Trump exposes Fox News bias against Conservatives

Ever since it was launched in 1996, Fox News has enjoyed an ever growing television audience. Talk show host Rush Limbaugh often promoted Fox News in the early years of the network, helping to establish the connection with conservatives across the country. In fact, thanks to Rush and others on talk radio, Fox News enjoyed tremendous ratings growth over the last 19 years. Today, Fox News is the unquestioned ratings champion among cable news channels. One other factor determining ratings success has been the unpopularity of the left wing content being delivered by competitors such as CNN and MSNBC. Viewers interested in fair and balanced news coverage, as opposed to liberal indoctrination, have flocked to Fox News.

The problem is that Fox News, while not a liberal network, is unfriendly to true conservatives. For example, most Fox News hosts are either moderate or downright liberal. Their mid-day host, Shepard Smith, is clearly liberal on a wide variety of issues and just this week was insulting conservatives who have been critical of Pope Francis. The evening hosts such as Greta Van Susteren and Bill O’Reilly are not conservatives and have liberal views on many issues. Megyn Kelly is an independent, who has some conservative views, but has recently become obsessed with derailing Donald Trump. While Sean Hannity is a conservative, many of his favorite guests are members of the Republican establishment, who often battle conservatives on endorsements and policies. The network consistently uses a variety of stale analysts who routinely criticize Trump. Supposed experts such as George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Brit Hume and Karl Rove are card carrying members of the GOP establishment who see Trump as a threat. Not surprisingly, these guests and others highlighted by Fox News regularly attack Trump, yet defenders of the GOP front runner are given minimal air time. Polls show that the strongest base of support for Trump is among Tea Party conservatives. These are voters who are angry at the GOP establishment and want the party to be more aggressive in dealing with the Democrats and the liberal media. Instead of complimenting Trump for what he has accomplished in only a few months, Fox News focuses on stories that lampoon or criticize the front runner. In fact, Trump spokesman Michael Cohen claims that the network is “marginalizing him, they’re criticizing him, they’re trying to figure out how to get this man out of the race.”

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Trump is rightly concerned about the type of coverage he has received. In the first debate, Fox News targeted Trump with a variety of hostile questions with Kelly implying that he despised and demeaned women. In the aftermath, Trump loudly complained about Kelly until a truce was called. Earlier this week, the feud erupted again as he lambasted the network for what he labeled a pattern of unfair treatment. Then, the network cancelled his appearance on the O’Reilly show while Trump announced an official boycott of the network. The dispute reached the apex on Kelly’s Wednesday night show when National Review Editor Rich Lowry stated that Carly Fiorina “cut (Trump’s) b….. off with the precision of a surgeon” in the second debate. This foul language reportedly angered Fox News CEO Roger Ailes who realizes Trump now has the upper hand in this dispute. Next week they will meet to discuss the type of coverage Trump has been receiving on the network. Before another truce is achieved, Trump will undoubtedly insist on more balanced coverage from a network that has a history of preferring moderates such as Mitt Romney to win nomination contests over more conservative opponents. In this election cycle, viewers surely notice that the majority of Fox News commentators and guests seem to prefer anybody but Donald Trump. If this type of bias continues, it remains to be seen if conservatives -- the backbone of their audience -- will remain loyal to the network. Stay tuned.