In an interview published Sunday in the New York Times, Chris Wallace slammed Fox News, the network he worked for, for 18-years, while promoting his new “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” show, which begins Tuesday on the new CNN+ streaming service.
“I just no longer felt comfortable with the programming at Fox,” explained Wallace in the interview.
Though he claimed he was comfortable working on a conservative platform, he complained that Fox had gone too far.
“I’m fine with opinion: conservative opinion, liberal opinion…” Wallace said, “but when people start to question the truth — Who won the 2020 election? Was Jan. 6 an insurrection? — I found that unsustainable.”
In December, Wallace, 74, announced his departure from Fox, surprisingly moving to the beleaguered CNN network, which has suffered spiraling ratings amid legal controversies, egregious reporting, and forced executive-level resignations.
Wallace indicated that Tucker Carlson played a role in his decision to leave:
I was “so alarmed by Mr. Carlson’s documentary ‘Patriot Purge’ — which falsely suggested the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was a ‘false flag’ operation intended to demonize conservatives — that he complained directly to Fox News management,” reported the Times outlet.
In the interview, Wallace implied he was not comfortable working on a network that was becoming more and more conservative. Wallace said:
“Before, I found it was an environment in which I could do my job and feel good about my involvement at Fox,” he said. “And since November of 2020, that just became unsustainable, increasingly unsustainable as time went on.”
But in a 2017 Accuracy in Media report, Bill O’Reilly suggested that the network began to swing left when owner Rupert Murdoch appointed his son James and “very liberal wife, Kathryn, to lead Fox News. Of Kathryn, the Accuracy in Media report noted:
“In short, she is a globalist insider who sees the green hysteria as a viable way to control people and their lifestyles.”
In Jan. 2021, Trending Politics noted Rush Limbaugh’s warning that Fox was becoming far top liberal and “anti-Trump,” and suggested Fox News should change its name:
“ You know,” Rush said, “Fox really ought to change the name of the network from the Fox News Channel to the Fox Never Trumper Network, because that’s who’s getting the highlights, and they’re bringing in Democrats like Donna Brazile!”
Perhaps sensing that the facts did not well support his claim that Fox Media was becoming too conservative, Wallace “acknowledged that some people could wonder why he did not leave prior to when he did if it was about his principles,” according to the Conservative Brief:
“Some people might have drawn the line earlier, or at a different point,” Wallace said. “I think Fox has changed over the course of the last year and a half. But I can certainly understand where somebody would say, ‘Gee, you were a slow learner, Chris.’”
Skeptical, the Conservative Brief noted wryly: “And it is, you know, just a coincidence that he stayed as Fox News was paying him a ton of cash and then left when another offer came along for more cash.”
Wallace then redirected his comments regarding his decision to leave Fox News:
“I wanted to get out of politics,” he said. “Doing a Sunday show on the incremental change from week to week in the Build Back Better plan began to lose its attraction.”
At the time of Wallace’s departure he wrote:
“Eighteen years ago, the bosses here at Fox promised me they would never interfere with a guest I booked or a question I asked. And they kept that promise. I have been free to report to the best of my ability, to cover the stories I think are important, to hold our country’s leaders to account. It’s been a great ride.”
Fox News provided Wallace with a favorable sendoff, writing:
“We are extremely proud of our journalism and the stellar team that Chris Wallace was a part of for 18 years. The legacy of FOX News Sunday will continue with our star journalists, many of whom will rotate in the position until a permanent host is named,” it said.
Scroll down to leave a comment and share your thoughts.