Zippyjuan
08-24-2018, 11:43 AM
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/23/fox-news-reporters-opinion-network-adam-housley-795278
In the Trump era, hard reporting is being crowded out by opinionated panels, current and former staffers say
Another on-air reporter is leaving Fox News over frustrations with the direction and tone of the network, the second in the last three weeks to defect for those reasons.
Adam Housley, a Los Angeles-based reporter who joined Fox in 2001, felt there was diminished opportunity at the network for reporters and disapproved of tenor of its on-air discussion, according to two former Fox News employees with knowledge of his situation.
Housley believed that as the network’s focus on Trump has grown — and the number of talking-head panels during news shows proliferated — it had become difficult to get hard reporting on air, according to one of those former employees.
“He’s not doing the type of journalism he wants to be doing,” the former employee said. “And he is unhappy with the tone of the conversation of the channel.”
Housley’s objections to the Trump-era Fox News are widely shared within the network’s reporting corps, according to current and former employees of the network. Conor Powell, the former Fox News Jerusalem bureau reporter, left the network earlier this month for similar reasons, according to a person close to him.
“People are losing their minds,” one current Fox News personality said, adding that reporters have relayed in conversation that the climate for them is worse than ever before.
But Housley is hardly alone in his feeling that the “news” part of Fox News has been marginalized. According to the second person with knowledge of his thinking, his reasons for leaving were similar to those of Powell, the foreign correspondent who recently departed.
Powell reported for nine years for Fox News from the Middle East but, according to a friend who worked with him overseas, felt that the network had moved away from news and more toward opinion. With less opportunity to report on air, the friend said, it became more difficult for Powell to stomach what he saw the Fox News brand becoming.
“Conor was growing increasingly embarrassed by the channel, by the positions, by the relentless blind defense of Trump,” the friend said. “If you’re overseas and doing important work like Conor was, you can certainly focus on the work and tell yourself, ‘Hey I’m doing important things and I’m just going to focus on this and ignore all the rest.’ But it just became impossible to ignore.”
More at link
In the Trump era, hard reporting is being crowded out by opinionated panels, current and former staffers say
Another on-air reporter is leaving Fox News over frustrations with the direction and tone of the network, the second in the last three weeks to defect for those reasons.
Adam Housley, a Los Angeles-based reporter who joined Fox in 2001, felt there was diminished opportunity at the network for reporters and disapproved of tenor of its on-air discussion, according to two former Fox News employees with knowledge of his situation.
Housley believed that as the network’s focus on Trump has grown — and the number of talking-head panels during news shows proliferated — it had become difficult to get hard reporting on air, according to one of those former employees.
“He’s not doing the type of journalism he wants to be doing,” the former employee said. “And he is unhappy with the tone of the conversation of the channel.”
Housley’s objections to the Trump-era Fox News are widely shared within the network’s reporting corps, according to current and former employees of the network. Conor Powell, the former Fox News Jerusalem bureau reporter, left the network earlier this month for similar reasons, according to a person close to him.
“People are losing their minds,” one current Fox News personality said, adding that reporters have relayed in conversation that the climate for them is worse than ever before.
But Housley is hardly alone in his feeling that the “news” part of Fox News has been marginalized. According to the second person with knowledge of his thinking, his reasons for leaving were similar to those of Powell, the foreign correspondent who recently departed.
Powell reported for nine years for Fox News from the Middle East but, according to a friend who worked with him overseas, felt that the network had moved away from news and more toward opinion. With less opportunity to report on air, the friend said, it became more difficult for Powell to stomach what he saw the Fox News brand becoming.
“Conor was growing increasingly embarrassed by the channel, by the positions, by the relentless blind defense of Trump,” the friend said. “If you’re overseas and doing important work like Conor was, you can certainly focus on the work and tell yourself, ‘Hey I’m doing important things and I’m just going to focus on this and ignore all the rest.’ But it just became impossible to ignore.”
More at link