By airing the fourth Republican presidential main debate scheduled for Wednesday — once more, minus Donald Trump — the younger NewsNation tv community will virtually definitely attain the biggest viewers in its historical past.
But with two of the three debate moderators related to conservative media and never NewsNation, together with podcast star Megyn Kelly, the occasion threatens to be at odds with the centrist picture the community is making an attempt to domesticate.
“I believe it is a tremendous alternative and permits us to have extra individuals absolutely pattern the community and see who we’re and what we’re doing,” stated Cherie Grzech, NewsNation’s senior vp of stories and politics.
Her recommendation to those that have doubts about how NewsNation can pull it off: Simply watch.
A NETWORK STILL SEEKING AN AUDIENCE
The talk is to air from eight to 10 p.m. ET and also will be proven on the CW community, which like NewsNation is owned by the Nexstar Media Group. The CW will present it dwell within the jap half of the nation, and tape-delayed out West.
NewsNation took over for the outdated WGN America community in late 2020 and has tried to determine itself with personalities who made names for themselves elsewhere: Chris Cuomo from CNN, Dan Abrams of ABC Information, Ashleigh Banfield from MSNBC and former Fox Information host Leland Vittert.
Rankings counsel it is nonetheless in search of an viewers — and has a solution to go. NewsNation averaged 99,000 viewers in prime time in November, in comparison with Fox Information Channel’s 1.73 million, MSNBC’s 1.14 million, CNN’s 540,000 and Newsmax’s 207,000, the Nielsen firm stated.
The community payments itself as an unbiased different to opponents with extra hardened partisan photographs. Abrams instructed the Hollywood Reporter that NewsNation’s candy spot is the “marginalized reasonable majority who don’t need hyper-partisan shops.”
Critics, just like the liberal media watchdog Media Issues, counsel NewsNation leans extra proper than down the center. A Day by day Beast author who watched the community for per week this fall, Joe Berkowitz, had an identical view, writing that “left-leaning voices are heard on NewsNation hardly ever, briefly and cursorily — as if to tick a field.”
The community’s ranks embrace a number of Fox Information alums, together with Grzech and Chris Stirewalt, its politics editor. Former Fox government Invoice Shine is a guide.
Grzech instructed that these critics have not watched NewsNation a lot. “I do not see that. and it is not the expertise I’ve had right here in any respect,” she stated.
A HIGH-PROFILE DEBATE HEADLINER
In awarding the rights to televise Wednesday’s debate, the Republican Nationwide Committee selected the talk moderators. The one with NewsNation ties is Elizabeth Vargas, previously of ABC Information, who hosts a night newscast on the community. Eliana Johnson of the conservative website Washington Free Beacon was additionally chosen.
The headliner, although, is Kelly. Working with Kelly is a throwback for Grzech; they did debate prep collectively when each have been at Fox. Kelly’s expertise working debates through the 2016 Republican presidential nominating course of shot her to fame by her feud with Trump.
Kelly signed an enormous free agent contract with NBC Information however that did not work out, and he or she negotiated an exit when her 2018 suggestion that it was OK for white individuals to put on blackface on Halloween triggered a furor.
She’s since remade herself as a podcast and radio star, way more publicly opinionated than earlier than, and is taking a task as a debate moderator that has historically been stuffed by neutral journalists.
It is not like Kelly hasn’t completed it earlier than. However, in her new job, she hasn’t been shy about providing opinions on the individuals who shall be debating.
She’s criticized Ron DeSantis for taking up the Walt Disney Corp. in Florida and stated of him throughout a debate in September on social media, “Significantly, Ron DeSantis, you don’t want to smile the entire debate. Whoever instructed you that misled you.”
Kelly referred to as Nikki Haley’s announcement of her presidential candidacy “cringy.” On X, previously Twitter, she posted: “Is it simply me, or has (Chris) Christie misplaced a little bit off his fastball?” She posted “you have to be kidding me” in response to certainly one of Vivek Ramaswamy’s X messages in October.
And through one of many debates on Fox, she posted, “I am bored.”
“I believe there’s an argument available about whether or not she’s a journalist anymore,” stated Tom Jones, senior media author on the Poynter Institute, a journalism suppose tank. “My concern if I used to be NewsNation is that Megyn Kelly goes to come back in along with her personal agenda and switch this debate the wrong way up.”
Jones stated he admired how Kelly has remade her profession, “however I do not know if the job she does now essentially qualifies her to be a moderator for a debate.”
Kelly, by a consultant, declined an interview request.
It’s a Republican debate, and there is an argument to be made that figures within the conservative media could be extra attuned to what potential GOP main voters need to hear about. However might that additionally imply avoiding official matters as a result of they may make a Republican viewers uncomfortable? To that finish, Grezch stated that questions on Trump, the lacking debater and chief within the polls, are official.
How NewsNation handles its second within the highlight turns into clear Wednesday night time.
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David Bauder writes about media for The Related Press. Observe him at http://twitter.com/dbauder