Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said many reporters are becoming “anti-Trump advocates” instead of calling “balls and strikes” as they cover President Donald Trump’s administration.
Speaking to “MediaBuzz” anchor Howard Kurtz on Sunday, Wallace agreed with his colleague’s assessment that “many journalists” long ago “decided they would toss out the old rule book of standards and fairness because they deemed Donald Trump to be such a threat to the country.”
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“I think it’s even worse than that,” Wallace responded, noting that he finds it “fairly depressing” when he is “complimented for being fair.”
“It used to be that fairness was what kept you from getting fired,” he said. “That was the minimum requirement for a reporter is that you’re fair.”
“Today, I think that it’s gotten so polarized whether it’s on cable news, whether it’s in newspapers, that fairness is kind of unusual and that is a terribly sad reflection on our business,” said Wallace.
While the Fox News anchor disagreed strongly with Trump’s characterization of the media as “the enemy of the American people,” he also noted that “some reporters” have not “become advocates.” (RELATED: ‘A Great Day’: Chris Wallace Explains How Newest Jobs Report Could Make Trump’s Reelection Case ‘A Lot Easier’)
“Some of the press briefings … it’s more playing gotcha or just trying to get in arguments and advance their point of view,” said Wallace. “I think too many reporters have fallen into the role of being advocates and, frankly, with this president, anti-Trump advocates, and we’ve got to be neutral. We’ve got to play it straight and call balls and strikes whether it’s something the president does that’s good or of bad, whether it’s something that Joe Biden does that’s good or bad. I don’t think we can be taking a side in this argument.”