In his upcoming memoir, Chris Stirewalt says Fox News has abdicated its duty to prepare Trump supporters for the possibility that he will lose, instead fueling the “helicopter-level paranoia and hatred” fueling white supremacist groups but it translates into big TV ratings. Stirewalt’s Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machines Divides America and How to Fight Back also reiterates the belief of many that Fox fired him because he always defended – even on air – his team’s decision to declare Joe Biden the winner of his election 2020 Arizona college vote the same night the polls closed. The call infuriated Trump, prompting the sitting president and his allies to launch a pressure campaign aimed at getting Fox to reverse the decision, while that camp promoted lies that election fraud in other battleground states was stealing the election for Biden . The New York Times obtained and reported on an advance copy of the book. Fox officials have previously said that Stirewalt’s departure from the network in early 2021 was merely a layoff amid a broader restructuring at the company, and have noted that the employee who was actually in charge of the bureau that made the Arizona call that fateful time remains at the company. A statement from the network on Monday also dismissed the former editor’s other recollections of his time at Fox News, saying, “Chris Stirewalt’s endless efforts to regain relevance know no bounds.” But in his memoir, Stirewalt argues that Fox News’ alliance with Trump and other Republican political candidates has nothing to do with ideology. Instead, he’s all about delivering ratings and fattening profits, not caring that his top host, Tucker Carlson, espouses conspiracy theories that radicalize violent, far-right white supremacists, including those who orchestrated the deadly attack on the Capitol on January 6 . “Even in the four years since the last presidential election, Fox viewers had become even more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that challenged their expectations,” Stirewalt’s memoir adds. This was even when viewer expectations amounted to “black-helicopter-level paranoia and hatred,” according to the memoir. Stirwalt says his team’s decision to accurately project on election night that Trump lost Arizona to Biden in front of an audience hungry for the Republican incumbent to beat his Democratic challenger “was a tremendous shock to their system.” ». The memoir likens this appeal to “serving green beans to viewers who have been spoon-fed ice cream for years.” Stirewalt also expresses disbelief that Carlson’s viewers portray him as bravely discussing topics that are taboo in the mainstream, when – according to the ousted editor – he’s simply recanting the things his audience already believes. “Carlson is rich and famous, yet he regularly talks about ‘big, legacy media,’” the memoir claims. “Somehow, nobody’s even laughing. “It doesn’t take any kind of journalistic courage to put out every night exactly what your audience wants to hear.” Among the conspiracy theories Carlson has espoused is the racist notion that white Americans, faced with a declining birth rate, are being deliberately replaced through immigration. He suddenly silenced that idea after a white man who shot dead 10 black people in a Buffalo, New York, grocery store cited it as his motivation. Stirewalt’s departure from Fox News — where he spent about 11 years — came less than two weeks after a mob of Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill in a desperate bid to prevent congressional certification of his defeat by Biden. A bipartisan Senate report linked at least seven deaths to that attack. Since then, Stirewalt has been highly critical of Fox News and testified before a congressional committee investigating the attack on Capitol Hill, saying he knew the Arizona call would have consequences because it involved a real battleground on which Trump’s chances of victory depended. .
