Fox News skipped the indictment of Arizona's fake electors as breaking news. I wonder why

Arizona just can't stay out of the news, and Wednesday was further proof.

What a day for Arizona news. And honestly, aside from being a reminder that the state will play a central role in the 2024 election and everything involved with it, it all made Arizona look pretty dismal.

To put it another way, anyone who pays attention to the news outside Arizona — anyone inside it for that matter — might wonder what the heck is going on here. Aside from Fox News viewers, who probably have no clue, but more on that later. Man, you can't help but wonder if that network's viewers have any idea of what's going on in the world at all.

Arizona news led the New York Times and Washington Post homepages

The stories began with The Republican-led Arizona House voting to repeal the 1864 abortion ban. It got some cable-news coverage, appropriate for an important, if ongoing, story. In fact, it was still the lead story on the New York Times website Wednesday afternoon — when, over on the Washington Post website, the lead story was about an Arizona grand jury indicting 11 Republicans and seven former aides to Donald Trump in a scheme to falsely certify that Trump won the election. (The indictment story was eventually the lead story on the Times homepage, as well.)

So we bounced from coverage of trying to repeal a law from when women couldn't vote — from when Arizona wasn't even a state — to a reminder of just how crazy the fallout from Joe Biden winning Arizona, and indeed winning the presidency, in 2020 was. And all of it was viewed through a political lens.

Or, as CNN's Jeff Zeleny put it, "Arizona is always going to be ground zero of this election."

Aren't Arizonans the lucky ones.

CNN and MSNBC jumped all over the indictment story, as well they should. MSNBC's Vaughn Hillyard, an Arizona State University graduate who has thoroughly covered the election and its ramifications — he was watching as former Gov. Doug Ducey signed the paperwork to certify the real electors when Ducey's phone rang and played "Hail to the Chief," Ducey's ringtone for a Trump call, a call Ducey didn't take.

Hillyard explained why the indictments came now when the election was in 2020: Because Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, was elected in 2022. Her predecessor, Republican Mark Brnovich, showed no interest in pursuing the fake electors. (He did show an interest in nunchucks, though.)

Talking about the fake electors who were indicted, which include former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and onetime One America News Network "journalist" Christina Bobb, Hillyard said, "This is for all intents and purposes the Republican Party of Arizona."

Good for CNN for reaching Rusty Bowers

Good on CNN for quickly reaching Rusty Bowers, the Republican and former Arizona House speaker who withstood pressure from Trump and others, and whose testimony before the Jan. 6 committee was among the most compelling given. Bowers didn't want to say much — he anticipates having to testify at some point, he said — but he did say, "It’s sad to see it come to this. Other than that, I better not comment other than yeah, they did call me," meaning Trump and others who pressured him.

"For some that might have been real troubling," Bowers said of the pressure. "I don’t know how I feel about it now, but at the time it was certainly demanding of my staff, my assistants. They had to put up with thousands — not hundreds, but thousands —of emails and calls. They’re troupers."

Ty Cobb, once part of Trump's legal team, praised the focus of the Arizona indictments in comparison to cases made against fake electors in other states. "I think this is a laser," Cobb said, "and not a kitchen sink."

Democracy in Doubt series: White House phone calls, baseless fraud charges: The origins of the Arizona election review

Where was Fox News? Busy defending Trump

All good stuff, important information and context. Breaking news can be tricky to cover, but CNN and MSNBC did a good job of it.

So around 4 p.m. and after, that's how coverage broke down: CNN, Arizona indictments. MSNBC, Arizona indictments. Fox News? "The problem with Alvin Bragg's prosecution."

To be fair, the story broke during "The Ingraham Angle," Laura Ingraham's show, so she was busy defending Trump and ridiculing Biden. Sample quote: "Trump has been stuck in New York, thanks to this sham trial."

Wait, what fairness? That's ridiculous. Granted, a show like this puts its lineup together hours before, but if you purport to cover the news, you have to cover the news. You break into programming. Ingraham, meanwhile, moved on to the "liberal" media's hypocrisy in covering the Trump trial, and later did an entire segment on "media obsession" with Melania Trump's clothes.

Amazing. And not in a good way.

How long is Arizona going to be at the center of this surreal media storm? I'll tell you: at least until Nov. 5, Election Day. And if 2020 is any indication, a lot longer than that.

Vaughn Hillyard: He left Arizona for NBC News. Then, 2020 helped him rediscover his home state

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. X: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Fox News skipped Arizona fake electors indictment. Interesting