Fired Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt has accused the network of ‘indulging their consumers’ worst cravings’, as he blasted what he described as the ‘hype men in the media who tried to steal an election or at least get rich trying’.
Stirewalt, who was part of Fox’s election team that called Arizona for Joe Biden before his sensational firing last week, penned a scathing opinion piece for the LA Times where he appeared to pin some of the blame on Fox for the ‘rebellion on the populist right against the results of the 2020 election’.
Though he did not reference Fox by name, he made a series of thinly-veiled attacks on the network with its focus on ‘ratings’ meaning it avoids ‘at almost any cost impinging on the reality’ of its viewers.
The ousted editor, who worked at the Rupert Murdoch-owned network for more than a decade, also claimed he was targeted with ‘murderous rage’ from viewers after the network was first to correctly call Arizona for Biden in the presidential election.
Stirewalt, 46, was ousted last week along with at least 16 digital editorial staffers in a purge that Fox described as a ‘post-election restructuring’.
Stirewalt had publicly defended the network’s move to call Arizona on the night of November 3 while other networks held back to watch the razor-thin margins play out.
The Associated Press joined Fox in calling the state for Biden three hours later on election night, but other networks including ABC, CBS and NBC all waited eight days until November 12, by which time Biden had been declared the overall winner of the White House race.
Biden won Arizona by 10,475 votes out of nearly 3.4 million cast.
The controversial early call by Fox, which has long been an ally of Donald Trump, sparked outrage from the network’s right-wing viewers as well as Trump himself who pushed Jared Kushner to call Murdoch directly and demand he retract the call.
Click here to read more.
Source: Daily Mail
BCNN1 WP 