New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet knocked cable news coverage of the 2016 presidential race as a “mix of entertainment and news, and news masquerading as entertainment.”
Baquet singled out CNN and Fox News, saying their campaign reporting had been “bad for democracy.”
Baquet told the Financial Times CNN’s hiring of former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was “outrageous,” and said “Fox News at its heart is not a journalistic organization.”
“Megyn Kelly is a great journalist, Chris Wallace is a great journalist, but it is some weird mix of a little bit of journalism, a little bit of entertainment, a little bit of pandering to a particular audience … I don’t think Roger Ailes will go down as one of the great journalists of his time.”
Wallace was credited with producing one of the most informative of the presidential debates, and colleagues including Shepard Smith, Bret Baier, Jon Scott, Rick Leventhal, Eric Shawn, Bill Hemmer, Martha MacCallum would likely argue that they engage in more than just “a little bit” of journalism.