What does a far-right, irrelevant politician-turned-pundit do when his favorite news network is damaged by not one, not two, but three sexual harassment scandals in just under six months?
If it’s Newt Gingrich, he simply pretends that the network is the victim, rather than the dozens of women lodging harassment claims.
Speaking with Fox’s Sean Hannity on Monday, Gingrich defended Fox after the recent ouster of Bill O’Reilly by arguing that there is a “war” being waged against the news network.
“There’s a war against Fox News for a practical reason. Fox News is the one place where you get reasonably accurate coverage of Donald J. Trump. If you’re The New York Times or CBS News or The Washington Post, you would love to live in a world with no Fox News.”
The most clearly alarming part of his statement is that Gingrich believes Fox is “reasonably accurate” about any topic, much less the President. Even without being biased based on political slant, it is clear that Fox spends a great deal of time speculating and misleading its conservative audience. Need proof? Just look at the “information” Trump himself gathers from Fox and then regurgitates sans citation on Twitter moments later.
Still, Gingrich’s refusal to even acknowledge the legitimacy of these harassment lawsuits and claims against O’Reilly, Ailes, and even Hannity show that the culture of Fox extends much further than those employed by the network.
Gingrich continues:
“And so there’s literally a war going on with money being raised to hire lawyers, to set up fights, to do investigations, so you’re a piece of that action. But you’re also a piece of this much broader action that all across America, the fascist left has decided that they have to shut us up because we’re winning the argument and we’re winning elections.”
I wonder, did Gingrich think that was what was at play when Fox spent $13 million settling lawsuits against Bill O’Reilly, or when they gave him millions in severance pay? Did that factor into their decision to cover up the crimes of Roger Ailes for years?
It’s simple, Gingrich – if the men of Fox News can resist coercing, harassing, and violating women, they can continue to lie to the right on a daily basis. There’s no evil plot here, besides the decades-long one perpetrated by Fox executives to hide their history of violence and suppression of women from advertisers and the public.
