New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has accused Fox News of functioning as propaganda for the Trump administration, likening it to China’s state-run media.
In a column published Tuesday night, Friedman said democracy is in retreat around the world, even in the U.S. under President Trump.
“It takes $1 billion to run for the White House, Congress has become a forum for legalized bribery, the president has uttered roughly 2,000 lies and misleading statements since taking office — and his own party doesn’t care — a gun cult holds Congress hostage, and computer-designed gerrymandering enables candidates to pick their voters, not have voters pick them,” he wrote. “We also now have our own major state-run network, Fox News, that treats our president as ‘Dear Leader’ — much the same way that China’s People’s Daily does Xi.”
Trump is known to prefer Fox’s “Fox and Friends” morning program and some of its other opinion shows that have been more favorable to the White House in their coverage.
Friedman has called Trump’s presidency a threat to democracy in the past.
On Feb. 18, he wrote, “President Trump is either totally compromised by the Russians or is a towering fool, or both, but either way he has shown himself unwilling or unable to defend America against a Russian campaign to divide and undermine our democracy.”
