Chris Wallace tells Stephen Colbert that Fox News news doesn't skew conservative
Fairly or not, Fox News has a reputation as the Republican network, Stephen Colbert told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace on Tuesday's Late Show. "Do you think it is fair to call Fox News a conservative broadcasting network?" he asked. "No, look, there are obviously, in prime time, there are some shows, the opinion shows — Hannity, O'Reilly — that are conservative, no question about it," Wallace conceded. "But we think there's a firewall between the opinion shows and hard news ... We commit journalism every day."
Colbert, who poked fun at Fox News for years on Colbert Report, tried a different tack, asking if there isn't a "unified message" or narrative created by the network? "I know there's this narrative out there that there's talking point, and we all have to follow" them, Wallace said. "It's bull." In his 13 years as host of Fox News Sunday, he said, "our great boss, Roger Ailes, all the executives under them [sic], I've never had a single call second-guessing me about a guest, suggesting a line of questioning, second-guessing a line of questioning. They let me do what I do."
No news anchor wants to be accused of bias, so Wallace is probably sick of fielding that question. But he seemed happier when Colbert asked him to explain why he refused to let Donald Trump phone it in to his show. Watch below. Peter Weber
The Week
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