Fox News Tries to Hijack Republican Primary; Pushes Trump Most, Followed by Huckabee, Perry and Jindal

Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Donald Trump, Fox News chief Roger Ailes (photos: Mandel Ngan, AFP/Getty; Frederick M. Brown, Getty)

Donald Trump has a friend in Fox News, which has provided the controversial Republican candidate for president with far more airtime than any other GOP candidate.

 

According to the liberal watchdog Media Matters for America, Trump was on Fox News network a combined four hours and 45 minutes from May 1 through July 31. In second place, and a distant one at that, was former Fox News host and ex-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who appeared for three hours and 21 minutes.

 

Huckabee was followed by former Texas Governor Rick Perry (three hours and 12 minutes), Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (three hours and eight minutes) and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (two hours and 47 minutes). Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the onetime GOP frontrunner, got only one hour and 44 minutes.

 

Trump’s “constant presence on Fox News has likely aided his rise to first place in Republican primary polls,” Ben Dimiero and Rob Savillo wrote at Media Matters for America. Fox News, which has been accused of trying to usurp the Republican primary process, “has caused a rift among conservative media figures, including within Fox News,” Dimiero and Savillo wrote. “Last month, New York magazine reported that Rupert Murdoch had asked Fox News head Roger Ailes to have the network ‘back off the Trump coverage,’ which Ailes refused to do.”

 

Fox News hosted the first Republican presidential debate earlier this month and set the ground rules for which 10 of the GOP hopefuls would be allowed to appear. The criteria involved candidates’ standing in several national polls. It’s probably not coincidental that the way to increase recognition among likely Republican voters is to appear on Fox News, either on its programming or in advertisements shown there.

 

Trump insulted Fox News debate moderator Megyn Kelly during the debate, which started a feud between the billionaire and the network. Not even that could keep Fox from showing its love for Trump, however. Trump and Ailes made up in a phone call, with Trump tweeting shortly thereafter: “Roger Ailes just called. He is a great guy & assures me that ‘Trump’ will be treated fairly on @FoxNews. His word is always good!” Shortly thereafter, Trump was welcomed back onto Fox News shows.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, Steve Straehley

 

To Learn More:

The Fox News Primary For July: Trump Holds Commanding Lead (by Ben Dimiero and Rob Savillo, Media Matters for America)

How Fox News And Donald Trump Ate The Republican Primary (by Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America)

Republican Presidential Candidates Battle to Outdo Each Other in Opposing Women’s Issues (by Steve Straehley, AllGov)

