Transcript: As Trump Goes Off Rails on Economy, Fox Bursts His Bubble
Gertz: It’s definitely a heavy lift, which isn’t to say that there aren’t people at Fox willing to try to do the work. Sean Hannity, for instance, after the State of the Union on Tuesday night, went on Fox for a special edition of his show and he started by saying, “Moments ago, President Trump wrapped up yet another iconic, uplifting, patriotic State of the Union.”
He said that Trump had championed our country and the achievements of “you, the American people.” And he said that Trump delivered a glowing speech that highlighted the triumphs, the struggles, the bravery of so many American people. “Under President Trump’s leadership, America’s full potential is unlocked and the state of our union, thankfully, is strong.” And that was just the monologue. Then he hosted a bunch of different Republican leaders, all of whom agreed that this was the greatest State of the Union they had ever heard.
It’s interesting — I noticed the next morning that the Wall Street Journal, which is corporate cousin to Fox News, put out a report from their Korea bureau chief highlighting how North Korean state media had provided unbridled flattery that underscores the dictator’s need to establish a cult of personality supremacy as a smokescreen for his nation’s woes — basically praising Kim for nonsensical, meaningless accomplishments, saying that he was the greatest person in the world with unimaginable accomplishments and that their future is infinitely bright and promising. There’s basically no daylight between how North Korean state media talks about that country’s dictator and how Sean Hannity talks about Donald Trump.
