against the president’s attacks.
“Donald Trump’s vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land,” the network said in March 2016.