Chris Wallace at debate 2020

Fox News was once solidly and unabashedly on the right. They used to be in the proper place journalistically, but, unfortunately, that has now changed. They did not necessarily go fully left, but one cannot achieve being in the center on issues without leftward movement, and therein lies the current problem with Fox News. It’s just not what it used to be.

For example, Chris Wallace is one of the marquee Fox reporters. He was the moderator at the first so-called presidential debate three weeks ago, and he was tilted, biased, and awful. That performance could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back—the proverbial camel here being a platform for unbiased and objective news that allows the viewer and citizen to decide.

For me, as a consumer of news, that was it. Maybe I am too sensitive or perhaps I just watch too much news, but that’s a separate issue. Then again, I’ve been hearing a similar sentiment from many other people.

Actually, Fox News is split in half. And that split is indeed common to much of the rest of the country and is not defined so much by the issues but, unfortunately, determined by the personalities of the candidates.

I don’t think there has ever been so much animus between presidential candidates in our history. It is probably a good thing that most people don’t shake hands in the current pandemic environment. These two—Biden and Trump—could not have shaken hands or even bumped elbows; there is just too much personal hostility, and most of that is fed by the media, Fox now included.

Up until rather recently, news consumers needed Fox News to represent the ideas and philosophies of the right as a counter-punch to the out-of-control extreme radicalism of cable news outlets like CNN, MSNBC, and the major networks as well as much of the mainstream press. One thing you will never see on these stations is an unbiased journalist who genuinely believes and subscribes to the idea that President Trump is doing an excellent job on a multiplicity of levels.

On Fox News, however, we are offered a daily dose of leftism that aside from distorting the reality also rankles and annoys viewers. And as of late, the leftist, anti-Trump news disguised as balance has become way too much.

In all fairness, Fox still features some of the most outstanding pro-Trump right-leaning news personalities. And no, they have not ingested the Trump Kool-Aid but are rather reporting the news the way it is, objectively and honestly. If we learned anything these last few months, it is that politics is a tough and difficult game. The matter that has become increasingly clear is that as of today, the Democrat Party has become solidly identified with dishonesty.

The excellent nighttime hosts on Fox begin with Tucker Carlson, who is followed by Sean Hannity and then Laura Ingraham. These folks tell it straight and do not dance around the issues, trying to distort or cloud matters.

Although the future of the presidential debates is somewhat up in the air, the question is why only left-leaning journalists are assigned the job of moderating these important debates. Rest assured that if Carlson or Hannity were assigned the job of moderating a debate, Joe Biden would refuse and just walk away.

Instead, we had to deal with Chris Wallace, a notorious and professed critic of President Trump who throughout the 90-minute debate seemed to be protecting Mr. Biden from a Trump onslaught. For those who remember what journalism is supposed to be about—presenting objectivity on issues—that is now gone for the most part.

It is also vitally important to be aware of the dichotomy between journalism and editorializing. Hannity and Carlson share with us what they think about the issues. Wallace and reporters like Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times are supposed to present issues for us in an unbiased fashion and in a way that we can draw a conclusion and decide about the various issues using our own thought processes.

In case you have not noticed, the journalistic deck is stacked against President Trump, and it has been like that, at various levels of intensity, from the very first day that Mr. Trump announced that he would be seeking the Republican nomination for president dating back to 2015.

And make no mistake—a great deal of the angst being expressed against the president is about his position on Israel and his remarkable achievements to reach an unprecedented peace in the Middle East. What really rankles and gnaws at Democrats is Trump’s methodical march in the direction of repudiating and rejecting the policies set in place by Barack Obama.

Obama is still the champion of the left. But little by little and piece by piece, President Trump has been dismantling many Obama policies—from healthcare, which never worked, to the very unbrilliant Iran nuclear deal, which now seems unintentionally pretty smart when we consider that it is driving Gulf countries to enter into peace agreements with the Jewish state.

CNN-biased commentators like Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo seethe at the Trump success in the Middle East and the three nominations the president has received for the Nobel Prize for Peace; they have no choice but to ignore these evolving historical events.

At least Fox commentators are able to talk about the president’s goals and accomplishments. But too many of them do exactly that in a critical and negative context.

Incorrigible liberals like Juan Williams and Donna Brazile at Fox look at Trump’s ability to work out peace deals with Muslim countries and Israel as a “distraction” from the real issues of the campaign. Of course, that is absurd.

It is important to note that Donna Brazile was the head of the Democrat National Committee and was the conduit who fed Hillary Clinton debate questions from CNN debate moderators to the candidate in 2016. To her, dishonesty and cheating is business as usual.

My disenchantment with Fox is relatively new. So a few weeks ago I began looking around for news source alternatives. At first I shifted over to NewsMax, which presents the authentic Trump policies without distortions. I found it interesting that some former Fox reporters are now featured on NewsMax. I guess they had enough of Fox, too.

But then I tried Fox Business News and found that morning anchors like Maria Bartiromo and Stuart Varney are comfortable with their right-wing perspectives even though they line up with those of Mr. Trump.

The biggest casualty in all of this is the truth. It is no surprise that CNN plays a major role in the disappearance of honest reporting. It is disappointing that Fox felt that they had no choice but to become complicit in that effort.

A great deal of the Fox downhill spiral can be righted if you take the time to listen to Carlson and Hannity. They are the only hope that Fox can be saved. 

Contact Larry Gordon at lg5tjt@gmail.com. Follow Five Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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