Appearing on Real Clear Politics’ online series Changing Lanes, Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld spoke to how a lack of ideological diversity within mainstream media has caused him to have a “healthy contempt” for it as a whole.
During a discussion with host Tom Bevan, Gutfeld explained that since working in magazines he “was surrounded by people who agreed on everything and so they would voice their opinions in front of me as if I agreed with them” but soon realized that “media is essentially a collection of people who essentially agree with each other.”
The Fox host lamented how the mainstream media is “always trying to impress the other editors at the other magazines at the other magazines. They’re trying to write for them and not for the people.” Gutfeld argued that Fox actually “thinks about the public, thinks about the people in their living rooms” where the liberal media is “trying to impress other people and they forget about the public.”
When Bevan asked if Fox was just a collection of “same-thinking individuals” on the right, Gutfeld stressed how unlike MSNBC and CNN, Fox actually has real conservatives and liberals that debate each other:
There are conservatives that disagree vehemently about stuff. And I mean, you don’t see that on MSNBC or CNN or anywhere but you see it here. I mean, there are, and maybe it’s the nature of conservatism is that we tend to quarrel amongst ourselves more so. We’re not locksteppers. And so you see that more on Fox because we do have the fair and balanced. We do have more conservatives than you would find on any network because we are fair and balanced. But we also have liberals...And we have strong ones.
See relevant transcript below.
Real Clear Politics’ Changing Lanes
TOM BEVAN: You seem to have a healthy contempt for the media and yet you are now a bonafide member and have been for a long time. Do you see yourself as a member of the media?
GREG GUTFELD: Oh, absolutely, this is my job. But I think a lot of it was from working in magazines and watching the predictable shared assumptions of the people that I worked with. When I worked in magazines I was surrounded by people who agreed on everything and so they would voice their opinions in front of me as if I agreed with them.
BEVAN: Right.
GUTFELD: But I didn’t. So when would go “Oh I disagree”, they would be like “what are you kidding me?” And that’s when I realized that media is essentially a collection of people who essentially agree with each other. And in magazines especially they’re always trying to impress the other editors at the other magazines at the other magazines. They’re trying to write for them and not for the people. And I think that’s true in mainstream media as well. I think that they’re trying to impress other people and they forget about the public. Fox News thinks about the public, thinks about the people in their living rooms.
BEVAN: Is Fox equally as much a collection of same-thinking individuals just from the other side or not as much?
GUTFELD: Well, I think it is definitely way different because you could see it on any show. I mean, we’ve had knockdown fights about stuff amongst conservatives.
BEVAN: Right.
GUTFELD: I mean, there are conservatives that disagree vehemently about stuff. And I mean, you don’t see that on MSNBC or CNN or anywhere but you see it here. I mean, there are, and maybe it’s the nature of conservatism is that we tend to quarrel amongst ourselves more so. We’re not locksteppers. And so you see that more on Fox because we do have the fair and balanced. We do have more conservatives than you would find on any network because we are fair and balanced. But we also have liberals.
BEVAN: Right.
GUTFELD: And we have strong ones.
