After being called out for being transparent with viewers over its interview with Pres. Trump, Louisville Fox affiliate WDRB is calling out another local station, saying it wasn’t being open with its viewers.
President Trump was in Louisville Monday night for a rally and gave a few local stations one-on-one interviews. One went to WDRB reporter Lawrence Smith and another went to Cincinnati anchor Tricia Macke from WXIX.
After his interview with Trump aired on the WDRB 10 p.m. newscast, Smith told viewers, “The White House did make it clear the President would not answer questions about wiretapping or the investigation into Russia’s role in the election, so we stuck to issues most directly important to Kentucky.”
WXIX, meanwhile, says they weren’t asked to avoid any line of questioning, but didn’t ask about Russia or wiretapping either.
“Fox19 Now was never given parameters leading up to the interview,” WXIX news director Steve Hyvonen told CNN. “Had we been told what to ask or had we been required to submit our questions, we would not have done the interview. As the interview was being confirmed the day before, we told White House representatives we would like to talk with the President about several topics affecting Cincinnati and the Tri-State, including his new healthcare plan. We did not submit — and were not asked to submit — the topics or the questions.”
In her interview for WXIX, Macke asked Trump about healthcare, jobs, twitter, the moment he realized he was president and if he plans to fix a bridge between Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.
TVSpy reached out to both WDRB and WXIX for comment. For its part, WDRB executive Ray Foushee answered our question, with a question of his own: Was it “terrible journalism, or an attempt to cover up the fact that they functioned under the same restrictions, but aren’t being transparent about that fact, as we were? I leave it to you to decide.”
WXIX referred us to Hyvonen’s earlier statement, adding that their reporter intended to ask Trump about Russia, but ran out of time.
Here’s part of the WDRB interview: