Uh oh. This week’s House Select Committee on Jan. 6 revelations included damning revelations about several Fox News hosts — Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Brian Kilmeade — frantically texting former chief of staff Mark Meadows in an effort to make President Trump do something about the insurrection as it happened. The on-air reactions from other outlets have really been something, too.
On Comedy Central, Trevor Noah expressed glee over how those hosts were secretly melting down after pretending (for a year) that the failed MAGA coup was nothing at all. CNN juxtaposed those texts with footage of them down playing what had happened while John King declared, “They’re not journalists.” And it’s no wonder, since Kilmeade was apparently urging Meadows, “Please get him on TV” because the rioters were “destroying everything you have accomplished.” On The View, Joy Behar was most decidedly not impressed, and Sunny Hostin went even further than expressing displeasure. She suggested that Fox News drop the “News” and simply go by Fox because those texts suggest something that borders upon state-approved media:
“To be able to text the Chief of Staff and almost demand the president of the United States do something, that is almost unfettered access. And that leads me to believe that it shouldn’t be called the Fox News Channel. I mean, is it really a news organization or is it just state propaganda? If it’s a state sponsored channel, they shouldn’t be called the Fox News Channel, it should just be Fox.”
Uh, this sounds rather, you know, Putin-esque? Then the hosts channeled Baghdad Bob to claim that the insurrection, you know, wasn’t really that bad. It’s truly wild stuff, but maybe (at some point) we’ll hear what noted Fox News critic Seth MacFarlane thinks of the suggestion to switch over to a “Simply Fox” label.