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PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 23 March 2017
‘Fox & Friends’ the morning show of choice for Donald Trump

DAVID BAUDER ins, someone else is sitting
AP Television Writer here,” he said.
NEW YORK (AP) — “Fox Since he’s been president,
& Friends” has emerged 12 of Trump’s tweets refer-
as the morning television ence something that ap-
show of choice for Presi- peared on “Fox & Friends”
dent Donald Trump and moments earlier — far
his fans, although that may more than any other pro-
have backfired for Fox gram, according to a
News Channel this week. compilation by CNN’s “Re-
Like many cable news liable Sources.”
shows in the Trump era, After “Fox & Friends” had
“Fox & Friends” has seen a segment with Nick Ad-
ratings jump, and not just ams, author of “Green
in the White House. Its av- Card Warrior,” on March
erage February audience 3, Trump tweeted within 25
of 1.72 million viewers was minutes that the book was
49 percent over last year’s, a “must read.” On Feb. 25,
the Nielsen company said. Herman Cain cited statis-
The show usually has more tics comparing changes
viewers than MSNBC’s in the national debt in the
“Morning Joe” and CNN’s first months of Trump and
“New Day” combined. In this Feb. 29, 2016 file photo, co-hosts Steve Doocy, from left, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade Obama’s presidencies;
President Trump’s Twitter appear on the morning show “Fox & Friends” in New York. “Fox & Friends” has emerged as the within a half-hour, Trump
feed provides ample evi- morning television show of choice for President Donald Trump and his fans. tweeted that “the me-
dence of his devotion, too. Associated Press dia has not reported” the
Like “Morning Joe,” the same statistics.q
political talk show whose sion and Popular Culture
love-hate relationship with at Syracuse University, said
Trump is clearly set on hate he suspects many people
right now, “Fox & Friends” “enjoy watching it for the
makes no secret of its opin- thrill of outrage.”
ions. Yet the episode with One day last week, the
Fox senior judicial analyst show had segments on
Andrew Napolitano illus- “PC police” who were do-
trated how news and opin- ing away with the designa-
ion aren’t always a smooth tion of homecoming king
mix. Napolitano used “Fox and queen at a college,
& Friends” as a venue for a man whose fiancee was
his discredited report that killed by a drunken driver
British authorities helped who was living in the coun-
former President Barack try illegally, a congressman
Obama spy on Trump. who received bureaucrat-
The White House cited the ic resistance when he tried
report to buttress its view to hang a portrait of Trump
that Trump’s predecessor in a veterans’ hospital, and
was surreptitiously watch- “chaos” on college cam-
ing him, but after Britain puses when conservatives
dismissed it as “nonsense” are invited to speak.
and Fox said it could pro- Alex French, a 32-year-old
vide no evidence to back working in sales in Char-
it up, Napolitano has been lotte, North Carolina, said
taken off the air indefinite- he appreciated the show’s
ly. “Fox & Friends” was a reporting on veterans and
frequent punching bag for its interest in news away
Jon Stewart on “The Daily from the nation’s coasts.
Show” and one media “They do a good job of try-
critic, Erik Wemple of The ing to reach out to people
Washington Post, called in the small towns,” he said.
it “easily the worst in all of Trump, who has declared
televised news” following ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC
the Napolitano episode. “the enemy of the Ameri-
Watching it, though, the can people,” told the
show appears to capture three “Fox & Friends” hosts
a sense of discontent and that “you have treated
patriotism that appeals to me very fairly” during an
many Trump voters, cer- interview on Feb. 28. He
tainly in a way that main- did a weekly call-in to the
stream journalists, to a show from 2011 until he an-
large degree, have been nounced his candidacy,
unable to grasp. Robert but still gave frequent inter-
Thompson, director of the views as a candidate.
Bleier Center for Televi- “Maybe without those call-