Source: Politics<\/p>\n
In his first minute onstage at CPAC on Friday, Steve Bannon identified one of his top targets of the moment, an entity he claimed is opposing Donald Trump\u2019s presidential campaign at its own peril: Fox News.<\/p>\n
The host of the popular War Room podcast and longtime Trump hand started by ripping the conservative channel for announcing that Joe Biden had won Arizona on election night in 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cFox News illegitimately called it for the opposition, and not Donald J. Trump,\u201d the Trump adviser-turned-talk show host told the crowd in National Harbor, Maryland, an audience full of diehard MAGA supporters.<\/p>\n
Ten minutes in, Bannon went after the network again, rousing the audience to their feet as he called out Fox for not having Trump on since he announced his campaign in November. He called out Rupert Murdoch, the News Corp. founder who sits atop the media empire.<\/p>\n
\u201cMurdoch, you\u2019ve deemed Trump’s not going to be president,\u201d Bannon continued as the crowd roared with applause. \u201cBut we deem that you’re not going to have a network, because we\u2019re going to fight you every step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Far from random broadsides, Bannon\u2019s screed against Fox News was the latest in what has become a hot war between MAGA world and the longtime conservative channel. Trump himself has gone off on Fox News before, often for coverage he has deemed unfair. But the current state of affairs \u2014 coming at the start of what promises to be a deeply contested GOP primary \u2014 is as strained as it has ever been.<\/p>\n
The network hasn\u2019t featured<\/a> the former president on its airwaves since November. The face of CPAC, American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, himself a close Trump ally, has also not appeared on the channel since allegations emerged in January that he sexually assaulted a campaign staffer. (Schlapp has denied wrongdoing). And in the halls of the CPAC conference, disdain for Fox News wasn\u2019t an uncommon sentiment among those gathered.<\/p>\n Sandra Salstrom, a harpist from Houston, said she gets all the news she needs from Bannon\u2019s War Room show, and enjoys tuning in to programs hosted by Charlie Kirk, another prominent right-wing commentator.<\/p>\n \u201cI now have nothing to do with Fox,\u201d said Salstrom, explaining she does not have a television at home, but used to watch the network while she was at the gym. \u201cThey disgust me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI haven’t watched Fox in years,\u201d said Andra Griffin of Manatee County, Fla., who said she stopped watching the network in 2019, and was completely \u201cunplugged from Fox\u201d by 2020. Instead, right-wing activists like Griffin have turned their attention to more alternative conservative networks like Newsmax, which had a heavy presence at CPAC.<\/p>\n Fox Radio skipped its usual booth on media row at CPAC this year. Fox Nation didn’t livestream or sponsor receptions as it has in years past. There were no primetime Fox News stars like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, or Tucker Carlson scheduled to speak on stage \u2014 a contrast to years past, where Fox stars were in heavy rotation on the stage or in the halls.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n The absence of Fox News at CPAC has fed larger questions about the role the Murdoch-owned network is gunning to play in the Republican primary. Trump\u2019s likely 2024 rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has been featured across Murdoch-owned entities<\/a> as he promotes his recently published memoir. The anti-Woke activist Vivek Ramaswamy launched his presidential campaign with an appearance on Tucker Carlson\u2019s Fox News show. And former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley has repeatedly appeared on the network, with her launch announcement covered live on TV.<\/p>\n All of this comes as Fox is facing a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, which is asking for $1.6 billion in damages over the role the network played in covering conspiracies around the 2020 election. Recent depositions reveal that high-level network officials privately cast doubt on Trump’s claims that the election was stolen, even as on-air voices were backing Trump up on the false narrative.<\/p>\n While Trump himself has not been interviewed lately on Fox News airwaves \u2013 Semafor reported<\/a> he is facing a \u201csoft ban\u201d by the network \u2013 he does continue to receive coverage and his campaign is referenced by hosts.<\/p>\n For his part, Trump has ramped up his attacks on the longtime conservative television channel, in recent days sharing multiple posts on his Truth Social platform critical of the channel and its owner, Rupert Murdoch. \u201cToo many incompetent RINOS at FoxNews!\u201d Trump posted on Thursday. A day earlier, Trump called Murdoch and other Fox executives a \u201cgroup of MAGA Hating Globalist RINOS\u201d who should \u201cget out of the News Business as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n With Fox stars out of the picture, attendees at CPAC flocked to popular right-wing alternatives like Bannon\u2019s War Room, which hosted its podcast live, along with Newsmax, OAN, Right Side Broadcasting Network and others.<\/p>\n William Marks, a software developer and manager from southern Maryland, said he still watches both Fox News and Newsmax, but believes the former is \u201cmoving further away from the conservative landscape,\u201d a fault not of the anchors but of \u201cthe ownership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Even with such defections, Fox News remains king of cable news and prime-time ratings. The top ten most-watched cable news shows are all on Fox News, with Tucker Carlson and the Five boasting over 3 million viewers according to AdWeek<\/a>. And for conservative stars, Fox News\u2019 evening shows are still the #1 spot for attracting attention for their cause.<\/p>\n \u201cI love being back on Fox News and I have nothing bad to say about it,\u201d said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who frequently appears on Fox News as well as Steve Bannon\u2019s War Room podcast.<\/p>\n