REJECTING REALITY

Fox News Told Hosts to ‘Stay Away’ From Calling Biden ‘President-Elect’ When Race Is Called: Report

A memo to Fox News talent reportedly says the network should continue reporting the twists and turns of Trump’s legal battles.

Fox News reportedly told its on-air talent to “stay away” from referring to Joe Biden as the president-elect when the news network declares him the winner of the 2020 election. Instead, they should say he has “enough electoral votes to win the presidency,” according to internal memos obtained by CNN. The memos reportedly stressed that the conservative network should continue to cover President Trump’s court battles in several states over ballot counting. “We will report both sides until there is further guidance,” one said. After the CNN report emerged, Fox anchors, including Bret Baier and Chris Wallace, used the term in a hypothetical about Biden. Fox News insisted in a statement to Variety that “there have been no network wide memos or editorial guidance from” the network about using that phrase.

Biden was closing in on the presidency Friday morning, with Pennsylvania announcing that he’d taken the lead there. If Biden wins the Keystone State, he’d have enough electoral votes to clinch the White House.