When Ted Cruz called out Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch this morning, claiming they’ve “turned Fox News into the Donald Trump network,” FNC viewers didn’t see it. But anyone watching CNN and MSNBC did. Cruz’s news conference in Evansville, Indiana was carried on CNN and MSNBC but not Fox.
“Network executives have made a decision to get behind Donald Trump,” Cruz said. “Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes at Fox News have turned Fox News into the Donald Trump network, 24-7,” he said. (Fox News dipped into the newser, but after Cruz made those comments about Ailes and Murdoch.)
Blaming the media is a time-honored tradition among politicians. They’re such easy targets. And they rarely fight back. But one did this morning.
A Fox News spokesperson’s response: “Senator Cruz is wrong.”
Meanwhile, on her blog, Greta Van Susteren explained that she and her team have “bent over backwards trying to give [Cruz] the opportunity for interviews. He elected not to – which is his right – but now he is crying boo-hoo and claiming we are unfair.”
Almost every single day (including weekends) since at least last December when he last appeared on ON THE RECORD at 7p, the staff of ON THE RECORD at 7p has contacted the Cruz campaign offering Senator Ted Cruz live interviews, taped interviews or town halls. We even told his campaign on dozens occasions that they could pick the date and location for the town halls. He did not take us up on our offers. The staff claimed he was unavailable.
Van Susteren has moderated a town hall with John Kasich and two with Trump for one simple reason: they said yes. Her first town hall in early Arpil drew nearly 2.9 million viewers. Indiana has 4.6 million registered voters.