Trump Tells Aides: 'Keep an Eye' on Fox News, Make Sure It Stays Loyal to Me

[babylonsister]

Trump Tells Aides: ‘Keep an Eye’ on Fox News, Make Sure It Stays Loyal to Me
Even before publicly freaking out about Bernie Sanders’ town hall, the president has long kept tabs on whether the network was going wobbly on him.
Asawin Suebsaeng,
Andrew Kirell
04.17.19 5:03 PM ET


It was late March, and Donald Trump was preoccupied with the swirl of new investigations launched by House Democrats against him and his inner sanctum, and with the coming delivery of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s long-awaited report on Russian election meddling and Trump’s possible obstruction of justice.

In the midst of all this, there was another question weighing heavily on the president’s mind: Was Fox News, his favorite organ of conservative media and pro-Trump messaging, being sufficiently subservient to him?

“Keep an eye on it,” Trump started telling aides, according to two people with direct knowledge of his directive, in conversations about what was going on behind-the-scenes at Fox, and if there was any cause for concern for even the slightest positive coverage of any Democrat.

To any casual observer of Fox News or the Fox Business Network, this might seem like a hilariously irrational fear. The networks’ ratings-driving primetime lineups are jam-packed with vociferous Trump defenders, and some of Fox’s biggest names—such as Pete Hegseth, Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Rupert Murdoch, to name just a few—have long served as sounding boards, phone-a-friends, and informal advisors to the president.

But privately, President Trump had been raising these questions of institutional loyalty, on-and-off, since at least the middle of last year. Several people who’ve heard him do this view it as more of a gutcheck than a loss of faith, and as yet another indication that Trump can interpret even the smallest deviations as a slight or a betrayal.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-tells-aides-keep-an-eye-on-fox-news-make-sure-it-stays-loyal-to-me?ref=home

[nuxvomica]

1. How long before he stops clipping his fingernails?

He's heading into Howard Hughes territory.

[rickford66]

3. He probably saves his used tissues also ala HH.

[Buns_of_Fire]

2. "I love you, Rupert. But don't ever take sides against the Family." nt

[tanyev]

4. Yeah, you keep an eye on them, Needy Amin. Maybe they'll like Gov. Weld more than you.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. "Needy Amin"

DUzy.

[OnDoutside]

5. Understandable, without FN backing up his shite, he has nothing.

[bullwinkle428]

6. He'll really start shitting his pants once the other Democratic candidates

start doing town halls on Fox, as they appear to be planning.

[tblue37]

10. Klobuchar has one scheduled now, I think. nt

[DeminPennswoods]

8. Lachlan Murdoch is now running Fox News

He's conservative, but doesn't reach out to pols like his father. Evidently he won't be phone pals with Trump either.

[NewJeffCT]

9. Maybe Jeff Bezos

can buy Fox News?