Some weeks back Democratic primary candidate Bernie Sanders participated in a Fox News town hall and surprisingly drew a lot of support from the crowd. Elizabeth Warren has apparently declined a similar opportunity because Fox News is, in her opinion, a “hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists.”
Warren argues that participating in a Fox News town hall lends the media organization credibility and helps them earn profits. So far this year, Warren has participated in town halls in 17 different states, has had 57 media events, and has done 131 different interviews, so she’s not shying away from questions.
In a written statement, Warren outlined her rational for turning down Fox News:
“I won’t ask millions of Democratic primary voters to tune into an outlet that profits from racism and hate in order to see our candidates — especially when Fox will make even more money adding our valuable audience to their ratings numbers. Hate-for-profit works only if there’s profit, so Fox News balances a mix of bigotry, racism, and outright lies with enough legit journalism to make the claim to advertisers that it’s a reputable news outlet. It’s all about dragging in ad money — big ad money.”
Fact checker Politifact has discovered Fox News making false or misleading statements on several occasions. Other analysts have found that Fox News has a right-wing bias. And polls found that Fox News is less trusted by viewers than CNN or MSNBC. On the whole, trust in the mainstream media has been on the decline in recent years.
Still, Fox News enjoys higher ratings than either CNN or MSNBC.
