A very brief story because the story I’m linking to is itself very brief, but the title pretty much says it all. Media Matters has the story. After the shooting at the Chabad Synagogue this weekend, Fox interviewed Joel Rubin, who served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary for House Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs under Obama. When Rubin linked Trump's rhetoric with the rise in anti-Semitism, Fox News suddenly cut to commercial:
Former assistant Secretary of State Joel Rubin appeared on Fox News to discuss the shooting. When asked why anti-Semitism is on the rise, Rubin began talking about Trump's rhetoric, before he was quickly cut off and Fox went to commercial.
Gosh, who’da thunk that when a President describes a gaggle of neo-Nazis and white supremacists as “very fine people”, his own people engage in separating brown refugees from their children and locking them in cages, and his followers revel in the title of “Deplorables” that maybe they might think that, oh, say, burning down a mosque or shooting up a synagogue might be something that is ok? Gosh.
Sunday, Apr 28, 2019 · 6:03:01 PM +00:00 · Witgren
Update: Media Matters has updated the story to note that Rubin has been told by Fox News that this was a “hard breaK” at the top of the hour that they had to do. He seems to be accepting that reasoning for the break and notes that he did continue his interview after the break.
Whether this is a credible excuse, I can’t say one way or the other, not being savvy to the ins and outs of television broadcasting and advertising. In most cases I’m familiar with, usually the host will break in and say something like “hold that thought, we have to go to a commercial break” rather than simply cut off the program with no warning.