Comments

James M. Potkoski, Jr. 8 years ago
GO MIKE HUCKABEE! YOU CAN RUN FROM HIM YOU CAN HIDE FROM HIM! BUT, HE ALWAYS GOING TO BE RIGHT BEHIND YOU WAITING, IN STRIKING DISTANCE, SO TRY NOT TO ACKNOWLEDGE HIM AND TRY TO DISTORT WHAT HE SAYS AND DOES BUT IT'S NOT GOING TO EFFECT TO THE EVENTIAL OUTCOME! HUCKABEE WILL STAND TALL ON TOP A LARGE CROWD OF DISBELIEVING ONLOOKERS!.......... GO HUCK PACK!!
Harley 8 years ago
Dave Francis: Could you be a bigger fool? Don't have the time to address your whole foaming-at-the-mouth screed, so here's a few facts: 1) As for "citizen advocates" who signed the Declaration: Thomas Jefferson was an elected magistrate in Virginia, then a member of the House of Burgesses (VA's legislature) before he wrote the Declaration. Politician. Button Gwinnett (random pick based on his natty name) was in the Georgia Assembly prior to joining the Continental Congress and signing the Declaration. Politician. Jefferson of course went on to become president, Gwinnett and many other signer went on to become governors, presidents, politicians. Not so much "citizen advocates" as citizens who felt the need to serve their cities and states before feeling ready to serve the country. 2) the 14th amendment, approved in the 1800s by a super-majority of Congress and the states (suppose some of the state legislators were "citizen advocates" at one point), was reviewed a number of times by the Supreme Court, and birthright citizenship was held constitutional. Our forbears nationally and locally found this to be a logical amendment. It'll take a super-majority of Congress and of the states to pass a new amendment revoking it, and that won't happen until there's a national debate on its merits, including a discussion of what it brings to our country to have children-citizens born of foreigners. BTW, a lot of those "birthright citizens" are the young men/women who choose to fight our wars for us, and a lot of young people who were brought to this country as youngsters volunteer for our military and eventually earn their citizenship that way. Now, whip the foam off your mouth and chin, calm down, and try reading a history book so you know our country's history, and then try reading a book on grammar/spelling so you can use our national language correctly. Many "birthright citizens" use the language more properly than you do. Embarrassing.
Ann 8 years ago
Notice how no one is talking about this which is the most important thing happening in the U.S. right now ---> The US NRC is considering a proposal that would allow MORE RADIATION exposure to children, pregnant women and EVERYONE. This petition explains it in a nutshell ---> Everyone needs to get involved and say NO to this! This could affect YOU and YOUR FAMILY. https://www.change.org/p/united-states-nuclear-regulatory-commission-protect-children-from-radiation-exposure
Dave Francis 8 years ago
Shamefully, the majority in either political parties—Left or Right—it doesn’t matter that they are only interested in staying in office, collecting their salaries and then moving on to ‘K’ Street and a lobbyist job. Then enjoying a pleasant retirement, with the brown paper cash, hidden away in a elusive bank accounts. Unless you win the lottery, born with a silver spoon in your mouth or are part of Silicon Valley or Wall Street, it’s a something most of us cannot even dream about. To hell with the career political class types--this is the United States. There were no politicians at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the bill of rights or the authoring by the founders of the Constitution? They have kept our nation free of dictatorships and Kings until now. It's time we started sending career politicians home and elected some "citizen advocate” as Trump, Ben Carson or Carly Fiorina. But if there is some clever ploy for the GOP, to end Donald’s run for President, I would assume Tea Party member Sen. Ted Cruz would be the best choice. Something very interesting is breeding among some friends of mine, that one colleague who has never trusted government and has never been in a voting booth, told me a few days ago—he is going to vote for Donald Trump. For me and my family, the only choice we see is also voting for Mr. Trump. An African American military man, who is an old soldier like me, concurred to me that his family circle was voting for Trump. I praise all Americans to not let the Liberal leaning press to try and cook Mr. Trump’s outstanding ability to outline the grave facts about the pariah invaders. As relating to birthright citizenship, if according to the 14 amendment that identifies foreign Diplomat’s child/children who cannot gain citizenship, vote or join the army. Then WHY can a child of an illegal alien Mother immediately gain citizenship and collect all the entitlements of birthright citizenship, without paying into the welfare system? To me this is an ‘ANOMALY’ that should go to the Supreme Court for an interpretation. Currently the cost for all the benefits, welfare, imprisonment and is costing the local, state and federal treasuries of Half a trillion dollars a year. Building the wall is Donald’s major objective, but backing the barrier at the border must be further enforced with interior Mandatory E-Verify. At the moment any company can use E-Verify at not—it’s optional and no doubt operated that way, so both parties can still bring in cheap labor or illegal aliens to vote. But within Trump protected sovereignty wall, E-Verify will be a key resistance to the illegal alien invasion. We must implement MANDATED E-Verify to protect American workers? Illegal aliens cannot survive if we have enough ICE agents to deploy around the United States. So If a person does not have official documents, a cross referenced social security Number or a verifiable drivers or state license, they must be turned away. If that individual thinks they have been wronged, they can go to the local Social Security office to get authenticated for work. An illegal alien worker maybe beneficial to employers as cheap labor, but it’s a scourge for the 90 million unemployed /underemployed Americans. If employers suddenly find themselves looking at 5 years prison time, they will hurriedly start checking on their employees for non eligible workers; acknowledging that a CEO, directors, managers or human services employment agency, that they can be incarcerated if they get caught, which should be enough for an employer to obey the rules of this strict deterrent. No employer would be safe, no office, factory or any construction site or other entity would be safe. As an addition a $1.000 dollars or more reward for a Whistle-blower who is aware of illegal aliens hired by the man and an 800 number to contact the ICE agency. It should be really obvious to the Republicans, Democrats, Independents and other minority parties that the Trumps Wall, mandatory E-Verify is imperative to every working man and women and even teens as their rights of citizenship and permanent residents have been violated. Keeping your job, earning a decent wage is essential to the American economy and the illegal alien invaders are competing for these jobs. Perhaps not so with the Liberal assemblies, who want to cram our schools with illegal alien children and under King Obama’s present ruling, its happening. Only the voice of the American people can stop this travesty, of our laws and this administration crushing the Constitution edicts underfoot. Go to www.fairus.org/ Federation for American Immigration Reform to discover facts that government doesn’t want you to know. Also visit Numbersusa www.numbersusa.com for more facts and information about the illegal alien incursion. Judicial Watch www.judicialwatch.org is a legal website, non profit that enlightens you about the corruption in all levels of government.

Leave a comment