It’s too bad no one went to Trump “in the moment” during his insane Iowa rally speech to tell him 1) Fox had cut away, and 2) the Fox anchor cited certain statements that he (Trump) had made and that they were lies! Ok, if they’d waited a minute after the “Trump just told a bunch of lies” moment the poor aid could have added “Oh, and they’ve switched to a DeSantis event!” Oh well, even if we weren’t treated to that bit of TV viewing the fact that Fox so directly blew off Trump, suddendly cutting away from a live address to the MAGA goobers AND listing a set of the lies he just told is still remarkable.
But as this Newsweek piece reports it happened:
During a broadcast of Trump’s Saturday rally, Fox anchor Arthel Neville cut away from the former president to clarify that the 2020 election was not rigged, telling viewers that Trump made “many untruths” during his speech.
Neville said “The 2020 election was not rigged. It was not stolen,” although she did try to smooth things over a bit before the network switch to DeSantis talking about how far ahead Trump is in the polls. Oh, and how “desperately” DeSantis is trying to catch up to Trump. Ok, so it’s true that DeSantis is way (WAY) behind and that the word desperate doesn’t come close to describing his mental state. However, that’s not news. To anyone.
For me the real news, what matters is what we didn’t get to see. First of course is the entertainment part of Trump’s reaction when he found out from watching a rerun for “highlights” (I doubt anyone dare told him) that Fox had cut away. To DeSantis! Or that the Fox gal had said the things she did. Someone could get really rich secretly recording those moments and selling them. But the other thing we don’t know but I think might be in play is some development in the SmartMatic lawsuit.
As the Newsweek article notes Fox had to shell out 787 million to Dominion Voting Systems at the last minute to avoid an actual trial which would have cost them even more. Both in money damages and in other ways. Dominion had Fox dead-to-rights and Fox knew it. Luckily for them the powers at Dominion were never interested in the truth and the public good or even their employees. Nope, the honchos saw a big financial windfall and rather than rake Fox over the coals with long, public flogging they took the money and ran.
However, SmartMatic was still out there and with an ever larger lawsuit. And the ability to use all the good stuff Dominion had on Fox. It’s safe to assume Fox will want to settle with them too and the sooner the better. In the meantime thought they’ve got to walk a tightrope. They want the revenue Trump related stuff can bring them BUT they also need to maintain a certain distance. Still, it’s one thing to allow some talking head in a group on this or that show to make a less than kind comment about Trump but quite another to do what happened Saturday even if this particular anchor has long been willing to be critical of Trump.
It’s worth remembering (as the Newsweek article points out) that Fox cut away from Trump back in September. Trump was well into a speech and started talking up his Tucker Carlson interview and… Poof! The camera panned back to anchor Martha McCallum and Trump’s live coverage was done for the night. So in the span of a few months we have Fox doing some actual 2016 style live coverage trying to pull in viewers and suddenly having a “OMFG – cut to something else, anything NOW!” moment.
I could be wrong (I have been before after all) but I think with all the other news that’s been happening in recent months some “interesting” moments have been taking place in the SmartMatic v Fox proceedings and Fox is worried. Less afraid of Trump than they are of SmartMatic who’s lawyers are no doubt pointing out every Big-Lie Trump claim that goes out on Fox.
Here’s the other reason I think it could be an interesting month on this matter. Fox can afford a billion or even a couple of billion dollars to settle. It will sting a bit but not truly hurt, at least for any length of time. However, I’ll bet with all the moving parts that a worldwide empire Fox is part of always deals with the end of the year means getting ready for tax time. I have no doubt the lawyers and accountants at both Fox and their parent corporation Sky have been eyeing how to maximize the write-off potential of the settlement we know will happen with SmartMatic who WILL settle in the end just like (and for the same reasons) Dominion did. Don’t be surprised if out of the blue Fox and their latest tormentor (SmartMatic) announce a huge settlement.
Even if that doesn’t happen, you can amuse yourself with thoughts of manbaby Trump throwing another tantrum over Fox having not just abandoned HIS live speech, but calling out his lies and then shifting coverage to DeSantis. Hey, I take my entertainment where I can find it and the thought of Trump’s meltdown is for me funny as hell.
Having a person who used to be president, regardless of how unfit he was for the office, throwing temper tantrums (which he does more than would be allowed to a 2 year old) is less amusing than it is embarrassing. His tantrums, meltdowns, hissy fits, etc. have long ago gone from “did he actually say/do that?” to “would someone shut him the f*ck up-he’s embarrassing the entire nation”. At least among people with some functional grey matter between their ears.