Fox News “no doubt” wants to move past former President Donald Trump, contributor Mara Liasson said during an appearance on the network on Sunday.
Trump, nearly from the moment he announced his 2016 campaign past the end of his tenure as president, dominated news cycles by making controversial comments, often seen by critics as inflammatory. After announcing his 2024 presidential bid this past November, he has continued attacks on President Joe Biden and government institutions.
During Sunday’s episode of Fox News‘ Media Buzz, host Howard Kurtz questioned why Trump has not received the same breadth of media coverage for his recent remarks, particularly surrounding the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) probe into whether Biden, as vice president, mishandled classified Obama-era documents that were recently discovered. Trump is also being investigated for keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after leaving the White House in 2021.
Liasson, a longtime NPR reporter and Fox News contributor, responded by suggesting conservative media is trying to shift away from Trump, who remains a popular and powerful figure in conservative politics.
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“There’s no doubt that the majority of conservative media—Fox first and foremost—has a strong desire to move on from Donald Trump and are not paying enough attention and giving him enough airtime, I think, as they used to,” she said.
As an example on conservative media’s Trump fatigue, Liasson pointed to the New York Post diminishing Trump’s 2024 campaign announcement by dubbing him as “Florida man,” and burying the article on his bid to page 26 of its print edition.
Fox News and the New York Post are owned by Rupert Murdoch, a conservative media magnate who once enjoyed a close relationship to Trump. These news outlets have long been viewed as skewing conservative, with their commentators often praising the former president more frequently that many other publications or cable news channels.
However, these relationships have appeared to strain in recent months, with some conservative media ramping up critical coverage of Trump. The Post, which Trump once called his favorite newspaper, published praise for Trump rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis after the midterms, which saw several of Trump’s endorsed candidates lose their races in key swing states.
The right-leaning newspaper also mocked Trump for failing to lead the Republican Party to an expected “red wave” in another cover, depicting him as “Trumpty Dumpty.”
Meanwhile, Trump has criticized Fox News for giving him what he views as negative coverage, compared to the “terrific” coverage he received in 2016 in a November Truth Social post.
“Fox News and The Wall [Street] Journal were terrible to me, much like today, UNTIL I WON THE ELECTION. CNN, when they actually had great ratings, was terrific—They covered me no matter where I went, 24/7,” he wrote at the time.
The network also cut away from his 2024 campaign announcement, with Fox News personality Laura Ingraham saying they would go back to him “when news warrants.”
Newsweek reached out to Fox News for comment.