Fox News cuts and runs on Matt Gaetz
We’re going on two full days since Fox News, the disinformation and entertainment network, has mentioned Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). CNN’s Brian Stelter tweeted that his search of transcripts revealed that Fox hasn’t referenced the disgraced Republican since early evening on March 31st. Just in these first couple of days of April, numerous new details of Gaetz’s wrongdoings have come to light, but the network so closely associated with misinformation and rightwing propaganda has chosen to ignore and not defend, at least for now, the newest findings related to Gaetz.
It’s notable that Gaetz had an extremely awkward interview with Fox’s Tucker Carlson earlier this week and Gaetz even tried to pull Carlson into the quagmire. This displeased Carlson and earned multiple forehead frown lines, with Carlson afterwards saying “that was one of the weirdest interviews I’ve ever conducted.” Gaetz is in a lonely place right now, with even the usual fawners on the right seemingly wanting to avoid association with him. If Gaetz were a Democrat, Fox would have marathon coverage around the scandals, but now that it’s one of its GOP darlings, there’s avoidance of the issue.
For a couple of days now, it’s as if Gaetz just doesn’t exist for Fox News. As Gaetz’s scandals unfold and we learn more details almost hourly, we’ll see if Fox mentions Gaetz again. If it does acknowledge Gaetz again, it will be interesting to see how Fox frames the narrative around one of its heretofore go-to conservative personalities. Just as the Gaetz scandals were breaking amongst the mainstream media, we learned that Gaetz was considering leaving politics and possibly seeking a career in rightwing propaganda television; this forced Fox itself to issue a statement claiming that it had no interest in hiring Gaetz. But none of this really matters, as Gaetz’s political and potential television careers are already doomed.
