Hillary Clinton told a Little Rock audience over the weekend that her husband’s first White House bid was successful in large part because Fox News Channel did not exist.
Bill Clinton, his wife, and long-time ally James Carville convened at the Clinton Foundation to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his presidential election. The trio discussed changes to the political landscape with the advent of social media when the brainchild of media mogul Rupert Murdoch took center stage.
“Unfortunately, our body politic’s immune system has been impaired because there has been a concerted effort starting with the creation of the Fox network,” Mrs. Clinton said, The Daily Caller reported.
Fox took to the airwaves in 1996 and rose to prominence when Mr. Clinton’s affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky became public knowledge.
“[Fox] wasn’t there when Bill first ran. It was one of the reasons he probably survived. It was there when he ran the second time — it and all of its associated media outlets who are by no means delivering news,” Mrs. Clinton added. “They are delivering partisan advocacy positions irrespective of the truth, the facts, the evidence.”
The Clintons, ironically, used the same event to reminisce on their ability to control media narratives in a pre-Fox era.
“Bill basically claimed victory [during the 1992 New Hampshire Primary] even though he had finished second,” Mrs. Clinton said, Mediaite reported Monday. “And it was an explosion because he lost, but compared to what we thought would happen, he’d won big.”
Mr. Clinton’s “Comeback Kid” framing of his primary loss was adopted by enough media surrogates to buoy his political campaign.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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