The Conversation (0)
Joe Sommerlad
May 15, 2019
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren
John Minchillo/AP
Democratic 2020 presidential contender Elizabeth Warren has caused a sensation by attacking one of America's most powerful media outlets, Fox News.
The right-wing broadcaster is known for its close relationship with President Trump, who watches its breakfast show Fox and Friends religiously every morning, retweets favourable coverage of his administration on Twitter all day long and speaks to anchors Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs by phone from the White House most evenings.
In addition, many ex-Fox employees now work for the Trump administration while several former West Wing staffers have gone the other way and now find themselves working in television. Among the most prominent of these is Bill Shine, former co-president of Fox News and now The Donald's director of communications and deputy chief of staff.
Jane Mayer of The New Yorker went so far as to accuse the channel of being the propaganda arm of the White House earlier this spring.
But now Warren has had enough, turning down an invitation to a Fox town hall event and blasting the Rupert Murdoch-owned network as "a hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists".
While many applauded her bold statement, American conservatives were - unsurprisingly - less than amused.
The aforementioned Hannity posted a link to his blog in which he attacked the Massachusetts senator for lagging behind in the polls.
Bill O'Reilly, the channel's one-time big beast anchor until he was forced out when sexual harassment allegations were made against him, was equally irate.
Daily Wire reporter Ryan Saavedra used the controversy to turn in a Trumpian attack on CNN and its journalist Brian Stelter over their "hypocrisy" in attacking the president's anti-press rhetoric but applause for Warren.
Others argued she had wasted an opportunity to reach out to Republican voters.
This guy even joined Trump in making fun of Warren's claim to Native American heritage (the president routinely refers to her by the nickname "Pocahontas").
Ultimately though, the candidate deserves a lot of credit for turning down such a high-profile opportunity to promote her campaign and win new admirers, even if her chances of converting the die-hard Trumpsters who watch Fox News were minimal in the first place.
Perhaps this meme sums it all up better than any other.