By: John Bowden
Donald Trump finished his town hall on Fox News on Thursday evening after making another whirlwind of false claims about a wide range of topics — the 2020 election, his trade policy, and his efforts to remain in the presidency to name a few.
The roughly hour-long performance was notable only for its rigid adherence to form: the ex-president spat out mistruths and conspiracies faster than any journalist could respond, not that Fox’s Sean Hannity ever meaningfully pushed back at all.
But the similarities between Mr Trump’s appearances on Fox News and its second-place rival, CNN, a few weeks earlier beg the question: why does cable news keep doing this?
To be sure, the former president is still a ratings bonanza for cable networks. Not as much as he was in 2016, when networks would sit their cameras on an empty podium in eager anticipation of his arrival. But the CNN special netted more than three million viewers for the hour, a win for the flagging network that just saw the unceremonious ouster of a number of high-profile faces under cloud of scandal, including Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, and Jeffrey Toobin. And the Fox broadcast is likely to do the same, if not better, given the network’s right-leaning audience.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fox-cnn-townhall-trump-fact-check-b2350296.html