‘They Are Ruthless’: Gavin Newsom Calls Out Fox News Prime Time Lineup for Using ‘Illusion’ to Own the Narrative
There is an information war unfolding in the political media world, and according to Gavin Newsom, the Democratic party is getting “crushed” by “ruthless” Fox News prime-time hosts.”
The California Governor made the comment during an appearance this weekend at the Texas Tribune Festival. He used his Father-in-law as an example of someone for whom he has great respect, but at the same time, is often confused about his conservative narratives — which he attributed to Fox News prime time. A portion of Newsom’s remarks aired Monday morning on CNN’s New Day for discussion.
“These guys are ruthless on the other side. Ruthless on the other side,” Newsom reiterated. “That prime time line up by Fox, they are ruthless. They dominate the most important thing in American politics today, and that’s the narrative. Facts become secondary to narrative. They dominate with illusion. We are getting crushed.”
The allegation that the top-rated network is more committed to narrative over facts — suggesting that most watched cable news hosts are consistently lying — didn’t receive any pushback from panelists Margaret Hoover and John Avlon, who are married.
Coming out of the clip, Erica Hill noted, “when it comes to messaging in terms of getting crushed, this is something that has been an Achilles heel for Democrats in terms of having a united message across the party.” This may be a shock to any conservative viewer who watched years of Russian interference narratives that, for reasons good and bad, never amounted to anything other than breathless media analysis.
Hoover, who it seems fair to call a moderate Republican in today’s political landscape, pointed out that a media narrative favorable to Democrats seemed a pretty well-oiled machine during the Clinton and Obama administrations.
“I don’t think necessarily Democrats suffer from lack of a narrative,” Hoover continued. “They own the presidency right now and have control of the Senate. I worry about what he’s pointing to,” which she summarized as getting away from the Michelle Obama rhetorical ethos of “when they go low, we go high.” She ultimately landed on the real issue as she saw it, which was the impact Donald Trump has on political discourse.
Avlon, a former speechwriter for New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, agreed with his wife, warning of the dangers of what he called the political media “feedback loop.”
“[Newsom] is right in saying Democrats want a fighter right now. He has a good point about the unified narrative of Republicans that tends to put Democrats on defense because they are saying ‘Gosh, look at all those lies.”
“It goes back to that saying of Will Rogers almost a century ago, ‘I’m not a member of an organized political party. I’m a Democrat,'” Avlon joked before ultimately agreeing with his wife.
Watch above via CNN.
