Although Fox finally booked porn star Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, just before midnight last night, host Shannon Bream was awake and alert with the pro-Trump messaging that tried to paint Avenatti as a Democratic operative.

What a coincidence that one day after Fox News’ glaring lack of coverage of the Stormy Daniels story was exposed, the network suddenly decided to interview Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti. But it was at such a late hour that many of Fox’s geriatric viewers were probably sleeping.

On Monday, The Washington Post published an article called, “Up to speed on the Stormy Daniels story? If you watch Fox, probably not.” Author Philip Bump meticulously documented the shockingly small amount of coverage Fox gave to the story, especially in prime time. The article concluded with a statement from Avenatti revealing that although Fox has contacted him for information and that he had “promptly cooperated,” he had never been asked for an interview. “That’s all the more remarkable, he said, because he’d received ‘hundreds’ of request from other outlets around the world. But not Fox News.”

Lo and behold, there was Avenatti on Fox News @ Night last night. The show is not only not prime time, it airs from 11 PM until midnight ET. As you can see from the screen grab above (and also in the first video below), Avenatti’s interview began at 11:39 PM. Considering that the average age of a Fox News viewer is 65, one might think that Fox deliberately scheduled it at a time it knew viewers were unlikely to be watching.

Even so, the show made sure that those who did watch got a health dose of pro-Trump propaganda.

First, reporter Ellison Barber set the scene with an “objective” news report that cast doubt on Daniels’ polygraph test. Although Barber acknowledged that the test showed Daniels probably told the truth, the lower-third banner for most of the report read, “TRUTHFUL ABOUT TRUMP?” Barber made sure to note that polygraph tests are “not typically admissible in court, in part because of doubt about their reliability.”

Bream also referred to Daniels as an “adult film performer.” Normally, I’d say that was an effort to show respect to Daniels. But given that this was Fox, it’s more likely that it was an effort to make Trump’s alleged affair with her less sleazy than with a “porn star.”

Still, Barber left out a crucial part of the story, that the money paid by Trump’s personal attorney as part of the so-called hush agreement, may well have violated the law.

When she got to Avenatti, Bream set out to paint him as an anti-Trump political operative. Her first question was, “Who is funding your services?” When Avenatti answered "no one" other than a CrowdJustice page, Bream persisted.

BREAM: Well, you know a lot of folks have questions about why now … why, if it happened 10 years ago or more, when the president wasn’t the president, why it’s grabbing so many headlines. Let me ask you about this: On your own website, you say that while in college and later, in law school, Michael worked at a political opposition research and media firm run by Rahm Emanuel who later, of course, became White House chief of staff, presently the mayor of Chicago. During his time there, Michael worked on over 150 campaigns in 42 states, including multiple gubernatorial and congressional campaigns, including Joe Biden’s U.S. Senate. Is any of this political in nature for you?

AVENATTI: Absolutely not. That was 20, 25 years ago and it’s laughable that people are pointing to that as the reason behind this. I haven’t spoken to Rahm Emanuel since January 2nd or 3rd, 2007 [When Avenatti ran into Emanuel in an airport coming back from a holiday]. … I haven’t had any communication with Joe Biden or anyone else on the left. The idea that this is politically motivated is laughable. This is about a search for the truth. I don’t care if you’re on the right, the left or in the center, you deserve to know the facts. That’s what this is about, period.

Bream, an attorney, is no Sean-Hannity-type ideologue. She dropped the point and moved on to argue with Avenatti Trump’s side of Daniels’ lawsuit seeking to have her non-disclosure agreement voided.

Still no mention of that fishy payment from Trump’s attorney, though!

See how Fox covered the latest in the Stormy Daniels case below, from the March 20, 2018 Fox News @ Night.