In the weeks before the 2020 election, as Fox News executives and luminaries came to terms with its possible outcome, some began to see in it a long-awaited opportunity — a chance to break up with Donald Trump.
Even the president sensed a growing distance from the network that was once so closely aligned with him. “What’s the biggest difference between this and four years ago?” he asked rhetorically during an Election Day appearance on “Fox & Friends,” skipping over obvious choices such as U.S. foreign relations, immigration policy or the makeup of the federal courts. “I say Fox,” he answered. “It’s much different now.”
The sentiment was held most fervently on Fox’s news side and in its Washington bureau, according to current and former Fox News personalities familiar with the dynamic who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations. Many felt the network’s identity had become too tightly bound up with its opinion hosts — some of whom had become not just on-air cheerleaders but behind-the-scenes advisers for a president adored by their viewers — at the expense of the organization’s old self-forged image as a “fair and balanced” news operation.
Now, one year later, the dream some harbored of distancing from Trump is long over. The biggest threat Fox now faces is a pair of looming lawsuits from two voting technology companies that claim the network, far from turning away from Trump, allowed Trump-allied personalities — including on-air hosts as...
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