Trump Blasts Fox News After Network Walks a Fine Line on Virus

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump continued his love-hate relationship with Fox News on Tuesday, stepping up his criticism of a network he believes should offer him invariable support as it has tried to distance itself from commentators playing down the coronavirus threat.

On Monday, the Daily Beast reported that Diamond and Silk, conservative African-American sisters who have hosted a show on Fox Corp.’s Fox Nation streaming service, were no longer affiliated with the network.

While not acknowledging their departure from the $6-a-month service, which Fox launched in 2018, the pair posted Tuesday on Twitter: “Haters keep saying they hate Diamond and Silk, but you can’t hate what you ain’t never loved!”

The president retweeted that post and added: “But I love Diamond & Silk, and so do millions of people!” A spokesperson for Fox News declined to comment.

Fox Corp., owner of the nation’s most-watched cable TV network, has long been considered supportive of the president and is controlled by Chairman Rupert Murdoch, a Trump confidant. In recent weeks, as the death toll and number of people infected by Covid-19 have risen, the company has sought to distance itself from commentators who say that the threat is overblown.

Last month, sister network Fox Business parted ways with host Trish Regan, who said on her show that Democrats and the “liberal media” were using the coronavirus to “destroy the president.” While she spoke, the headline “Coronavirus Impeachment Scam” appeared next to her.

Sean Hannity, one of Fox News’s biggest stars, also sought to clarify statements he’s made about the virus. After criticism following comments such as his reference to the virus as a “hoax” on a March 9 show, Hannity gave an interview to Newsweek in which he said he was only talking about the politicization of the virus, not the virus itself.

Fox News is “making very strategic and smart choices, trying not to elicit a blowback from the Fox audience, while simultaneously making it clear they have some degree of standards,” said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters for America, a nonprofit media watchdog that is often critical of conservative news outlets.

Trump was also critical of the network in a series of tweets on Sunday. He slammed Fox News host Chris Wallace for being “nastier to Republicans” on his program than other Sunday-morning anchors are. He criticized Fox Corp. for putting former House Speaker Paul Ryan, whom Trump called a Republican in name only, on its board. And he blasted the network’s decision to hire Donna Brazile, a former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, as a commentator.

The Ryan appointment and Brazile hiring happened more than a year ago.

“No respect for the people running @FoxNews,” Trump said. “But Fox keeps on plugging to try and become politically correct.”

‘Most Loyal’

Diamond and Silk, whose full names are Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, describe themselves on Twitter as Trump’s “Most Loyal Supporters.” They rose to fame, according to their own bio, by criticizing then-Fox News host Megyn Kelly for her tough questioning of candidate Trump during a 2016 debate.

The pair have suggested the official virus death count may be inflated and have questioned the origins of the illness. Richardson said on a March program that “this is something that was man-made. … I think it’s a little Deep State action going on behind the scenes. … To me, this is something undercover. It is engineered.”

The sisters also present a problem for Fox News because they openly campaign for the president and the network has told its commentators not to do so. Hardaway and Richardson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s Sunday tweets weren’t the first time he has criticized Fox News. At one point during the 2016 campaign, he threatened to boycott the network.

He has chosen to praise rival outlets such as the conservative One America News and dole out interviews to Fox News anchors with whom he is currying favor, according to Carusone. Pressure from the president may have even pushed the sometimes-critical Fox News host Shepard Smith out the door last year, Carusone said.

The longtime host said in a statement last October that leaving the network was his own decision. At a Committee to Protect Journalists event in New York the following month, Smith said: “Intimidation and vilification of the press is now a global phenomenon. We don’t have to look far for evidence of that.”

“This is about keeping Fox News in line,” Carusone said of the president’s tweets. “He’s the only person who’s ever been able to do it.”

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