IS A TRUMP BOYCOTT HURTING FOX?

September 27, 2015
by Ken Berwitz
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Ken Berwitz


I don\’t have a “silliest supposition of the week” series.  But if I did, this would be the current winner.

According to Gabriel Sherman, of the (leftward, Fox News-hating) New York Magazine, Fox News President Roger Ailes is meeting with Donald Trump to get him to lift his boycott of Fox News shows….the boycott having been started because Trump did not like Fox\’s coverage of his greatness – most especially the way Megyn Kelly questioned him while hosting the Republican debate weeks ago.

Both sides are posturing to save face. Yesterday a Fox statement calledTrump\’s boycott “stale and tiresome.” But a source close to theTrump campaign told me that Trump thinks he has the leverage. Trump has beenhearing from Fox hosts who are worried that his boycott will hurt ratings. Thecalculus seems to be that by shunning Fox, Trump is hoping to drive a wedgebetween Fox hosts, Kelly, and Ailes. That may be wishful thinking. As an Ailesfriend told me today: “Roger can\’t turn back. The entire credibility of Fox aspowerbroker rests on Trump being destroyed.”

Does this hold water?  I\’d say the likelihood is remote, and then some. 

Forgetting Fox\’s ratings for just a second, doesn\’t the fact that Trump – the leading Republican candidate for President at this moment – is complaining about Fox\’s treatment indicate that Fox has no problem tearing into a leading Republican?  Doesn\’t that fly in the face of Fox-haters who claim the network is a Republican propaganda machine, and expand Fox\’s credibility as “fair and balanced”?  

And then there are the ratings.  If Trump\’s “boycott” is hurting them, Fox must be doing pretty badly, wouldn\’t you say?  Well, here are the cable news ratings for this past Wednesday (the day before Pope Francis arrived, which changed everyone\’s coverage):

Total Day      TotalViewers           25 to 54 Demo

Fox                   1,223,000               245,000

CNN                     534,000               152,000

MSNBC                 451,000                 94,000

 

Prime Time    TotalViewers           25 to 54 Demo

Fox                   2,120,000               375,000

CNN                    624,000               190,000

MSNBC                912,000               196,000


Does that look like Fox is falling apart to you?

Personally, I would not at all be surprised if Trump and Ailes sat down and talked this out.  They\’ve known each other for a long time.  But do those numbers look like he is going to come, hat in hand, begging Trump to be on his shows?  All that a Trump boycott would accomplish is intentionally depriving the country\’s richest barroom loudmouth – and biggest ego – from the largest available audience.

Simply stated, if Trump craves the maximum exposure his massive ego demands, then he needs Fox more than Fox needs him.

I conclude, therefore, that the idea of a Trump boycott somehow damaging Fox is patently absurd.  In fact, if anything, the more Trump mouths off about not showing up on Fox, the more viewers might tune in to see how Fox\’s people – not just Megyn Kelly either – will react, and how they will report on Trump.

Neither Donald Trump\’s hubris, nor Gabriel Sherman\’s wishful thinking is going to change that.

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