“What had happened at Fox was so egregious and so wrong that what really mattered was accountability.”
You didn’t have to be a journalist to feel rocked by Tucker Carlson’s ousting from Fox News on Monday. The million-dollar question is: Why was he let go? I spoke with Emmy Award-winning journalist Frank Sesno about what’s really going on at Fox and whether the Dominion trial (which he was set to testify in) played a role.
“I was asked to be an expert journalism witness, for Dominion,” says Sesno. “I thought long and hard about that because I take journalism very seriously, the First Amendment, the right to be wrong. And I wanted to be very careful that I wasn’t just sort of signing on to something that was going to take us in the wrong direction.”
Why outlets like Fox News are so important
“I actually think that Fox News and a conservative perspective in journalism is a good thing, an important thing,” says Sesno. “We need more of that, actually. It’s what the Wall Street Journal does, both on its news pages and its opinion pages. But as I looked into this, I thought that what had happened at Fox was so egregious and so wrong that what really mattered was accountability and a journalistic calling to account. And so I signed on. So what that meant is that I was asked to review depositions and exhibits that would be taken to trial.”
Why Fox’s audience deserved better
“I’m actually disappointed it didn’t go to trial. I think this is something that I would’ve liked the public record to be out there, because what took place was so egregious. In the end, everybody suffered. But the others who suffered, and I want to say this with real respect, is the Fox audience. Because the Fox audience knew what they wanted, or at least, a large portion of them did. And they applied that pressure on Fox, and Fox gave them what they wanted, they pander to them rather than giving them the information and the truth that actually they thought they were getting from Fox. And so, in the end, no one is served by this.
Here’s what I would’ve testified. First, Fox violated the most fundamental principles of journalism. Tell the truth. Vet your sources. Be accountable for what you report. Update your story, correct your mistakes. Provide context, minimize harm.”
Check out the rest of our fascinating conversation right here.
