Sad. Sad.. Orangutan is Sad... And a fucking asshole.

How Fox News is covering Christine Blasey Ford's testimony

by Brian Stelter

The White House says President Trump is watching Christine Blasey Ford's testimony. If he is watching on his favorite network, Fox News, he may not like what he's hearing.

Rather than defending Brett Kavanaugh at all costs, like the network's prime time hosts have been doing, Fox's daytime journalists and commentators highlighted Ford's credibility and humanity on display at Thursday's hearing.

"I think Dr. Ford is exceptionally credible," Fox's top legal analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano, said.

"A lot of folks" are "viewing her as a very credible witness," Supreme Court correspondent and 11 p.m. anchor Shannon Bream said.

After the first break at Thursday's hearing, "Fox News Sunday" moderator Chris Wallace said "this is a disaster for the Republicans."

Wallace expressed criticism of the GOP's outside counsel Rachel Mitchell for "treating this like a deposition, like a court hearing."

Ford, on the other hand, had been "extremely emotional. Extremely raw. And extremely credible. Nobody could listen to her deliver those words and talk about the assault" and not have your heart "go out to her," he said.

The assessments on Fox echoed what was being said up and down the TV channel lineup. The NBC, ABC and CBS broadcast networks are all carrying the Senate hearing wall-to-wall, preempting hours of daytime programming. All the cable news networks are also live.

Given Trump's tight relationship with Fox, there's been a lot of curiosity about how the network is framing Thursday's hearing.

"The president cannot be happy with this," Napolitano said during one of the breaks in the testimony.

All three of the network's prime time hosts -- Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham -- have cast doubt on the claims against Kavanaugh and expressed support for his nomination in many different ways.

"What you are witnessing is one of the ugliest smear campaigns in history," Hannity said Wednesday night.

It remains to be seen what those hosts will say after the hearing.

But Fox's daytime coverage was led by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, the network's two top political anchors. Kavanaugh sat down with MacCallum for an interview earlier this week -- in what was an unprecedented defensive step by a Supreme Court nominee.

During the lunchtime break on Capitol Hill, some conservative Fox commentators, like Brit Hume, emphasized that Ford's allegations are "uncorroborated." But there was also ample conversation about the #MeToo context and the cultural implications of the hearing.

"We are in a different place today than we were with Clarence Thomas," liberal commentator Marie Harf said.

Fox News, of course, was rocked by a sexual misconduct scandal within its walls two years ago. Fox News boss Roger Ailes was forced out after numerous allegations of harassment and assault were lodged against him.