Fox News Launches 'Purge' to 'Get Rid of Real Journalists,' Insiders Say
By: Diana Falzone, Lachlan Cartwright (The Daily Beast)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Fox News on Tuesday fired the political editor who was tasked with defending the network's election night decisions that especially angered President Donald Trump and his allies.
Politics editor Chris Stirewalt's exit from the network coincided with the sacking of at least 16 digital editorial staffers, including senior editors. People familiar with the situation said the layoffs—a "blood bath," as multiple Fox News insiders described it—were perpetrated by Porter Berry, the Sean Hannity crony now in charge of remaking Fox's digital properties in the image of its right-wing opinion programming.
In addition to Stirewalt—the Fox News "nerd" who became the face of the network's election-night projection for Joe Biden to win Arizona, which angered much of the network's MAGA viewership and led to the rise of an even more obsequious, pro-Trump alternative in Newsmax—sources confirmed that long-time digital editors and reporters, some of whom had been with Fox for a decade or more, were among those laid off. (Additionally, on Monday morning, Fox News senior vice president and D.C. managing editor Bill Sammon, who is in his early 60s, announced he is "retiring at the end of the month.")
"Fuck this," one particularly despondent current Fox News staffer remarked to The Daily Beast.
"It's essentially the final nail in the coffin for digital journalism at Fox."
Officially, the network claimed the layoffs are merely part of a "restructuring" initiative. "As we conclude the 2020 election cycle, Fox News Digital has realigned its business and reporting structure to meet the demands of this new era," a spokesperson said in a statement. "We are confident these changes will ensure the platform continues to deliver breakthrough reporting and insightful analysis surrounding major issues, both stateside and abroad."
But a dozen current and recently departed Fox News employees who spoke with The Daily Beast all said the "purge"—as a few characterized it—was part of the network's larger effort to pivot its website from straight-news reporting to right-wing opinion content in the mold of Fox's primetime programming.
"There is a concerted effort to get rid of real journalists," said one recently departed Fox staffer. "They laid capable people off who were actual journalists and not blind followers."
Others said it was an attempt to silence leakers from speaking to outside media about the changes being instituted by Porter Berry, a former producer for Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, who recently transitioned from the TV side to running Fox's digital properties.
"Porter's uncomfortable around and is suspicious of experienced editors," one Fox News insider remarked to The Daily Beast. "They make him feel inept because his background is entirely in TV."
"Porter is at the helm," one current employee declared of the layoffs, while a recently departed staffer said: "This is all Porter. Both an ideological purge and a purge of people he was threatened by."
"It's essentially the final nail in the coffin for digital journalism at Fox," another recently departed staffer declared.
Though, this former staffer noted, the shift to focusing on right-wing opinion has paid off for Berry. "What has slightly been working for him are recaps of the network's primetime opinion shows," the source said, and so the desire is for more "cheap labor to write a dozen 250 word recaps of the network's primetime shows."
Even before this round of layoffs, Berry's management and editorial style had resulted in the departures of several key employees, such as Jason Ehrich, former executive vice president of audience development and strategic partnerships, and Greg Wilson, the former managing editor of the Fox News website, among others.
As The Daily Beast reported, Berry's influence over the network's online properties has raised eyebrows among staffers, largely because he continues to act as a "shadow executive producer" for Hannity—yet another sign of the increasingly blurred lines at Fox between the network's right-wing opinion commentary and its so-called news division.
The ouster of Stirewalt came months after he publicly defended the Fox decision desk's early (and accurate) election-night projection of Joe Biden winning Arizona's votes. The on-air call immediately infuriated President Donald Trump, as such a projection by his then-favorite network inhibited his plans to prematurely declare victory that evening. "Jared, you call the Murdochs! Jason, you call Sammon and Hemmer!" Axios reported Trump shouting that night at his son-in-law Jared Kushner and top adviser Jason Miller.
Immediately following the Arizona call, which has been linked to angry Trump fans abandoning the network for even more fact-free, right-wing outlets like Newsmax, Stirewalt was repeatedly grilled on-air over the projection and asked whether his team would reverse its call. "Not that I see," Stirewalt said, standing by decision desk director Arnon Mishkin's analysis.
While the network's pro-Trump opinion hosts openly undermined the decision desk and political team's Arizona call, parroting the Trump campaign's complaints, Stirewalt refused to reverse course while also throwing cold water on the president's bogus claims of widespread voter fraud.
