Trump Accuses Fox of Ignoring ‘Real News’ by ‘Promoting’ Potential Election Rival DeSantis
© AP Photo / Evan Vucci
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Conservative media, especially those outlets owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, have made clear their preference for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the 2024 Republican presidential candidate in the wake of the 2022 midterm elections. The outlets have since stepped up their criticisms of former US President Donald Trump.
Trump voiced his discontent with Fox’s new favorite on Sunday, accusing the television network of “promoting” DeSantis “so hard and so much that there’s not much time left for Real News.”
“Reminds me of 2016 when they were pushing ‘JEB!’ The new Fox Poll, which have always been purposely terrible for me, has ‘TRUMP Crushing DeSanctimonious,’ but they barely show it,” Trump wrote, referring to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. “Isn’t there a big, beautiful, Network which wants to do well, and make a fortune besides? FAKE NEWS!”
The former president forgot to mention that US corporate media networks, which hung on his every word during the 2016 campaign, gave Trump and his political message an estimated $1.8 billion in free airtime, helping to propel him to victory over Bush and every other challenger.
Trump’s criticism of Fox News comes a week after he called it a RINO (Republican in Name Only) network, a derogatory term for centrist Republicans willing to work with Democrats on various issues. He also took a swing at the New York Post, which shares a parent company with Fox and the Wall Street Journal, News Corp, and an owner, Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
27 February 2023, 13:50 GMT
The Trump-Murdoch Divorce
Recent court filings in a lawsuit against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems have revealed that Murdoch and many Fox News reporters and leaders were deeply skeptical of Trump’s claims to have lost the 2020 presidential election due to fraud, but reported on the claims anyway for fear of losing viewers to rival network Newsmax. Dominion has alleged the network defamed them by suggesting its voting machines were rigged to make Democratic candidate Joe Biden win the election - claims for which no material proof has been furnished.
Murdoch-owned media temporarily attempted to distance itself from Trump amid the election fraud claims, and especially after events of January 6, 2021, when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building and temporarily dispersed a joint session of Congress. The failed insurrection has resulted in criminal charges against hundreds of participants and in Trump being impeached for allegedly inciting it, although he was acquitted in a Senate trial after leaving office a few weeks later.
However, the outlets only seemed to truly divorce themselves from Trump after the November 2022 midterm elections. DeSantis, who has become a Republican darling for his defiance of the Biden administration on issues ranging from pandemic public health measures to LGBTQ rights, handily won reelection as Trump-backed candidates across the country fared poorly and he was becoming increasingly beset with lawsuits and scandals. A succession of articles and political cartoons lambasted Trump and hailed DeSantis, including a New York Post cover that portrayed the former president as “Trumpty Dumpty.”
A day prior, the Post had given DeSantis a lionizing cover image rendered to appear like an oil painting and labeling the Florida governor “DeFuture.” Since then, one opinion poll after another has sought voters’ thoughts about a Trump-DeSantis race or a Biden-DeSantis election, despite him not having announced a presidential bid yet.
26 January 2023, 19:48 GMT
Jeb Hails DeSantis
Jeb Bush added his voice to that chorus on Monday, telling Fox News that 2024 offers DeSantis an opportunity to seek the White House.
“He’s been a really effective governor. He’s young. I think we’re on the verge of a generational change in our politics. Kind of hope so,” Bush said. Ironically, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin last week said the opposite, calling for voters to back Trump instead of DeSantis, criticizing DeSantis for being too young.
However, Bush also had words of criticism for Trump, too.
“I think it’s for a more forward-leaning, future-oriented conversation in our politics as well,” he said. “And who better to do it than someone who has been outside of Washington, who’s governed effectively, who I think has shown that Florida can be a model for the future of our country.”
In addition to Trump, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and New York-based businessman Vivek Ramaswamy have also declared their candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination.
