No sooner had I written about Trump's announcement that he will not be going on Fox News "for the foreseeable future" than Fox News came out with a statement that it had canceled Trump's appearance on The O'Reilly Factor before Trump made his announcement. And, not surprisingly, The Donald has more to say again.
In case you missed it, Trump announced today, after a series of Twitter tantrums about Megyn Kelly and Bill O'Reilly, that he will not be appearing on Fox News in the "foreseeable future."
First, the Fox News statement:
At 11:45am today, we canceled Donald Trump’s scheduled appearance on The O’Reilly Factor on Thursday, which resulted in Mr. Trump’s subsequent tweet about his ‘boycott’ of FOX News. The press predictably jumped to cover his tweet, creating yet another distraction from any real issues that Mr. Trump might be questioned about. When coverage doesn’t go his way, he engages in personal attacks on our anchors and hosts, which has grown stale and tiresome. He doesn’t seem to grasp that candidates telling journalists what to ask is not how the media works in this country.
And now for the Trump campaign's response:
As a candidate for president of the United States and the definitive front runner in every poll, both nationally and state wide, including the just released poll in the state of Florida, Mr. Trump expects to be treated fairly. All you have to do is look at the tremendous ratings last night from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where Mr. Trump was the guest, or the ratings from both debates, to fully understand the facts.
I do not normally read nor quote Hot Air, but they got it right here even if they didn't seem to bat an eye at a major news network basing its campaign coverage on whether a candidate is dissing them or not:
They [Fox] don’t say why they canceled his O’Reilly appearance but the implication, I think, is that they were punishing him for dumping all over O’Reilly and Megyn Kelly on Twitter on Monday night. In other words, they decided to boycott him before he decided to boycott them. Whoever started it, it’s worth noting that Fox didn’t break into their usual coverage this afternoon to air his speech in North Charleston. If that’s the sign of a new policy, eliminating all coverage of Trump that isn’t absolutely required for news purposes, we’ll soon have an answer to the question that’s hovered over the Trump/Fox bickering since it began, namely, does he need them more than they need him or vice versa? He’ll still have his megaphone at CNN and on broadcast news outlets but he won’t have the same pipeline to a Republican audience without FNC. And if his polls start to slip and/or Fox’s ratings show no signs of weakening without him, it’ll undercut one of the core parts of his appeal, that he’s immune to normal political forces.
Keep the popcorn going!
Trump caricature by DonkeyHotey.
Mom, he hit me first. I’m tellin.