Diamond & Silk Claim Fox News Executives 'Ordered a Hit' on Them in New Book
Category: News & Politics
Via: jbb • 4 years ago • 5 commentsBy: Lachlan Cartwright, Andrew Kirell (The Daily Beast)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
'DITCH & SWITCH' 
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images
In their new book, the MAGA star sisters accuse Fox News of a racist double-standard in giving them the boot for saying the same things its white stars regularly claim.
Lachlan Cartwright
Senior Reporter
Andrew Kirell
Senior Editor
Updated Aug. 17, 2020 3:08AM ET / Published Aug. 16, 2020 8:00PM ET
Several months after Diamond & Silk were dumped by Fox News for promoting crazed COVID-19 conspiracy theories, the Trump-worshipping vlogging superstars have seemingly declared war on the right-wing cable network.
In an excerpt of their new book, obtained by The Daily Beast, the MAGA siblings rant about the ordeal surrounding their April ouster from the Fox News family. Lynette "Diamond" Hardaway and Rochelle "Silk" Richardson repeatedly throw the network under the bus—at times revealing how Fox brass told them to "keep on fighting" even after the network publicly dumped them, other times suggesting the network cut ties with them as a retaliatory "hit" against President Trump.
And in one particularly revealing section, Diamond & Silk grumble about how Fox's white primetime stars have gotten away with pushing COVID-19 misinformation similar to the claims that resulted in the Black duo's expulsion.
The book, titled Uprising: Who the Hell Said You Can't Ditch and Switch?—The Awakening of Diamond and Silk , is due out this Tuesday via conservative book titan Regnery Publishing.
The right-wing sisters—who'd been contracted to produce videos for streaming platform Fox Nation—were dumped by Fox in late April after spreading coronavirus conspiracy theories claiming that the death count was "inflated" to make Trump look bad; that the virus was "deliberately spread" by either "deep-state snakes" or the World Health Organization; that a vaccine will be used for "population control" by Bill Gates; and that 5G technology is being used to infect people, with an "on and off" switch for the virus.
"We had dared to ask questions," the duo claim of the rants that got them axed.
At the time, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told The Daily Beast: "After what they've said and tweeted you won't be seeing them on Fox Nation or Fox News anytime soon."
But the duo claim they were blindsided by news of their Fox demise.
On April 23, the pair recall, after a reporter asked them why there hadn't been any new D&S videos posted to Fox Nation in several weeks, a network employee informed them that, amid the pandemic, the platform was "dialing back on posting any content that was overly political" and that the sisters should "keep doing videos as we would normally do them, and they would save them for a time when they could post them all."
Days later, however, after reading The Daily Beast's article titled "Fox News Cuts Ties With Diamond & Silk," they recall thinking: "Hell, why didn't Fox tell us?"
Furthermore, the sisters reveal that—despite the very public dumping—Fox News couldn't seem to get its own story straight inside the building.
"Probably ignore it if possible," the duo claim their Fox contact told them after the news broke. Two days later, Diamond recalls, another network employee wrote to them: "I want to assure you the stories are not true and executives here feel lies like that should just be ignored. Stay strong and keep fighting!"
But the stories, of course, were true. And the duo's relationship with Fox was, indeed, over.
"I was furious," Diamond writes. "Where the hell was Fox? Where was their PR department? Why the hell didn't they correct the lies published by The Daily Beast? Why didn't Fox speak up?" She further laments how "I was so overwhelmed that it brought me to tears because we had done nothing wrong. Not one time did Fox News inform us or reprimand us for anything," later adding: "Not one executive from Fox had told us we were spreading misinformation or conspiracy theories."
A Fox News Media spokesperson declined to comment on the sisters' claims.
Elsewhere in the book, Diamond & Silk offer up a scorching piece of media criticism, asking why they lost their gig while Fox News' white primetime stars get away with promoting COVID-19 misinformation—or as the pair called it, merely "asking some of the same questions we had."
"Here is the crazy thing, y'all," Silk declares in the book. "Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham were questioning the same things we were questioning about the virus and pandemic. The very same questions we had raised were being discussed openly on Fox News."
She continues: "Why were our Fox Nation videos dialed back because they were deemed overly political, but it was okay for others on the network to talk about politics, even down to asking some of the same questions we had? Why were we such a threat? We only did one video every week, and it was hidden behind a paid subscription wall. When you really think about it, was this part of the systemic racism that everybody was talking about?"
Diamond fumes: "How in the hell was it OK for for [ sic ] the white show host to ask the same questions and talk about the same things that we were speaking about, but our video content was dialed back for being overly political? We were all asking the same questions and talking about the same thing."
And while the duo insist none of their bizarre claims were conspiratorial, they invented a brand-new conspiracy theory that Fox News executives ordered up a "hit" on Diamond & Silk, via The Daily Beast, in retaliation for President Trump publicly criticizing the network.
"Who in the hell ordered the hit?" Diamond writes, just asking questions. "Was this something that came from the top floor, the higher-ups, or was this bigger? This seemed to be bigger than we knew." They point out that the day before The Daily Beast's article on their ouster, "President Trump had tweeted his displeasure with Fox News and some of its personalities, hosts, and one of the board members."
"It makes you wonder if this was some type of retaliation against us, especially since it happened the next day," Diamond continues. "We understand that during an election year one of the tactics from the Left is to silence the voices making the most impact. We're not saying that this is what Fox did, but it damn sure felt like it."
As the book seems to underscore, the sisters are more than ready to move on from Fox News. This past week, Diamond & Silk announced a new weekend show on Newsmax, and called upon Fox viewers to "ditch and switch" over to the rival pro-Trump cable channel.
"We were Diamond and Silk before Fox, and we would be Diamond and Silk after Fox... So don't get it twisted. We had millions of followers before Fox," the duo writes in their book. "Fox didn't make us, so Fox couldn't break us."
Lachlan Cartwright
Senior Reporter
Andrew Kirell
Senior Editor
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Or maybe, Cubic Zirconia and Polyester shouldn't lie!
Hey, you stole my line! I said something about them before I saw what you posted!
Idiots actually seem to have an epiphany and then quickly lose it.
It amazes me the morons that actually think donald would give them the time of day, other than a photo op.
I wonder if they realize donald doesn't want them in the suburbs...
They should be ashamed of themselves...
Who takes anything Cubic Zirconia and Polyester say seriously?