Even though the 2020 presidential election is still more than 16 months away, liberal Elizabeth Warren sought to stake out a position among far-left primary voters and journalists with her Tuesday post attacking the Fox News Channel in snubbing the network's invitation for a town hall because the cable channel is a “hate-for-profit racket” -- even though she’s “running a campaign to reach all Americans.”
The Massachusetts senator began the Twitter version of her statement by noting: “I love town halls. I’ve done more than 70 since January, and I’m glad to have a television audience be a part of them.”
However, “Fox News has invited me to do a town hall, but I’m turning them down -- here’s why.”
She then posted:
Fox News is a hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists. [I]t’s designed to turn us against each other, risking life and death (sic) consequences, to provide cover for the corruption that’s rotting our government and hollowing out our middle class.
Warren also stated: “Hate-for-profit works only if there’s profit, so Fox News balances a mix of bigotry, racism and outright lies with enough legit journalism to make the claim to advertisers that it’s a reputable news outlet.”
However, “Fox News is struggling as more and more advertisers pull out of their hate-filled space,” she asserted.
A Democratic town hall “gives the Fox News sales team a way to tell potential sponsors it's safe to buy ads on Fox -- no harm to their brand or reputation.”
“Here’s one place we can fight back: I won’t ask millions of Democratic primary voters to tune into an outlet that profits from racism and hate in order to see our candidates—especially when Fox will make even more money adding our valuable audience to their ratings numbers,” Warren continued
Her tangent then concluded with this over two tweets:
I’m running a campaign to reach all Americans. I take questions from the press and voters everywhere I go. I’ve already held town halls in 17 states and Puerto Rico—including WV, OH, GA, UT, TN, TX, CO, MS & AL. I’ve done 57 media avails and 131 interviews, taking over 1,100 questions from press just since January. Fox News is welcome to come to my events just like any other outlet. But a Fox News town hall adds money to the hate-for-profit machine. To which I say: hard pass.
In an article the same day, Mediaite's Joe DePaulo stated that “Warren’s stance is becoming something of an outlier in the 2020 field” since Senators Bernie Sanders (VT) and Amy Klobuchar (MN) already had town halls on the network with South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg schedule for one on May 19 and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) slated for June 2.
Yes, Warren "wants to reach every American," except those who watch the "struggling" first-place Fox News Channel even though she called the network “just like any other outlet.”
