Fox News reporters are dismayed Democrats are blacklisting the network from hosting any 2020 presidential primary debates

AP Photo/Chris Carlson

On Wednesday, Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez announced that the DNC would not consider Fox News to host any of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary debates.
The announcement came after a bombshell report from the New Yorker published Monday alleged unusually close ties between the network, its leader Rupert Murdoch, and President Donald Trump’s administration.
Many Fox anchors and journalists criticized the decision on social media.

On Wednesday, Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez announced that the DNC would not consider Fox News to host any of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary debates.

The announcement came after a bombshell report from the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer published Monday alleged unusually close ties between the network; Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News’ parent company Newscorp; and President Donald Trump’s administration.

"Recent reporting in the New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration and Fox News has led me to conclude that the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates," Perez said.

Trump has brought many former Fox employees, including current White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Shine and State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert into the administration.

The New Yorker report alleges that when a Fox News reporter first came across the story that Trump directed his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to pay off Stormy Daniels, who alleged an affair with Trump, in exchange for silence just weeks before the election, she was told, "good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert wants Donald Trump to win."

The network has denied the allegations and previously said the Daniels story was not published because it was not ready for publication at the time.

Fox News also released a statement regarding the DNC’s decision on Wednesday.

"We hope the DNC will reconsider its decision to bar Chris Wallace, Bret Baier, and Martha MacCallum, all of whom embody the ultimate journalistic integrity and professionalism, from moderating a Democratic presidential debate," the network said.

Many journalists from Fox and other outlets opposed the DNC’s barring Fox from hosting a debate, citing the work of news anchors Wallace, Baier, MacCallum, and Shep Smith, who have all pushed back against Trump’s claims in their reporting. Wallace and Baier also hosted presidential debates in 2016.

After the DNC’s announcement, Fox anchors, reporters, and contributors took to Twitter to express their disappointment with the decision.

In addition to the Fox hosts, other media members also took issue with the decision. Politico media analyst Jack Schafer wrote a Wednesday article titled, "If you’re afraid of Shep Smith, you probably shouldn’t be president," further calling the DNC’s decision "shameful political gutlessness."

Schafer and others said that the blacklist was unwarranted, given the fact that straight news anchors and not opinion hosts like Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, or Sean Hannity would be moderating a potential debate.

Others argued that even if some of Fox’s anchors strike a balance in their reporting and have fairly hosted presidential debates in the past, the DNC’s blacklist is justified because of the network as a whole going to extreme lengths to protect Trump.

"There are many things you can call a media organization that punishes its employees for digging up stories that are politically inconvenient for the Republican Party — ‘a legitimate news network’ is not one of them," New York Magazine writer Eric Levitz argued on Wednesday.

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