"Lawsuits, schmawsuits," he said the day after the election. "We haven't seen any evidence yet that there's anything wrong."
Though the network never backed off its Arizona call, and followed other major news outlets in calling the entire election for Biden days later, Stirewalt soon apparently found himself on the outs at Fox News.
Despite having been a regular on-air presence for years—including playing a pivotal role in the Fox's 2012 election night drama in which he was forced to go on-air to defend effectively calling the election for Barack Obama—Stirewalt did not make a single network appearance after November 16.
Stirewalt's final contribution for Fox News was a Monday afternoon digital post, titled "Put that in your Hot Pocket."
—Maxwell Tani, Justin Baragona, and Andrew Kirell contributed additional reporting. Diana Falzone was an on-camera and digital reporter for FoxNews.com from 2012 to 2018. In May 2017, she filed a gender discrimination and disability lawsuit against the network and settled, and left the company in March 2018.
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Less 'news' more opinion.
Yeah this will help...
[deleted]
So your response is...look at the other guy!....
I read this yesterday. Honestly I thought they'd go the other way, but then I'm a half-glass-full kind a guy.
I guess it is time for them to double down and attack the Biden administration with as many lies as possible.
I still can't believe they would fire the one man just for correctly calling the election.
They lost a lot of viewers to Newsmax and ONN after the news desk called the election for Biden in AZ. I see also Newsmax and ONN have removed all the bullshit conspiracy lies on Dominion Voting Systems on threat of libel. I'm so hoping the My Pillow Guy goes to court so he can present his "evidence". That will be a particularly humorous day.
I posted a piece on the My Pillow guy and his sub-standard products being dropped by Bed, Bath, and Beyond and another retailer, I forget who. He claimed it was due to evil libs. It was due to a drop in demand of his sub-standard products. What a moron.
I have no sympathy for him. He should have kept his mouth shut. He ruined his own brand.
I read it.
I thought that long before I heard he was a Trump Humper.
Nope..not really. I don't purchase based on the owner's ideology, much like liberals do (Can you say Chik Fil A, Goya and Hobby Lobby?). I buy because of the quality and if it is made in America. In My Pillow, the quality is high and the product is made in America. They are comfortable and I will probably purchase a couple more in the future.
As with all other liberal "boycotts", my pillow will probably be an even bigger selling brand.
Who said anything about a boycott?
I for one would never buy anything from a crackpot.
Hobby Lobby just screws themselves on never getting my money as I usually go around to places like that on Sunday.
Then don't. There are probably 3 or 4 people to take your place because of the bad mouthing of the My Pillow owner.
Liberals are the best for business .....unless they shut them down during a pandemic.
I can say "Goya" (like Liberals do!)
Can you?
Bad mouthing him? He is making a fool of himself. I would love to see his evidence that we somehow are not allowed to.
Sounds to me like you all buy on political affiliation. Doesn't matter the product just, a Liberal said something bad about them so I must go out and purchase it...
You know what they say about a fool and his money.
Besides, I like my feather pillows.
Nothing like using official capacity to promote certain products over others...
Of course the secret to making money from Goya is not "to say it like liberals do"-- but rather being smart like Conservatives do-- by having a daddy who is a powerful politica lfigure-- and then use daddy's influence to make money!
(Like CONSERVATIVES do!!! )
And he's done that even before we knew he was a member of the sicko Trump-worship cult!
Heck, if I open my medicine chest in the morning and saw his stupid face inside...I tell you...I'd be very tempted to punch him right in his ugly schnozzle!
So what you're saying, then, is that Conservatives would buy products based on their political views-- rather than the quality of the actual product?
(See comment # 3.1.5)
So I guess you wouldn't be singing with the neighbor like Joey.
I hate black beans
I actually like Chik-Fil-A and probably go there about every 2 weeks for lunch. Hobby Lobby is never open on Sunday so I have to go somewhere else....besides I suck at crafts and DIY projects. I like Old El Paso products so I will stick with them
And of course there's also this ("Like conservatives do"):
Ivanka’s Trademark Requests Were Fast-Tracked In China After Trump Was Elected
The Chinese government granted a total of 41 trademarks to companies linked to Ivanka Trump by April of 2019—and the trademarks she applied for after her father became president got approved about 40% faster than those she requested before Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 election.
You mentioned (comment # 3. 1. 5, above) " much like liberals do "-- are you sure you didn't mean to say "Much like Conservatives do"?