In December, Democrat Marie Harf had the gumption – and the decency - to point out that, 43 minutes into the Outnumbered show, the horrific COVID death toll of 3,000 Americans the day before had not been mentioned. She’s been disappeared from the show that supposedly opposes “cancel culture” ever since.
As you can see in the video below, Harf's remark struck a nerve with host (and right-wing propagandist) Harris Faulkner. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Faulkner said contemptuously, “You can’t see my heart and trust me when I tell you it hurts all of us to mourn those Americans and people around the world.”
In a deep dive into the further rightward shift of the already conservative show, The Daily Beast reports that Harf, who formerly appeared at least twice a week, has disappeared from Outnumbered. Ditto for another feisty Democrat, Jessica Tarlov, who had been appearing once a week. Self-described centrist Democrat Leslie Marshall and a more compliant Democrat, Johanna Maska, have appeared on the show, The Daily Beast notes.
The conservative guests, on the other hand, have gotten more extreme. Now, hate monger Tomi Lahren, whom I have described as a millennial version of Ann Coulter but with less wit and less charm, is on twice a week. More from The Daily Beast:
[T]he show has seemed to increasingly lean on incendiary conservative culture warriors like MAGA youth leader Charlie Kirk, reactionary podcaster Dave Rubin, failed congressional candidate Kim Klacik, and—much to the chagrin of Fox staffers who spoke with The Daily Beast—Tomi Lahren.
…
Lahren recently re-upped her contract with Fox and since December has appeared at least 18 times on Outnumbered, co-hosting at least twice per week. Considering her style of commentary and debate being more at home in Fox’s decidedly right-wing primetime hours, some Fox News staffers consider her newfound elevation to be eyebrow-raising.
“It’s an absolute joke and further proof that the show shouldn’t be taken seriously,” said one current Fox employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from management. “When I was hired, I was told that [Lahren] would never be on legitimate shows like Outnumbered or The Five, that she was only Fox Nation. I’m just as confused as everyone else. Tomi has no credibility, no résumé of experience other than screaming derogatory things on the internet.”
The Daily Beast writes that Outnumbered’s shift “ultimately seems to be yet another part of Fox’s overtly rightward shift to combat ratings issues.” I agree but I’ll add that it’s also an effort to make sure nobody challenges what they’re up to.
You can watch Harf’s run-in with Faulkner below, from the December 10, 2020 Outnumbered, via Crooks and Liars. As C&L’s John Amato observed, more Trump supporters might have survived the pandemic if Faulkner had expressed the words she said are buried in her heart instead of spending so much time on Hunter Biden's laptop. But on Fox News, political propaganda trumps everything, even viewers' lives.
I’m reading Stelter’s Hoax and I highly recommend it. There’s a LOT of behind the scenes info I didn’t know about and I’m only halfway through.