{"id":3760,"date":"2026-07-22T20:37:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3760"},"modified":"2026-07-22T20:37:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:37:29","slug":"scared-straight-once-bitten-fox-leery-of-backing-trumps-latest-election-fantasy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3760","title":{"rendered":"‘Scared straight’: Once bitten Fox leery of backing Trump’s latest election fantasy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

When President Donald Trump delivered a national address last Thursday to rehash his 2020 election denial claims, Fox News notably dodged any appearance of promoting his allegations. It\u2019s not the first time Fox has avoided lending a platform to Trump\u2019s attempts to push his \u201cBig Lie,\u201d and according to Salon\u2019s Sophia Tesfaye, that may be because the network has learned an \u201cexpensive lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more War brewing: Trump gathers fresh DOJ hounds to menace state officials<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFox News may have been scared straight,\u201d wrote Tesfaye<\/u> on Wednesday. After airing the address, \u201crather than rushing to validate the president\u2019s claims, chief political anchor Bret Baier immediately offered a stark, legally cautious disclaimer to his audience. He informed viewers that the network \u2018has not seen the evidence yet and is not in a position to evaluate the accuracy of the president\u2019s statement and claims.\u2019\u201d Afterwards, there was an \u201calmost total blackout\u201d of the president\u2019s speech across Fox. As Tesfaye explained, \u201cThe morning after the address, \u2018Fox & Friends,\u2019 the network\u2019s flagship three-hour morning show that typically serves as a rallying ground for administration priorities, pointedly neglected to even cover the speech. \u2018The Five,\u2019 the powerhouse afternoon panel show that regularly generates the highest ratings in cable news, completely ignored the address on Friday, Monday and Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top network talent who usually champion Trump\u2019s agenda were similarly silent. \u201cLaura Ingraham and Jesse Watters chose not to preview or promote the speech in the two prime hours leading up to it, and Ingraham refrained from mentioning it on her Friday, Monday and Tuesday broadcasts. Hannity, despite promising his audience a \u2018deep dive into all this documentation in the days ahead,\u2019 promptly took Friday night off and subsequently omitted the topic from his Monday and Tuesday shows. Mark Levin \u2014 the man who helped craft the legal theory Trump\u2019s allies used to pressure Vice President Mike Pence into rejecting electors in 2020, and who defended that effort publicly for years \u2014 said nothing about the speech on either of his Fox News weekend programs. On \u2018Fox News Sunday,\u2019 anchor Shannon Bream allocated a mere four seconds to the entire event, treating it as a footnote before moving on to interview a Democratic senator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservative media noticed, spurring commentators to claim Fox is full of \u201cfair weather friends\u201d who were abandoning the president, and prompting one to ask, \u201cWhat is up with Fox News?\u201d But as Tesfaye explained, Fox has good reason.<\/p>\n

Read more Dem lawmaker busts right-wing reporter\u2019s claim she \u2018slammed\u2019 door in his face<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe network famously got burned by Trump\u2019s earlier election claims, agreeing in April 2023 to pay a staggering $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit<\/u> brought by Dominion Voting Systems,\u201d explained Tesfaye. \u201cThat blockbuster settlement came after months of grueling discovery exposed embarrassing internal communications revealing that Fox executives, producers and star hosts privately mocked and disbelieved the false claims about rigged voting machines, even as they broadcast them to millions of viewers in an obvious effort to prevent audience defection to rival networks like Newsmax.\u201d<\/p>\n

Worse yet, \u201cthe Dominion settlement was not just a historic financial blow; it was a devastating institutional humiliation that left Fox exposed to continuing legal danger, including an ongoing $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit<\/u> from voting machine manufacturer Smartmatic. Having paid nearly $800 million echoing Trump\u2019s 2020 falsehoods, Fox\u2019s corporate leadership appears to have drawn a firm, permanent line. The network\u2019s legal department now clearly wields a veto over its newsroom and primetime opinion stars. When Trump steps to a podium to claim that Chinese software, stolen voter files or rigged machines altered the course of American democracy, Fox\u2019s lawyers see a multi-million-dollar liability walking onto television screens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more No one can find the $18T Trump claims he\u2019s given the US<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When President Donald Trump delivered a national address last Thursday to rehash his 2020 election denial claims, Fox News notably dodged any appearance of promoting his allegations. It\u2019s not the first time Fox has avoided lending a platform to Trump\u2019s attempts to push his \u201cBig Lie,\u201d and according t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n'Scared straight': Once bitten Fox leery of backing Trump's latest election fantasy - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3760\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Scared straight': Once bitten Fox leery of backing Trump's latest election fantasy - Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When President Donald Trump delivered a national address last Thursday to rehash his 2020 election denial claims, Fox News notably dodged any appearance of promoting his allegations. 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