Brian Stelter: “Fox is still the beating heart of the GOP”
Published
Citation From the November 10, 2023, edition of CNN's The Source with Kaitlan Collins
BRIAN STELTER (GUEST): The big lie didn't come out of nowhere. It was made to happen. It was made to exist. And what I realized when I was reconstructing the 2020 period for this book is that it happened very, very specifically the weekend that President Biden was named President-elect.
Remember that Saturday morning, you know, when the projections were made? Well, 24 hours later on Sunday morning, it was Fox's Maria Bartiromo and Trump friend Sidney Powell who seeded the story about Dominion, that basically said to Trump's audience, "There's a villain of this story. It's a company called Dominion. They somehow tricked you. They stole the election, and Trump is the victim." And that story -- they started to tell that story on a Sunday, and by the following Thursday, Trump started repeating it as well. So it wasn't Trump. It was Fox that started it.
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I think it's important to note: Fox is still the beating heart of the GOP. And that's where, for better or for worse, the narratives are still set.