CNN and Fox News attack each other on a daily, often hourly basis, and Washington Post’s Paul Farhi wrote about how the longtime cable news rivalry has become as intense as it’s ever been since Fox News launched more than 21 years ago.
Farhi writes:
Fox, for example, aired multiple clips of CNN’s “town hall” about gun violence last week, using it to call out “liberal” media bias in the debate over gun control. Hannity had the National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch on his program to talk about her experience on the CNN broadcast; an on-screen banner said she had been “heckled, interrupted and called a ‘murderer’ ” at the event.
AdvertisementFor its part, CNN has frequently found something newsworthy in whatever Fox’s host are opining about. After Ingraham criticized National Basketball Association superstars LeBron James and Kevin Durant for expressing their political opinions (“Shut up and dribble,” she said), CNN aired a news segment about her comments in which host Brooke Baldwin pointed out that Fox sometimes gives celebrities such as Kid Rock, Chuck Norris and Phil Robertson a platform for their political opinions.
Then, there’s Pres. Trump, an avid TV news watcher who has added fuel to the CNN/Fox News fire.
The president has certainly stoked the perception that there are pro- and anti-Trump factions in the news media, singling out CNN and Fox in particular. He often praises Fox and its hosts, and he grants the network periodic interviews. At the same time, he has demonized CNN in comments and tweets as a purveyor of “fake news.” (For the record, both networks reject the notion that they are pro- or anti-Trump, or that they are “liberal” or “conservative.”)