Daily Beast: “Former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt recounted the ‘terrible feeling of humiliation’ over getting fired by the network after he defended the Fox News decision desk’s early but accurate election night call for President Joe Biden to win Arizona, adding that it was ‘very challenging’ to tell his kids he was suddenly kicked to the curb. Stirewalt was among several former Fox News employees to speak with Australia’s ABC TV for a multi-episode documentary about Fox’s evolution into a propaganda outlet for former President Donald Trump.”
“Discussing his fateful election night coverage, Stirewalt noted that Fox had gone into the evening hyping up its decision desk as ‘best-in-class,’ and how it made it ‘doubly important’ that they were clear and transparent about their voter projections. Specifically, as Stirewalt pointed out, Trump had explicitly laid ‘down a predicate’ to steal the election if it didn’t turn out his way. The early Arizona call, naturally, tossed a wrench in Team Trump’s attempt to declare victory that evening. It also led to confusion on-air for Fox News and extreme anger from the Trump camp that night, who reportedly tried to get the network to reverse the call. At the same time, Stirewalt took to the air to defend the decision desk’s correct projection, prompting backlash from MAGA viewers and Trump himself who directly blamed Fox News for the election loss.”
“With Trump immediately kicking off his ‘Big Lie’ that the election was ‘stolen’ from him after Election Night, Stirewalt said that Trump claiming the election was fraudulent was the ‘worst thing that a president has done in my lifetime’ and that he was personally the target of online abuse and a ‘river of hate’ over the Arizona call. Following the election, Fox News briefly went through a massive ratings slump, seemingly due to enraged Trump supporters abandoning the network in favor of far-right alternatives willing to push Trump’s election lies. Eventually, with the Murdochs in need of scapegoats, Stirewalt was among those ‘purged’ by the network.”