Eric Boehlert: Fox News "purge" confirms network shouldn't have White House credentials [View all]

[babylonsister]

Fox News "purge" confirms network shouldn’t have White House credentials
Cut them off
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago


Moving to eliminate any remaining vestiges of a news operation, Rupert Murdoch's Fox network summarily fired two political newsroom veterans this week. The heavy-handed move was seen as punishment for when the channel angered Trump loyalists on Election Night by correctly calling Arizona for Joe Biden.

Out are senior vice president and D.C. managing editor Bill Sammon, and politics editor Chris Stirewalt. The "purge," as network staffers have called it and included nearly 20 digital staffers, represents yet another confirmation that Fox News no longer pretends to be a journalistic outpost. Instead, facing new competition from the extreme far-right, the network eagerly sinks deeper into partisan, conspiratorial propaganda. And that's why the network doesn't deserve to have White House credentials for the new Democratic administration.

It's simple: Fox News isn't a newsgathering organization, therefore it does not need White House access. Giving them prestigious White House press passes just delays the much-needed Beltway discussion about the crooked network and its place in our political culture.

Today, it’s not possible for anyone in the press to make the argument that Fox News is a legitimate outlet. Dripping in demagoguery, the network doesn't even pretend any more. Last year, Shep Smith left when it became clear his 3 p.m. newscast was no longer welcome there. "I stuck with it for as long as I could and at some point I realized I’d reached a point of diminishing returns and I left," he recently said.

"There is a concerted effort to get rid of real journalists," one departed Fox staffer told the Daily Beast, referring to the recent firings. "They laid capable people off who were actual journalists and not blind followers. It’s essentially the final nail in the coffin for digital journalism at Fox.” The week's purge comes as Sean Hannity's former producer, Porter Berry, takes control of running Fox's digital properties.

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https://pressrun.media/p/fox-news-purge-means-it-doesnt-deserve