“I think that Fox has fantastic political reporters,” MacCallum mentioned. “We have great war correspondents. We have a very strong news division, and I’m proud to be part of it, and I’m proud to be co-moderating this debate with Bret, and I’ve always felt really good about what we do.”
Last fall, Baier used to be pressured to give an explanation for a leaked electronic mail appearing that he had lobbied Fox colleagues to revoke an election-night determination to award Arizona to Joe Biden and to “put it back in [Trump’s] column.”
He instructed The Post final week that his electronic mail alternate used to be misinterpret and mistyped — that he intended to say that Arizona, which maximum different media retailers had no longer but known as, will have to be put again within the up-for-grabs column — and quibbled with how newshounds interpreted his phrases. “There is this obsession that, ‘Oh, we got ’em, the news division is conspiring as well,’” he mentioned. “It really wasn’t the case. So I think we’re past all of that. I think our work speaks for itself. The people who watch know that, and hopefully after the debate, they’ll know it even more.”
Baier strengthened his journalistic bona fides with a tricky interview of Trump in June that the previous president first of all described as honest earlier than deriding as nasty. (“I like the first answer,” Baier instructed The Post.)
Internal communications launched as a part of the lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems confirmed that considerations about shedding Trump-supporting audience to rival networks ceaselessly appeared to information programming choices, permitting false claims of election fraud to air unchallenged, in spite of standard working out amongst executives and hosts that the 2020 election used to be no longer stolen. (The community has mentioned that it used to be simply masking newsworthy claims made by way of politically related folks.)
The paperwork launched within the Dominion case mirrored relatively higher at the news facet, appearing that Fox’s newshounds lined the tale of the 2020 election as it should be, despite the fact that some confronted inner blowback after they loudly rebutted some election lies.
Although Baier mentioned he doesn’t spend a lot time occupied with the belief of the community, he emphasised the dignity between the news and opinion wings.
“A lot of people paint with a broad brush when they talk about Fox, the media who cover media and the people who don’t watch,” he mentioned. “The split between news and opinion is real. And obviously it shows itself a little bit more in times like the Trump interview or in times like a tough but fair debate.”
During that debate, MacCallum mentioned the function might be to “work on behalf of the voter and the viewer” by way of making sure that key problems — the financial system, abortion, the warfare in Ukraine — get a long airing.
One factor that she doesn’t assume warrants a lot dialogue is the sanctity of the 2020 election, whilst Trump continues to speak about it.
Trump’s determination to skip the debate — in spite of the pleas of many Fox hosts and bosses — in want of a taped interview with fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson may in fact permit for a extra forward-looking dialogue, MacCallum famous.
“I think that people understand the facts of what happened,” she mentioned. “What I don’t want is to spend the whole evening kind of rehashing that. I think people are looking forward, and I think they’re much more concerned with what’s happening in their own lives.”
Baier mentioned the moderators hope to in large part keep out of the image. “If we can get to the end and Martha and I are not a part of the story, we are steering and providing the guardrails and providing some interesting questions, but it’s the candidates and their answers that are making the news, that’s a really good thing.”
Veteran GOP pollster Frank Luntz instructed The Post that Baier and MacCallum “are people of substance who will run a very tight ship without being abusive and without being nasty.”
He singled out Baier particularly, who he mentioned “is the most important talent at Fox, because he puts the news into Fox News.”
George Washington University’s Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau leader, known as Baier and MacCallum “the dream team.”
“They have the credibility and the heft, and they know the audience and they know the facts,” he mentioned.
Had the Dominion case long past to trial, Sesno would were known as to testify by way of the balloting generation corporate. After Fox News settled the case, he mentioned the community will have to recommit to offering factual news and information to its “huge and dedicated audience.”
He mentioned that, on the debate, Baier and MacCallum “have an opportunity here to address the credibility issue.”