SE Cupp: Fox News is Trump fan fiction
Right-wing news outlets, including Fox, Newsmax and OAN, are perpetuating the myth that President Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Why? To make their audiences feel better.
“Fox News and OAN and Newsmax are not telling their viewers what they need to hear,” Cupp told CNN Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter on “Reliable Sources” Sunday. “They’re telling them what they want to hear. That’s fan fiction.”
Cupp added that news outlets are obligated to “tell facts as they exist, even if they are not what your viewers want to hear.”
The misinformation is taking a toll on conservative media viewers: More than two-thirds of Republicans think the election was stolen from Trump, according to a new Fox poll.
“These conservatives really do believe the election was stolen,” Matt Lewis, senior columnist at The Daily Beast said Sunday. “It’s an alternate reality.” He added that the conversation surrounding Biden deniers will likely continue for several years.
But Donald Trump “obviously is playing a game,” Lewis said. “This is a con from Donald Trump and Fox News, and OAN and Newsmax. They know it’s a con.” And the millions of people who believe the election was stolen think “they’re the patriots,” he added.
Stelter pointed to proof of that “game” in the president’s interview with “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade that aired early Sunday morning.
“There are no sharp questions here from Brian Kilmeade,” Stelter said, prefacing the clip in which Kilmeade listens as Trump falsely claimed to have won the election.
