Bad for democracy

NYT executive editor: CNN and Fox News are 'bad for democracy'

By Kelsey Sutton

New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet took aim at CNN and Fox News for their coverage of the presidential race, calling the cable news channels' coverage of this election cycle “ridiculous” and “bad for democracy and those institutions.”

“This mix of entertainment and news, and news masquerading as entertainment, is kind of funny except that we now have a guy who is a product of that world nominated as Republican presidential nominee,” Baquet said in an interview with the Financial Times published Friday.

Baquet called CNN’s decision to hire Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski “outrageous,” and criticized Fox News for what Baquet said was pandering to a partisan audience.

“Fox News at its heart is not a journalistic institution,” he said. “Megyn Kelly is a great journalist, Chris Wallace is a great journalist, but it is some weird mix of a little bit of journalism, a little bit of entertainment, a little bit of pandering to a particular audience … I don’t think Roger Ailes will go down as one of the great journalists of his time.”

Baquet also defended the Times’ coverage of Trump. The Times raised eyebrows earlier this election cycle when it flatly called Trump’s statements about President Barack Obama’s birthplace as a “lie," and the Republican candidate has regularly criticized the Times' political coverage, and even threatened to sue.

“I am not opposed to his presidency, that is not my job,” Baquet said. “But my job is not to beat around the bush when a candidate lies.”