Daily US Times: Donald Trump has unleashed a series of tweets denouncing and attacking Fox News, accusing the network of having forgotten “what made them successful, what got them there.”
“They forgot the Golden Goose,” the US President wrote in a tweet posted at midday on Thursday:
The tirade was posted after Mr Trump, who has refused to acknowledge his election defeat to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, retweeted multiple comments from his supporters, many of which expressed the view that they would instead be relying on right-wing cable channel and website Newsmax.
The top story on Newsmax.com late on Thursday was headlined “Sen. Ted Cruz to Newsmax TV: ‘Media Don’t Get to Decide Presidency’.”
Among the president’s retweets was one by a user called “Appalachian Christian”, who said: “Suit yourself Left Fox 4 NewsMaxxxxx.”
Fox News was one of the first news organisations to call Arizona for Biden and has warned its readers that President Trump’s claims of victory are false.
On Monday night, Neil Cavuto, one of Fox News hosts, cut away from a campaign event hosted by Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, at the Republican National Committee headquarters when McEnany said that Trump’s campaign team “wanted every legal vote to be counted”.
Cavuto said from the studio: “Whoa, whoa, whoa – I just think we have to be very clear. She’s charging the other side as welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue to show you this.”
On Monday, President Trump claimed without evidence that the network’s “ratings have completely collapsed.”
Trump’s embrace of Newsmax has however translated into a ratings boost, with according to Nielsen data quoted in the New York Times, viewership jumping from an average of 65,000 people before the election to 800,000 viewers of its prime time shows this week.
Nielsen data shows that the NewsMax app was the fourth most popular on the Apple App Store on Thursday.
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