Dean Baquet, NY Times Exec Editor: Fox News and CNN ‘Bad for Democracy’

The New York Times’ executive editor Dean Baquet on Friday took jabs at cable-news titans CNN and Fox News, calling their election coverage “ridiculous” and “bad for democracy.” After describing how the two networks engage in an unhealthy mix of news and entertainment, Baquet lamented how “we now have a guy who is a product of that world nominated as Republican presidential nominee,” referring to reality-TV star Donald Trump. The comments were made during an interview with the Financial Times, in which Baquet also bashed CNN’s hiring of former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski (“outrageous,” he said) and said that “Fox News at its heart is not a journalistic institution.” He did, however, praise a few of the anchors at Fox, calling Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace “great journalist[s].” Baquet also made clear that he is not criticizing the outlets’ Trump coverage from a partisan perspective: “I am not opposed to his presidency, that is not my job. But my job is not to beat around the bush when a candidate lies.”