![]() ![]() “I'm not gonna talk about that stuff,” Stirewalt curtly replied. “Wasn't there an executive who said that you should stop making calls?” Ferguson followed up. At the same time, Stirewalt took to the air to defend the decision desk’s correct projection, prompting backlash from MAGA viewers and Trump himself who directly blamed Fox News for the election loss.Īsked by ABC TV host Sarah Ferguson if any superior asked him to change the projection after the fact, Stirewalt said the decision desk “received no instruction to reverse the call” but did say “there was a lot of questions” over whether they were sure they made an accurate call. It also led to confusion on-air for Fox News and extreme anger from the Trump camp that night, who reportedly tried to get the network to reverse the call. The early Arizona call, naturally, tossed a wrench in Team Trump’s attempt to declare victory that evening. Specifically, as Stirewalt pointed out, Trump had explicitly laid “down a predicate” to steal the election if it didn’t turn out his way. ![]() ![]() (Following Hannity’s rally-stage appearance, the network publicly reprimanded its star, saying in a statement that Fox “does not condone any talent participating in campaign events” and the “unfortunate distraction” had been addressed.)ĭiscussing his fateful election night coverage, Stirewalt noted that Fox had gone into the evening hyping up its decision desk as “best-in-class,” and how it made it “doubly important” that they were clear and transparent about their voter projections. “It's bad for business, it’s bad for the country, it’s bad for everything when you become an arm of a political party.” “We would have never been in a place where Sean Hannity could appear onstage at a rally with Donald Trump,” he bemoaned. The former longtime Fox News political analyst went on to say that once Ailes was canned, the “conduct for the opinion hosts went way down,” specifically highlighting the time in 2018 when Fox News stars Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro joined Trump up on a rally stage. And we were stunned to see that the phrase ‘Fair and Balanced,’ which had been our core, had been removed.” “The company went through a rebranding several months later. “Trump was a dangerous entity, and no one could control him,” he said. Suggesting that Ailes was the only one who could rein in the network’s top stars and enforce a consistent code of on-air conduct, Stirewalt said that once Ailes was fired over multiple sexual misconduct allegations in the summer of 2016, the network quickly went full-tilt for Trump. In part one, which first aired Monday, a number of Fox insiders, including Stirewalt, linked the fall of disgraced Fox News CEO Roger Ailes to the rise of Trump on Fox. Stirewalt was among several former Fox News employees to speak with Australia’s ABC TV for a multi-episode documentary about Fox’s evolution into a propaganda outlet for former President Donald Trump. Select "Full text" to search only the scanned or transcribed text for items.Former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt recounted the “terrible feeling of humiliation” over getting fired by the network after he defended the Fox News decision desk’s early but accurate election night call for President Joe Biden to win Arizona, adding that it was “very challenging” to tell his kids he was suddenly kicked to the curb. Select "Records" to search only metadata for items. Select "Records and Full text" to search both the metadata and available full text. ![]()
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