Napolitano Back at Fox, Standing by Claim That Got Him Suspended
Rhonda Adams, New York EntrepreneurFor a week or so the media world was ablaze with a series of high-profile bumps and bruises among popular faces on TV news. Andrew Napolitano was dropped from Fox after he insisted on statements his own network said had no basis in fact. And Tomi Lahren was suspended from The Blaze for her comments about abortion.But the futures for these two popular personalities have diverged. Where, after the suspension, Lahren was reportedly fired, Napolitano was back on Fox after a week. And it looks like his seven-day vacation hasn’t pushed Andrew off message. Napolitano immediately doubled down on his assertions that President Obama worked with British intelligence officials to spy on then-candidate Donald Trump.The British intelligence agency in question called the assertions “utterly ridiculous,” and even Fox took its popular pundit to task. That was then. A week later, during his return interview, Fox News host Bill Hemmer didn’t take the opportunity to correct Napolitano to his face, simply letting his comments stand.This leads some people to wonder openly why Napolitano was benched then if the network doesn’t seem to want to challenge his statements now. That question, it seems, won’t be answered anytime soon. And that might be a problem, from a PR perspective.
Fox News remains the go-to media source for the GOP and its voters. In today’s divided political environment, that’s not surprising … nor is it abnormal. The left has its favorites too. The issue, though, is the growing divide in the GOP itself. Ever since the 2010 midterm elections, labeled the Tea Party Revolution, the Republicans have nurtured two distinct groups in their party. The more “right” group hasn’t had any problems defying fellow Republicans, which they proved again during the recent Obamacare repeal debate, and subsequent failure.The Napolitano v. Fox divide is both a microcosm and a lever in this divide. The fault line is growing, and, if the network that feeds messaging to these groups within the group can’t get its narrative straight, it could cause a further divide. Some media watchers say this is inevitable. That it started in the first televised GOP primary debate when Megyn Kelly went toe-to-toe with Trump. That exchange revealed a growing split among Fox viewers … and now Kelly is gone, taking her fans with her to another network.Subsequently, Fox pushed some anchors, like Bret Baier and Brit Hume, and it elevated pundits like Tucker Carlson to higher profile assignments. The clearly intended divide was to keep both sides of their audience happy: with more mainstream folks watching the news anchors, and those closer to Tea Party politics tuning into Hannity, O’Reilly, and Carlson. And that’s tended to work … but that delineation invites extremism, moments where more conspiracy narratives slip into regular TV programming. That happened with Napolitano, and Fox immediately reacted. But now he’s back … and so is the backlash. Should be interesting to see how this plays out. [author]About the Author: Rhonda Adams is a New York based entrepreneur. Some of Rhonda Adams’ previous writings can be found here. [/author]
