Yes, Fox gave Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg a fair shake during his town hall last night. But the network has begun a dishonest smear campaign against him that will last longer and likely have more impact with its viewers than his town hall did.
Media Matters’ Matt Gertz explains:
Fox & Friends, the Fox morning show beloved by President Donald Trump, devoted significant time on Monday to undermining Buttigieg’s presentation. Buttigieg is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan; co-host Brian Kilmeade presented him as trying to undermine American patriotism, calling him a “clown” who wants to “erase our country’s history” for arguing that the Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson dinners should be renamed for people who didn’t own slaves. The candidate received a warm response from the town hall attendees; Kilmeade bizarrely claimed the crowd was enthusiastic only because it was stacked with his friends and relatives. Buttigieg is a gifted communicator; the program sliced and diced his town hall answers into a clip reel of disjointed quotes which the co-hosts warned prove he is a “very progressive” radical. “He had some interesting comments last night, sounds like a nice guy, but do you agree with his policies?” co-host Ainsley Earhardt said at one point before rattling off a misinformation-laden litany of Buttigieg’s purported positions.
This onslaught will almost certainly continue throughout the day and into the night, when the network’s stars perform for an audience that will surely be much greater than Buttigieg’s. That was also the trajectory Fox’s coverage tracked after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) partnered with the network for a town hall recently.
Fox hosts hold a lot of sway over their viewers and there are lots of them, meaning that the repeated attacks will likely counteract, at best, any gains among Fox viewers that Buttigieg achieved.
On the other hand, Buttigieg may have done himself a lot of good with another set: those who cheer his ability to handle himself on Fox as well as his ability to smoothly and slickly stick it to the network and Donald Trump – and get under the Fan in Chief’s thin skin. As Deadline put it in a headline, “FNC’s Pete Buttigieg Town Hall Beats Competition, Generates Headlines, Irks Donald Trump.” That’s the kind of thing that makes Democratic primary voters sit up, take notice and cheer.
But there’s a larger issue at stake here, which is that Buttigieg may have done Fox News even more good than he did himself. Besides the ratings, Fox now has the cred to flaunt its “legitimate news” operation that isn’t. As Gertz pointed out, Fox has been dealing with a significant advertiser exodus in the wake of its stars’ extremism, bigotry and blatant propagandizing for Trump. Democratic candidates’ town halls serve as a sort of “get out of advertiser-jail free” card for Fox.
“And now the network will pay them back by doing whatever it can to undermine their message and ensure their defeat,” Gertz correctly concluded.
Watch the May 20, 2019 Fox & Friends take dishonest pot shots at Buttigieg below and know that this is just the beginning.
Fox & Friends is shocked that the New Hampshire crowd approved of Pete Buttigieg's call to abolish the electoral college, but Brian Kilmeade says that line only got applause because he stacked the crowd with his "friends." pic.twitter.com/mln5pqxIpj
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) May 20, 2019
Fox & Friends uses Pete Buttigieg's Fox News town hall to accuse him of "going after our Founding Fathers" and "trying to erase our country's history." pic.twitter.com/u52Ri4scLk
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) May 20, 2019