Five people are dead and many more injured in a mass shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Maryland, but Fox News was busy checking to see if the newspaper is liberal or supports Democrats.
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Fox’s Trace Gallagher said, “We checked in earlier with the ideological bent of the capital. One of the oldest numbers in the country. Owned by the Baltimore Sun. This newspaper, we looked at the editorial board, who is on it, what topics. It’s very much a local newspaper. They cover the capital, the naval academy, and local elections. For example, the latest primary, they endorsed a moderate Democrat. So the paper itself very local. Doesn’t seem to have a major ideological bent, if that plays into the motive, we don’t know.”
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Only to Trump’s favorite channel does it matter whether the newspaper was liberal, moderate, conservative, or non-ideological. If the newspaper was liberal, does that mean that the victims deserved to be shot? If the newspaper was conservative, are the victims martyrs? When human beings are gunned down in an act of senseless violence, it doesn’t matter whether they are liberal or conservative. People died in that newsroom, and Fox is worried about whether or not they supported Democrats.
Fox News is worried about Trump’s attacks on journalists getting blamed for this shooting
Fox was also trying to protect their number one viewer. For years, Trump has demonized and attacked journalists and the free press. If the shooter tells police that he carried out this horrendous act because of Trump’s rhetoric, Republicans are going to be scrambling, so Fox was trying to find out if the Capital Gazette was a liberal newspaper that might have provoked the shooter in some way, and thus deserved what happened in their newsroom.
NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd summed it up:
Not sure this is an org that is qualified to decide what “bent†a need org is or isn’t.
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) June 28, 2018
Fox News’ first thought as people lay bleeding and potentially dying was to protect Donald Trump by checking to see if the victims deserved to be shot.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
