Zacharia’s Fox Hole
Katie Zacharia went on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program Thursday night for what she likely assumed would be a friendly interview—perhaps a chance to rescue her job, with her boss watching.
“Katie, I know this is a widely viewed interview for you,” Hannity said, setting up the stakes after what he called a “widely panned” first appearance in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. If it was a test, Zacharia didn’t pass. Some 17 hours later, Donald Trump fired her after four-plus days on the job, setting a new standard for a president who previously ousted his top spokesman in just 11 days.
Indeed, Zacharia’s employment was already teetering after a brutal first appearance and a scandal over her legal qualifications—both of which, I’m told, decimated…
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Related Knowledge Center: The White House vs. the press
Whether it’s the Des Moines Register’s publication of an unfavorable election poll, a routine edit of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, or the Associated Press’s decision in its authoritative stylebook to continue to use “Gulf of Mexico,” Donald Trump and the White House have used executive authority and legal reprisals in an effort to punish and suppress press coverage that runs contrary to the administration’s preferred narratives.
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