Donald Trump swears off Fox News after ‘unfair’ treatment
Donald Trump on the stump in Urbandale, Iowa. (Photo: Charlie Neibergall/AP)
Donald Trump’s disgust for Fox News has reached the point that he has decided not to give the conservative-leaning channel any more interviews for the time being.
The Republican presidential frontrunner has been known to make noise when he feels Fox News has given him the shaft — this week is no exception.
“@FoxNews has been treating me very unfairly & I have therefore decided that I won’t be doing any more Fox shows for the foreseeable future,” he tweeted Wednesday afternoon.
Mere hours later, the Trump campaign released a statement saying that he stands by his comments.
“As a candidate for president of the United States and the definitive frontrunner in every poll, both nationally and statewide, including the just released poll in the state of Florida, Mr. Trump expects to be treated fairly,” the statement reads. “All you have to do is look at the tremendous ratings last night from ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,’ where Mr. Trump was the guest, or the ratings from both debates, to fully understand the facts.”
Shortly after, a Fox News spokesperson said that Trump’s “boycott” was a direct response to the channel canceling his scheduled appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor” Thursday.
“When coverage doesn’t go his way, he engages in personal attacks on our anchors and hosts, which has grown stale and tiresome,” the spokesperson said. “He doesn’t seem to grasp that candidates telling journalists what to ask is not how the media works in this country.”
The on-again, off-again feud started when Trump took issue with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly’s line of questioning at the first GOP primetime debate in early August.
Trump’s disgust with the network sprang back to life Monday night as he live-tweeted throughout Bill O'Reilly’s and Kelly’s programs at 8 and 9 respectively.
Trump, who said he was “having a really hard time” watching Fox News, accused “The O'Reilly Factor” of being “very negative” to him and refusing to publish polls that show him dominating the GOP primary.
In a tweet to the show, Trump wrote, “why don’t you have some knowledgeable talking heads on your show for a change, instead of the same old Trump-haters. Boring!”
Donald Trump appearing on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Tuesday. (Photo: John Paul Filo/CBS via AP)
The real estate magnate also suggested that Kelly should take another 11-day “unscheduled” vacation.
“Do you ever notice that lightweight @megynkelly constantly goes after me but when I hit back it is totally sexist. She is highly overrated!” Trump said.
Trump retweeted dozens of his supporters who called O'Reilly’s guests “spoon- fed morons” and pro-Bush RINOs (Republican in Name Only), and attacked Kelly for criticizing the Republican frontrunner.
But the businessman’s anger is not reserved exclusively for Fox News. He also took issue with CNN’s handling of the second primetime GOP debate, held earlier this month.
“I wasn’t treated fairly by CNN,” Trump said to New York Magazine. “And it shouldn’t have been three hours long. It was too long. I can’t imagine anyone enjoying watching three hours of a debate.”
But plenty of people tuned in, largely because of Trump’s Midas touch when it comes to ratings.
The lengthy broadcast was the most-watched program in the network’s history, drawing an average of 22.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen data. The Fox News debate got an even bigger audience: 24 million. It was the largest cable TV audience of all time for a non-sports event.
Trump’s appearances on late-night comedy shows have helped boost their ratings as well. For the foreseeable future, it appears Fox News won’t be benefiting from this surefire way to lock in viewers.
Related video:
