Matt Drudge slammed Fox News on Monday, attacking the conservative-leaning news network over its coverage of a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday that left 11 dead.
“A segment on Fox News this morning where hosts laughed and joked their way through a discussion on political impact of terror was bizarre. Not even 48 hours since blood flowed at synagogue?,” Drudge said in a tweet. “Check your soul in the makeup chair!”
https://twitter.com/DRUDGE/status/1056954235835699202
An archive of the tweet can be found here.
“Is it really funny?” he asked in another tweet, showing a smiling image of Fox News host Lisa Kennedy Montgomery over a chyron about the attack and the recent attempted mail bombings against CNN and various prominent critics of President Trump.
https://twitter.com/DRUDGE/status/1056950820392976384
https://twitter.com/DRUDGE/status/1056970058671448064
Drudge’s ire was stirred by a quip from Kennedy, who joked about the difficulties of being a Libertarian in a two-party system, that came just a little too close to Fox’s more serious coverage of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
“Kennedy made an unrelated quip at the end of the segment which was focused on unity – there was absolutely no joking or laughing about the events of this weekend and a screen grab of her smiling is hardly indicative of the entire segment,” a Fox News spokesperson told TheWrap in a statement.
“The lower third should not have been up for the duration of this segment as it was not fully reflective of what the panelists were discussing.”
Drudge is one of the loudest voices in all of conservative media. Though known for his own conservative and pro-Trump views, news editors across the political spectrum regularly review his iconic Drudge Report to see the pulse of his readers. While his coverage regularly mocks or hammers liberals, attacks on Fox and other right-leaning news are considerably more rare. Among his own tribe Drudge also notably fell out with Steve Bannon, and has linked to coverage which accused the ex-Breitbart chairman of helping Democrats.
The attack from Drudge is only the latest bad news for the network, which has been buffeted by accusations that they shared part of the responsibility for the synagogue massacre that the Anti-Defamation League called the largest mass killing of Jews in American history. On his MSNBC program, host Joe Scarborough bluntly accused the network of being complicit.
“They are spreading hatred across America and at the end of the day … inspiring people like this Pittsburgh mass murderer,” he said Monday.
A top editor at the Financial Times also renewed calls for a boycott of Fox News’ advertisers in a tweet which went viral on Sunday.
“The most effective thing Americans can do is boycott companies that advertise on Fox,” said Edward Luce. “They bankroll the poison that goes from the studio into Trump’s head. The second is vote.”
The most effective thing Americans can do is boycott companies that advertise on Fox. They bankroll the poison that goes from the studio into Trump’s head. The second is vote.
— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) October 28, 2018