Fox News Forgets Trump’s Failed War
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This wasn't a war that the president sold to the American public. This was a war that Fox News sold to Donald Trump.
It's Wednesday, September 16th. I'm Jane Coaston, and this is Whatter Day, recording today from Washington, DC.
Yet for more than five years, inflation has been running above target. So our predominant focus is on the price stability side of our mandate. The plain fact is that inflation is too high and has been for too long.
And they did it. The Federal Reserve raised its interest rate Wednesday for the first time since twenty twenty three. The increase is an effort to quell stubbornly high inflation. Now we'll just get to wait for President Donald Trump to start his tirade against his newly appointed Fed Chair, Kevin Walsh. Trump got his feelings hurt yesterday, too. On Tuesday, the Trump-aligned Kennedy Center Board voted to close most of the iconic performing arts venue. The decision came just hours after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning Trump's name to the building. In a post on TrueSocial, Trump said the closure was needed for repairs. But apparently those repairs, which Congress had allocated two hundred fifty seven million dollars to cover, could only happen if the board was allowed to move forward with plans to add his name to the building.
A federal judge has said twice that can't happen without the approval of Congress. So instead, no Kennedy Center for anyone. For the third time, the US House has voted to end the war in Iran, approving a war powers resolution that would halt Trump's ability to continue military action without congressional approval. However, none of those actions have actually made it to Trump's desk where he would definitely veto them. But let's be clear. The war in Iran is incredibly unpopular. According to new polling from the Eurasia Group and Ugov, 75% of independents think Trump is doing a bad job handling the conflict. So what is Trump's favorite television network to do? To find out, I'm joined by Matt Gertz, Senior Fellow at Media Matters.
Matt, welcome back to Water Day. Thanks so much for having me back. So you did some reporting on how Fox News has been handling the Iran War on its opinion shows. What did you find? I found
That they've stopped handling it, more or less. There's been a huge drop in how much uh Fox's most popular shows have been covering this war. It dropped uh 79% from June into August. And that came uh as there was, you know, a series of uh false starts on further escalations. The Strait of Hormuz remained closed, and you know. We still have a a huge fleet of uh, you know, US forces uh camped out over there. But at at Fox, they had just stopped paying attention.
So our friends at Pods Save the World got a look at new polling from the Eurasia group in Yugov that shows the Iran war is pulling at thirty-four percent with Americans in pretty much Everybody hates it. And and that number is beginning to include Republicans whose strong approval for the war has dropped 15 points since April. What bind has that put Fox News in? It it
has put them in in a very difficult one. Fox News, uh, their bread and butter is serving up. Stories to their audience that make them feel good, that make them feel like Donald Trump is a hero, that his administration has the country uh moving in the right direction, uh, that he has his enemies on the run. And the Iran war has stopped being that sort of story. In the early weeks, uh, Fox was happy to have a ton of coverage uh of the war, claiming that it It was going to be over soon, that it in fact was already over, that we had won. And as the weeks and months have passed, uh, that argument just can't sell anymore. And so their problem is um they can't admit that they were wrong. They can't admit that the uh Iran war was a bad idea, because the bulk of Republicans are still behind it.
But they keep losing little by little more uh and more Republicans who no longer support. Uh in the long run, it's uh a huge dilemma. Uh in the short run, uh though, they're they're just stuck.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–9:54
2
What recent congressional action ended Trump’s ability to continue the Iran war?
9:54–11:47
3
How did new polling show independents view Trump’s handling of the Iran conflict?
11:47–13:52
4
What did Matt Gertz discover about Fox News’ coverage of the Iran war?
13:52–24:28