After Eighteen years of being the farthest left, establishmentarian voice on what was once considered the conservative counterbalance to the leftist mainstream media: Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace, disgraced to Fox’s viewership following his performance during the Trump administration and the opening year of the Biden-Harris regime is abandoning the network for the obviously more ideologically compatible (and morally bereft) CNN.
The 74-year-old Chicago commentator who has moderated Presidential debates, including his most ignominious performance during the 2020 Presidential election, “I’m just sad with the way last night turned out,” as he told the New York Times, has arguably been on his way out ever since his antipathy for the America-First movement in the GOP and the growing rift between him and the Fox News audience became more and more apparent.
It became most obvious in the bifurcated coverage of the January 6th riots, with more conservative voices like Tucker Carlson exposing the ridiculous overreaction of Biden’s Democrats as well as the clear manipulation of the day’s events by Antifa provocateurs as well as Wallace’s public opposition to Carlson’s reportage on the ongoing Patriot Purge. Wallace’s departure follows the resignation of contributors Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg who like him, expressed objections to Carlson’s investigation into the events of Jan. 6th.
NPR’s David Folkenflik reported that “[P]olitical anchors [Brett] Baier and Chris Wallace, shared their objections with Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and its president of news, Jay Wallace. Those objections rose to Lachlan Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of the network’s parent company, Fox Corp. Through a senior spokeswoman, Scott and Wallace declined comment.”
As Carlson warned his viewers in the first episode of his Patriot Purge coverage. “They’ve begun to fight a new enemy in a new war on terror,” “Not, you should understand, a metaphorical war, but an actual war, soldiers and paramilitary agencies hunting down American citizens.” It seems that the halls of Fox News have been a hidden theater in that campaign. Fortunately, the good guys seem to be winning.
CNN’s Leadership Is Desperate… And Wallace Can’t Save Them
CNN has been experiencing a ratings implosion for quite some time now which has been well reported with The Washington Examiner observing that “The post-Trump ratings implosion has never been as glaring as it was this week, following the release of Nielsen Media Research’s year-over-year ratings for the month of October.” with CNN down 65% year-over-year from October 2020-2021 averaging only a total of 487,000 viewers for the month, being regularly outperformed by up and coming Vloggers and commentators like The Joe Rogan Experience and Tim Pool’s Timcast IRL. Fox and MSNBC took it on the chin too, to the tune of a 38% decline and a 54% drop respectively, but nothing like the uncontrolled bleeding at CNN.
There’s a CNN+ streaming service coming? Chris Wallace is the star of the show?
Imagine thinking the solution to no one watching your propaganda network is to put it behind a paywall & hiring a RINO to bring in viewers.
Gotta hand it to them, I didn’t think it could get worse.
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) December 12, 2021
The New York Times reported, “CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker, has been trying to lure star talent — including Rachel Maddow of MSNBC — for his new streaming service, which media analysts believe is critical to the channel’s future as viewers shift away from traditional TV. To borrow industry parlance, Mr. Wallace is a “big get.”
“It is not often that a news organization gets the opportunity to bring someone of Chris Wallace’s caliber on board,” Mr. Zucker said in a statement on Sunday. The hiring comes in the wake of an embarrassing episode for CNN, which fired its top-rated anchor, Chris Cuomo, over ethical concerns.”
No one will shift from watching Fox to CNN because of Chris Wallace… what a dumb move if CNN is shelling out big money for him.
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) December 12, 2021
Zucker’s strategy here is fatally flawed by ignorance of his audience. Wallace is likely to be rejected by the frothy-mouthed far-leftist radicals that still tune into CNN for their daily news by virtue of his mere association with Fox News which many leftists will view as an indelible stain upon him. For the radical left, there is no coming back from being associated with conservativism, no measure of forgiveness or rapprochement.
Ultimately, Wallace will be viewed as any 74-year-old white man would be on a network dominated by the likes of activist-host Joy Ann Reid. Chris Wallaces’ tenure at CNN will likely be short, and his descent into irrelevance will be complete as he seeks the bosom of a left-wing echo chamber that is bound by doctrine to reject him. Based on Wallace’s immutable characteristics and his past he’s completely unpalatable to the CNN audience. He’s the wrong race, the wrong gender, and has committed the unforgivable sin of working for Fox.
CEO Jeff Zucker has fatally miscalculated, Wallace will be completely incapable of bolstering the faltering network. Zucker might as well light every dollar spent on the former Fox anchor’s contract on fire. As Newsmax reported, “The hashtag #goodriddance is among the top trends Sunday on Twitter as anti-Trump host Chris Wallace announced he is leaving “Fox News Sunday” for CNN’s streaming service.” Ouch.
