Fox News is United States President Donald Trump’s favorite network. Or, it used to be.
In the past few weeks, the Twitter-happy Trump lashed out at the cable network, primarily for releasing a poll showing how poorly he is doing in his reelection campaign, and for featuring personalities who are critical of him, according to Vox.
The symbiotic Trump-Fox relationship has been going on for years now. The network has traditionally reported favorably on Trump, highlighting positive developments with the hosts of some of its shows obviously enjoying access and familiarity with him. In return, Trump has praised Fox for its brand of journalism even as he attacked other news organizations—CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post, for instance—as peddlers of fake news.
“We have to start looking for a new News Outlet. Fox isn’t working for us anymore!” Trump said in one his tweets.
Some Fox hosts responded by reminding Trump that they did not work for him, even as this plain fact was lost on somebody with an inflated estimation of himself and his influence.
Unfortunately, it’s easy for politicians, especially those more preoccupied with ego than with actually creating impact, to fall into the trap of gravitating toward news organizations who present them in a favorable light. Everybody else who does not agree with them is flawed.
Here at home, this tendency is apparent among our national leaders. Remember the former chief executive who derided the local press for not reporting more favorably on his presidency? His successor also has a habit of lashing out at news organizations critical of his policies and statements.
But media organizations, even if you factor in real-world considerations like the political or business interests of their owners, in fact exist not to fawn over anybody, or attack them. They are there because it is their job to report what happens, to give praise where it is due, and to call out misdeeds or omissions by those tasked to put public welfare above all others.
This is, of course, the ideal situation and is not necessarily the prevailing mindset here, in the US, or anywhere else in the world. We however should keep reminding ourselves of it every day, lest we all become mere propagandists working for either side, and do not even realize we have lost our compass.