ESPN and ABC might not want to hear it, but Stephen A. Smith went on Fox News and forecasted doom for the future of legacy media.
Smith made one of his frequent appearances on Fox News with his friend Sean Hannity Thursday night, where part of the conversation centered around the media’s coverage of Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated for his comeback term as president next Monday, Jan. 20. During the show, Hannity boasted about all of the polarizing issues and topics he was “right” on throughout his media career and included Trump on the list.
“All of the legacy media that for nine years has demonized this man… do you believe their days are now numbered?” Hannity asked Smith. “Because I think legacy media is now dead and they killed themselves. And they killed themselves because of a political agenda and dishonesty. Am I right or am I wrong?”
“I think you’re closer to being right than wrong,” Smith admitted. “I think legacy media is in a world of trouble based on your description of it and I am not here to dole out sympathy cards. There’s no excuse for it. In the end, if you are in the media and you pride yourself on being a journalist, the first objective is to know as much as you can.
“Secondly, to be honest about what you know and you don’t know. You can be subjective in what you would like to receive, but ultimately, you have to be an objective grabber of the information and make sure you’re disseminating that to the masses. And what we’ve seen is people taking agenda or spin.”
Smith told Hannity he believes the media turned in the direction of partisan coverage once it became profitable to do so, noting opinionated pundits make more money than unbiased journalists. Hannity, however, claimed networks such as CNN and MSNBC go beyond partisan coverage to report “fake news” and conspiracy theories about Trump. Smith refrained from pushing back.
“Donald Trump, there’s no way in hell that I think the man is innocent of every single little thing, nor do I think he’s guilty of every single thing they said,” Smith said. “What I will say is this, the man won the election. The American people have spoken. What the hell are you doing on Capitol Hill, acting like you’re still on the campaign trail, talking about him like there are votes at stake? He’s your president now!
“You have to sit up there and say, ‘I hope he does well for this country’… You can’t be rooting against him because you don’t like him at the expense of the United States of America.”
While it’s fair to be critical of every legacy media and news network for coverage that is shamelessly biased at times, it’s worth noting Fox News, which airs Hannity’s nightly show, reached a $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in 2023. The settlement was over the voting machine company’s defamation lawsuit which accused Fox News of “recklessly disregarding the truth” to promote 2020 election conspiracy theories being alleged by Trump. And any attempt at claiming Fox is principled on every topic reeks of the very agenda and dishonesty Hannity began his initial complaint about.
