House Democrat: ‘It’s harder to get the news through Fox than Russian television’

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) blasted Fox News on Tuesday, saying the network’s coverage makes it hard for politicians to get news to conservative viewers.

“I know CNN and the new leadership is looking at going more toward the middle and getting a broader viewership, but Fox has the predominance of the Trump supporters and Republicans,” Cohen said during an interview on CNN. “And it’s harder to get the news through Fox than it is to get it in Russia through Russian television.”

Critics of Fox have panned the network over its plans for reporting on Thursday’s first hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which do not include live coverage on its main cable channel.

Fox News Channel averages millions of viewers during prime time each night. The network announced on Monday evening that it would cover the proceedings in full on Fox Business Networks and via other verticals through online streaming. It will also make that coverage available for all of its local affiliate stations to air if they choose to.

Ratings figures show Fox’s audience dwarfing that of competitors CNN and MSNBC, both of which plan to carry Thursday’s hearing in full. Recent surveys have found that more Democrats watch Fox than competitors, a byproduct of the conservative media giant carrying a larger overall audience.

Cohen, who is not on the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, predicted it could be “hard to get across” the points the panel is trying to hammer home to American voters about former President Trump and his role in the riot.

“There’s a middle ground that we’ve always called the suburban housewife, independents who will listen and who will recoil at what they learn …” Cohen said.

The congressman’s comparison of Fox News to Russian media comes amid the country’s ongoing war in Ukraine, which state media has covered glowingly while the Kremlin cracks down on the vast majority of independent media covering the bloody conflict.