CNN’s Oliver Darcy decried comparisons between opinion programs on Fox News and MSNBC, accusing the former of “spinning its own reality” during a Sunday morning “Reliable Sources” discussion.
The segment began with host Brian Stelter discussing an op-ed written by former Fox News digital politics editor Chris Stirewalt, who was recently laid off purportedly as part of a post-election restructuring of the network.
“He says, ‘the rebellion on the populist right against the results of the election was partly a cynical knowing effort by political operators and their hype men in the media to steal an election or at least get rich trying,'” Stelter said, quoting Stirewalt. “I read through this op-ed looking for words like Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro, looking for names of Fox stars who were guilty of this. Maria Bartiromo, Pete Hegseth. None of their names are in the op-ed. What’s going on here?”
WATCH:
Darcy suggested that perhaps Stirewalt “had some sort of agreement” with his former network that prevented him from naming names, but praised the column before going on to take issue with comparing what MSNBC does with their opinion hosts to Fox News. (RELATED: People Pretending To Do Journalism Are Mounting Pressure Campaigns To Silence Conservative Media)
“But however, there is, you know, to equate what MSNBC does or some of these other outlets do with what Fox does is nonsensical,” Darcy said. “There are outlets that have opinion hosts but they’re playing in the real world, in the world of facts and reality. And Fox is spinning its own reality. So to suggest that there is an equivalence between the two I think is not accurate and something we should really be careful to avoid.”