Fox News Primetime Completely Ignores Resignation of Rob Porter, the Trump Aide Accused of Abuse
Even after a third woman accused the soon-to-be ex-Trump aide of physical abuse, Fox kept its viewers blissfully ignorant of the scandal while focusing on—surprise—Hillary Clinton.
Fox News/Screenshot
During a segment on his Wednesday night show, Fox News host Sean Hannity laid into media outlets for supposedly missing out on the major story of text messages between two FBI officials that conservative lawmakers and pundits believe raised questions of biased conduct.
“It’s called bias of omission, and today it was on full display,” Hannity said.
While the comment glossed over plenty of coverage of the text messages in mainstream media outlets, it was doubly ironic given Hannity’s own glaring omission Wednesday evening.
Hannity completely skipped covering the biggest political news story of the day: White House aide Rob Porter’s resignation following gruesome allegations that he physically abused two of his ex-wives.
Instead, Hannity focused on stories including those FBI text messages, various Hillary Clinton “scandals,” and developments in a congressional investigation into the Obama-era Uranium One deal. He also made time for a segment mocking the lovebird hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
And President Donald Trump’s top cable-news booster wasn’t the only Fox host who skipped the story. In fact, from 7 p.m. onward, all of Fox News ignored the story. Not a single Porter mention on The Story With Martha McCallum, Tucker Carlson Tonight, or The Ingraham Angle.
Tucker Carlson spent the duration of his eponymous show battling guests over the validity of the special counsel investigation into Trump’s Russia ties and railing against House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s marathon DACA speech on Wednesday.
Laura Ingraham also focused on Pelosi and the text messages, but made time to discuss theories about alleged ties between former Hillary Clinton advisers and the controversial Trump dossier at the center of the FBI's Russia probe.
The latest Porter’s resignation was mentioned was during Bret Baier’s hard-news political show Special Report, which airs in the 6 p.m. ET hour.
The aide’s ordeal also did not come up during Fox Business Network’s primetime programming, which had plenty of time for segments on political topics including those FBI text messages and the Republican-authored memo on alleged surveillance abuses by the FBI and Department of Justice.
By contrast, according to a survey of television monitoring service TVEyes, Porter was the subject of at least 10 segments on CNN during its primetime hours, and of at least six segments on MSNBC.