NY Times correspondent calls Fox News' decision to not air January 6 hearing “completely disgraceful” and “a dereliction of journalistic duty”
Helene Cooper: “Our jobs as journalists is to present the world as it is, not the world as we wish it might be”
Published
Citation From the June 10, 2022, edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe
JONATHAN LEMIRE (MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST): And yet, we had one network last night — Fox News — not cover this hearing, and in fact, offered counterprogramming diminishing what we were seeing last night, and not go to commercial breaks, so therefore their viewers would not be tempted to change the channel. So this is, Helene Cooper, a bit of a political moment. We know that the attorney general, the Department of Justice is one audience for what we saw last night, but there's the bigger picture too. Can what we're seeing from these hearings change any minds? Can they sway some Republicans who might still be looking at Donald Trump and say, hey, he's my guy for 2024, he's still my guy. Do we think this changes any minds?
HELENE COOPER (CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES): It's so – it's so, I don't think so. I really don't. I think that so much of this is baked into the population, the narrative, for want of better word, of where people are. That people today listen to what they want to hear. I think the people who we want to reach, who this hearing would attempt to reach, are those very people who are watching Fox News, which is offering counterprogramming. And I think what you bring up is really important. I mean, this is Fox News' decision that is such a dereliction of journalistic duty. Our jobs as journalists is to present the world as it is, not the world as we wish it might be. And for them to not carry this on their – you know, to relegate it to where they relegated it to what, Fox Business? Or wherever they put it, is – I think that's disgraceful. I think that's completely disgraceful.