Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes a mix of national and local commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.
•••
Wednesday night's Republican presidential debate was a chance to project a new image to the American people.
For the eight candidates on stage, to be sure.
But also for Fox News, the network that held the event.
Fox's reputation, after all, was badly damaged by the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit, which the network settled for $787 million before it went to trial. But not before a trove of troubling texts and emails revealed the duplicity of Fox executives and hosts who indicated interest in, if not agreement with, the perspectives of political and legal supporters of former President Donald Trump, only to dismiss and often disparage their arguments in private.
Among Fox hosts and executives, a frequently repeated word — "respect" — appeared. But not urging respect of journalism or the noble pursuit of the truth, but as code for coddling their audience by presenting what it wants to hear.
In just one example, former Fox reporter Kristin Fisher was upbraided by her boss Bryan Boughton after she accurately covered a Rudy Giuliani news conference on Nov. 19, 2020. Told she needed to do a better job "respecting our audience," Fisher, who's now at CNN, said in a deposition that "I believed I was respecting our audience by telling them the truth."