Two breaking stories roiled US politics this week and immediately got big play on most news sites.
asserted
stories → break → sites
The supreme court surprisingly rejected – for now – Donald Trump’s attempted restrictions on mail-in ballots, a blow to Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.
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court → reject → elections
And the investigative site ProPublica revealed that a Russian oligarch had helped to bankroll the Bahamas wedding of Trump’s son Donald Jr, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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oligarch → reveal → dollars
The blockbuster story quickly became ProPublica’s most-read article this year and was covered heavily elsewhere.
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story → become → ?
“There’s no looking away from this Trump scoop,” wrote CNN’s Brian Stelter.
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Stelter → look → scoop
Unless you watched Fox News, of course.
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you → watch → course
The wedding blockbuster got barely a nod on Monday night: a mere minute on the rightwing network’s evening programming, as the progressive non-profit watchdog Media Matters reported.
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watchdog → get → programming
“The news broke during the 7 p.m. hour, but Laura Ingraham, a law school grad, didn’t bother to tell viewers,” Stelter noted.
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Stelter → break → viewers
Neither did the other big-name Fox opinion hosts, Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity.
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hosts → do → ?
You would have had to wait until 11.30pm for that 45-second report, Stelter wrote, even as it was a leading story in many other places.
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it → have → places
In subsequent days, Fox paid more attention to both stories, but mostly to hand the megaphone to Trump’s trashing of the justices who didn’t give him what he demanded.
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he → pay → what
Fox News has long billed itself as the more balanced alternative to mainstream media, an antidote to what Trump constantly slams as “fake news”.
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Trump → bill → news
But in fact, the network often looks the other way when news comes along that might disturb its viewers, who still number in the millions during primetime hours.
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who → look → hours
“This is the ‘negative space’ of Fox News coverage, in which they pretend something is simply not happening,” Matt Gertz, who tracks Fox News at Media Matters, told me.
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who → pretend → me
“Trumpian corruption is the biggest part of this,” Gertz said.
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Gertz → say → this
Thus the endless self-dealing and self-enrichment of Trump, his family and his allies are subjects left to others.
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dealing → leave → others
Don Jr’s wedding falls squarely into this category.
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wedding → fall → category
Normal news outlets are concerned with informing their audience.
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outlets → inform → audience
Fox’s network stars and executives have a different priority.
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stars → have → priority
“They are concerned with coddling their audience and maintaining the GOP’s political power,” as Gertz put it.
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Gertz → concern → it
They are also concerned with how Trump views the network and what he says about individual hosts or pieces.
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he → view → hosts
This is the well-known “audience of one” syndrome.
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This → know → one
Trump sometimes complains about Fox, but there’s little doubt that he’s watching closely, as he posts segments and praises individual hosts.
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he → complain → hosts
The Fox News viewer, to some extent, is in a bubble and happy to stay there.
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viewer → stay → bubble
This shows up in polls like a new one from Axios, in which 53% of respondents said the word “corrupt” describes Trump more than any other quality.
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word → show → quality
(That’s followed by “dangerous”, “out of touch” and “cruel” – not exactly a rave review by the American public.)
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That → follow → public
But an astonishing 23% said “corrupt” does not describe him.
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corrupt → say → him
These people don’t seem to know about the cryptocurrency schemes, the insider trading, the pay-to-play pardons and the lavish gifts such as a $400m jet from Qatar.
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people → seem → Qatar
Or, of course, the Russian oligarch, close to Putin, who was somehow moved to finance a Trump son’s wedding.
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who → move → wedding
How could they not know?
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they → know → ?
They could simply have their heads in the sand.
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They → have → sand
Or they could think they’re staying informed while watching Fox as it once again explores its favorite prime-time topics – race and gender in the WNBA, panic over commie Democrats, the evils of socialism and the troubles that come with illegal immigration.
But some subjects do fall out of favor.
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subjects → think → favor
Fox’s primetime hosts, who egged on Trump’s Iran war months ago and made it a favorite topic, have now added that quagmire to their “ignore it and maybe it will go away” list.
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it → egg → list
Why?
Because it’s unpopular and upsetting.
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it → ’ → ?
Of course, so is Trump himself, which raises the vexing question of Fox’s exit strategy from the president the network has supported so diligently and helped at nearly every turn.
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network → raise → turn
No Fox, no President Trump, one might argue.
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one → argue → Fox
But now, Trump, with his bottom-dwelling approval ratings and waning power, looks more and more like a problem for the network.
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Trump → dwell → network
So far, though, he’s one problem that Fox refuses to ignore.
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Fox → ’ → that
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Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture
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Sullivan → write → media
The Aporia
