Fox News editor Chris Stirewalt approved Fox News’ early call that Joe Biden had won Arizona during its election night coverage on November 3. While Stirewalt’s call turned out to be accurate, the editor endured the ire of President Donald Trump and his supporters. Stirewalt was subsequently fired from the network.
In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Stirewalt addressed the situation saying it was born from “a nation of news consumers both overfed and malnourished.”
“Americans gorge themselves daily on empty informational calories, indulging their sugar fixes of self-affirming half-truths and even outright lies,” wrote Stirewalt. “Can anyone really be surprised that the problem has gotten worse in the last few years?”
Stirewalt stands by his early Biden call saying the backlash was stirred up by “a cynical, knowing effort by political operators and their hype men in the media to steal an election or at least get rich trying.”
Stirewalt denounced the U.S. network news cycle, which he says prioritizes “indulging a consumer’s worst cravings” for their viewers to be confirmed – a form of “informational malnourishment.”
“Whatever the platform, the competitive advantage belongs to those who can best habituate consumers, which in the stunted, data-obsessed thinking of our time, means avoiding at almost any cost impinging on the reality so painstakingly built around them,” he wrote. “As outlets have increasingly prioritized habituation over information, consumers have unsurprisingly become ever more sensitive to any interruption of their daily diet.”
Fox News recently announced plans to replace their last “hard news” evening hour slot at 7 p.m., with another opinion show. The 7 p.m. slot used to belong to Shepard Smith, who since his resignation has denounced Fox News for politicizing its coverage.
