Fox commentator Tamara Holder was on MSNBC Sunday, telling Joy Ann Reid that, "Fox News gets things right," because Fox viewers are devoted to what’s really important, namely jobs and the economy and not worrying overmuch about non essentials, like Russia’s hacking of the 2016 election. Newsweek senior writer Kurt Eichenwald disagreed:
"We're talking about a situation seems like nobody understands what happened --certainly not Fox News. We had, we were subject to an act of war. This was not some little computer problem. This act of war has been done by Russia against England, the Netherlands, it has been done against Italy, it has been done against France.
"The entire purpose, American intelligence agencies know, is to drive a wedge and break apart the western alliances. Yes, it would be nice to talk jobs. We are in a war. And the problem with the Trump administration and the propaganda Fox News, they look at it only through the prism of what does it mean for Trump, what does it mean for the Republican party.
"I truthfully don't care what it means for Trump. I believe we as a nation need to be focused on what do we do about the enemy, what do we do to preserve American democracy. Unfortunately you have the fact that Fox is a propaganda network, which functions off the idea of breaking people up into teams, so they're aiding and abetting the enemy. They're aiding and abetting those people we are currently at war with -- the Russians.
"In order to play for their team, to make it GOP versus Democrats. It's not. It is the United States of America versus people who are a country trying to destroy our democracy, break up the western alliance, and in the process Fox News is saying, 'Don't worry about the Russians, don't worry about people trying to attack democracy, let's attack instead the intelligence agencies giving us these conclusions, let's pretend the Democrats are involved, and let's return to tax cuts.'
"It's obscene. It is propaganda, and it has to stop. The Republican party -- which unfortunately Jennifer Rubin, conservative, wrote this morning, is in opposition to reality. The Republican party has to take over and decide whether or not they're going to allow the propaganda to drive democracy, or side with America and help fight this enemy."
Eichenwald has always held Fox News accountable, notably the night in mid-December when he appeared on Tucker Carlson's show, openly presenting Carlson with a thick binder labelled "Tucker Carlson Falsehoods," and telling Carlson that if he didn’t like dissenting opinions he shouldn't have guests. The appearance so incensed one of Carlson's viewers, tweeting as "jewgoldstein” that the viewer sent a strobing gif to Eichenwald that night, causing him to have an epileptic seizure. The matter is still being adjudicated, and Kurt Eichenwald is still speaking truth to power.