A new report depicts Bret Baier as an isolated figure at Fox News who was ignored when he tried to take the initiative to debunk lies about the 2020 election.
NPR’s brand new report on Baier focuses on his role as a straight newscaster for Fox, and how that makes him a solitary character amongst the network’s right-wing voices. The report puts Baier’s work squarely at odds with his network colleagues who fueled conspiratorial claims about the 2020 election’s corruption, and also those who have attempted to downplay the January 6th Capitol riot.
NPR notes that Baier frequently used his show, Special Report, to push back on claims made by Donald Trump and his supporters. However, the report states that Baier repeatedly sought to do an hour-long Sunday night special in order to address and disassemble the most prominent claims about the election.
From the report:
Baier’s proposed hour, described to NPR by five people with direct knowledge, never aired. Network executives never even gave Baier – their chief political anchor – a
direct verdict on his pitch, they said.Through a spokesperson, Baier declined comment for this story. Fox declared Biden president-elect on Nov. 7 — a term that Baier was first to utter on the network. (Fox was the last network to affirm Biden’s win publicly; evidence that has surfaced show that network executives wanted other networks to go first after the scarring experience of the Arizona projection.)Baier initially raised the issue of the special in late November with colleagues and executives and continued to advocate it into early January. Baier stopped pushing for his proposed special within a few days of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021.”By the time everything was moving forward, we were transitioning to covering Biden’s first term,” a Fox News executive said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It was past the point of litigating this point any further.” The official called it a “nascent” idea that bubbled up and popped during an intense news period.
Baier is one of the Fox hosts Dominion Voting Systems wants to call as a witness when their $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network goes to trial later this month. NPR’s report notes that one of Dominion’s lawyers paused her questioning of Baier months ago to praise his handling of the 2020 election, though it is likely Baier will be asked to testify about his suggestion that Fox
The report also delved into how Baier’s fact-checks on election lies created friction with his fellow Fox hosts and the network’s top brass. While Baier’s colleagues were blasting Fox News’ straight reporters, Baier wanted to feature Eric Shawn’s fact-checking on Special Report.