Elizabeth Warren’s polling numbers have been mostly in the single digits for months now, with just a momentary upward blip. She’s even failed to poll well in her home state of Massachusetts and in neighboring states.
Naturally, she’s pulled out all the stops to try and jumpstart her fizzling campaign among the Democratic base, including proposing bloated trillion dollar plans and jumping on the impeachment bandwagon.
Those tactics have failed to move the needle, so Warren has shifted gears in an attempt at get attention by attacking Fox News.
NBC News reports:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Tuesday she had turned down the chance to appear on a Fox News town hall, lambasting the network as “a hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists.”[…]”Fox News has invited me to do a town hall, but I’m turning them down — here’s why. … Fox News is a hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists — it’s designed to turn us against each other, risking life & death consequences, to provide cover for the corruption that’s rotting our government and hollowing out our middle class,” Warren said.”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,” Warren continued. “It’s all about dragging in ad money — big ad money. But Fox News is struggling as more & more advertisers pull out of their hate-filled space. A Democratic town hall gives the Fox News sales team a way to tell potential sponsors it’s safe to buy ads on Fox — no harm to their brand or reputation (spoiler: it’s not).”
Here’s her full 7-tweet Twitter thread on the issue:
In a genuine shocker of shockers, Warren was verbally smacked down on Wednesday by the ladies of ABC‘s “The View” program over her refusal to appear on Fox News:
“Fox News was the top basic cable network in April,” [co-host Sunny] Hostin continued while reading out the network’s ratings data. “It finished in 2018 as the most watched basic cable network for the third consecutive year both primetime and total day viewers”[…]Whoopi Goldberg also said that any candidate who could not face the Fox audience wasn’t ready for office.“People come to [‘The View’] because they know folks are watching, whether it’s on the left or the right, or center,” Goldberg said. “You know what, if you can’t face a Fox audience, you can’t face the U.S. — it’s that simple.”
Watch their segment on Warren below:
MSNBC‘s Mika Brzezinski even took the Senator to task, first by largely agreeing with her description of Fox News, but then suggesting that she utilize the opportunity to spread the word about “democratic values”:
“But I would argue that a presidential candidate should be able to walk into any situation, walk into any fire, and have the confidence and the ability to put it out by spreading the democratic values and his or her beliefs,” she continued. “And I think they should go into Fox and do all the town halls they can do because Fox, you could argue, is smart to be doing these.”That is a sign of some sort of change, hopefully, or at least an opportunity for it.”Brzezinski co-host and husband Joe Scarborough made a similar argument earlier in the segment, saying that Warren should go on the network to try and “reach out to swing voters.”
Watch their segment below:
What has been largely overlooked this week is the fact that some of Warren’s assertions about Fox News are strikingly similar to those made by Media Matters for America president Angelo Carusone in a 17-tweet thread on this very issue a month ago. Carusone is the person responsible for the attacks on the advertiser base of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, and Fox News generally.
Here are a couple of his tweets, focusing on going after Fox News advertising cycle, and complaining that Democrats going on Fox News for town halls undermined the pressure.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Let’s roll the tape on Warren’s Tuesday rant again:
Coincidence? I think not.
In response, Carusone heartily tweeted his approval of Warren’s position:
Carusone has been on a relentless campaign to get all of Fox News‘s advertisers to pull their accounts. Isn’t it nice to know that a candidate for president of the United States is apparently getting her talking points and marching orders from a far left outfit whose goal, ultimately, is to get a major news network shut down entirely?
Where is CNN‘s mainstream media firefighter Brian Stelter with his dire warnings about how Warren’s stance is a disturbing attack on the freedom of the press? His official position appears to be … neutral – with a bit of amplification of Warren’s point, of course:
My impression: Dems who choose to go on Fox focus on WHO’s watching. They say Fox attracts a big audience, and not all of the viewers are rock-solid Republicans. But the Dems who reject Fox focus on WHAT those viewers are watching. The content. In Warren’s words, the channel “gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists” and provides cover “for the corruption that’s rotting our government and hollowing out our middle class.”
Typical.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY