Fox News on Wednesday apparently didn’t want its viewers to hear about how the network had run a chyron the previous night calling President Joe Biden a “wannabe dictator.”
During its midday show, America Reports, the channel went live to the White House where Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was taking questions, one of which was if the White House would like to comment on the blatantly partisan chyron.
“There are probably about 787 million things that I can say about this,” Jean-Pierre said, referring to Fox having to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million in a settlement after the voting machine company sued the right-wing network for defamation.
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“That was wrong, what we saw last night, but I don’t think I’m going to get into it,” Jean-Pierre said as her audio levels were lowered in the Fox broadcast.
Fox co-host Sandra Smith jumped in shortly after, while Jean-Pierre was still at the podium.
“All right, so we’ll continue to listen for any of the top stories that she might be addressing in that White House press briefing room,” Smith said. “Obviously as major allegations are waged against the current president—obviously after the arrest of the former president Donald Trump—we are going to get back in there. Our reporter is in the room and we will certainly continue to monitor for news out of the White House.”
Co-host John Roberts then moved on to the next item on the agenda: crocodile news.
“A Florida family was caught off guard,” he said, “after discovering a massive crocodile made itself at home in their pool at 2 o’clock in the morning.”
Earlier Wednesday, Fox News publicly responded to its chyron, which read in full: “Wannabe Dictator Speaks at the White House After Having His Political Rival Arrested.” The network did not go into much detail, however, saying only that it “was taken down immediately and was addressed.”
