Associated Press
By airing the fourth Republican presidential primary debate scheduled for Wednesday — again, minus Donald Trump — the young NewsNation television network will almost certainly reach the largest audience in its history.
Yet with two of the three debate moderators associated with conservative media and not NewsNation, including podcast star Megyn Kelly, the event threatens to be at odds with the centrist image the network is trying to cultivate.
“I think it’s an amazing opportunity and allows us to have more people fully sample the network and see who we are and what we’re doing,” said Cherie Grzech, NewsNation’s senior vice president of news and politics.
Her advice to those who have doubts about how NewsNation can pull it off: Just watch.
A NETWORK STILL SEEKING AN AUDIENCE
The debate is to air from 8 to 10 p.m. ET and will also be shown on the CW network, which like NewsNation is owned by the Nexstar Media Group. The CW will show it live in the eastern half of the country, and tape-delayed out West.
NewsNation took over for the old WGN America network in late 2020 and has tried to establish itself with personalities who made names for themselves elsewhere: Chris Cuomo from CNN, Dan Abrams of ABC News, Ashleigh Banfield from MSNBC and former Fox News host Leland Vittert.
The network bills itself as an unbiased alternative to competitors with more hardened partisan images. Abrams told the Hollywood Reporter that NewsNation’s sweet spot is the “marginalized moderate majority who don’t want hyper-partisan outlets.”
Critics, like the liberal media watchdog Media Matters, suggest NewsNation leans more right than down the middle. A Daily Beast writer who watched the network for a week this fall, Joe Berkowitz, had a similar view, writing that “left-leaning voices are heard on NewsNation rarely, briefly and cursorily — as if to tick a box.”
The network’s ranks include several Fox News alums, including Grzech and Chris Stirewalt, its politics editor. Former Fox executive Bill Shine is a consultant.
Grzech suggested that those critics haven’t watched NewsNation much. “I don’t see that. and it isn’t the experience I’ve had here at all,” she said.
A HIGH-PROFILE DEBATE HEADLINER
In awarding the rights to televise Wednesday’s debate, the Republican National Committee chose the debate moderators. The one with NewsNation ties is Elizabeth Vargas, formerly of ABC News, who hosts an evening newscast on the network. Eliana Johnson of the conservative site Washington Free Beacon was also selected.
The headliner, though, is Kelly. Working with Kelly is a throwback for Grzech; they did debate prep together when both were at Fox. Kelly’s experience working debates during the 2016 Republican presidential nominating process shot her to fame through her feud with Trump.
Kelly signed a big free agent contract with NBC News but that didn’t work out, and she negotiated an exit when her 2018 suggestion that it was OK for White people to wear blackface on Halloween caused a furor.
She’s since remade herself as a podcast and radio star, much more publicly opinionated than before, and is taking a role as a debate moderator that has traditionally been filled by impartial journalists
She’s criticized Ron DeSantis for taking on the Walt Disney Corp. in Florida and said of him during a debate in September on social media, “Seriously, Ron DeSantis, you do not need to smile the whole debate. Whoever told you that misled you.”
Kelly called Nikki Haley’s announcement of her presidential candidacy “cringy.” On X, formerly Twitter, she posted: “Is it just me, or has (Chris) Christie lost a little off his fastball?” She posted “you’ve got to be kidding me” in response to one of Vivek Ramaswamy’s X messages in October.
And during one of the debates on Fox, she posted, “I’m bored.”
“I think there’s an argument to be had about whether she’s a journalist anymore,” said Tom Jones, senior media writer at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank. “My concern if I was NewsNation is that Megyn Kelly is going to come in with her own agenda and turn this debate upside down.”
Kelly, through a representative, declined an interview request.
It is a Republican debate, and there’s an argument to be made that figures in the conservative media would be more attuned to what potential GOP primary voters want to hear about. But could that also mean avoiding legitimate topics because they might make a Republican audience uncomfortable? To that end, Grezch said that questions about Trump, the missing debater and leader in the polls, are legitimate.
How NewsNation handles its moment in the spotlight becomes clear Wednesday night.
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Republished with permission from The Associated Press.
17 comments
rick whitaker
December 5, 2023 at 9:08 pm
the company that owns newsnation bought my local tv station not long ago, i have watched it go downhill ever since. nexstar media group is a right wing company and they subtly inject christian nationality into the local news broadcast. i use to enjoy the local news broadcast, now it sucks. beware of nexstar media group stations.
Unsafe For Jews And Blacks: Florida
December 6, 2023 at 6:09 am
Nazis like to keep Christians afraid; seems to be working.
rick whitaker
December 6, 2023 at 10:22 am
unsafe, people across the country need to check to see if their local stations are part of the nexstar media group. finding a neutral station is hard to do. tyt and npr are my choices.
Florida Man
December 6, 2023 at 10:40 am
Unsafe for blacks in Florida? What happened to that campaign by the NAACP encouraging blacks not to visit Florida? Travel by air? Their aren’t listening. Good for them by the way. Like the rest of us people like Florida. All of you miserable folks here should move back to NY if you aren’t happy here.
rick whitaker
December 6, 2023 at 10:43 am
florida man, PLEASE stay in florida. just like the flu, we don’t want it spreading to other states.
Unsafe For Jews And Blacks: Florida
December 6, 2023 at 5:28 pm
We did. You must be so proud, like a good Nazi, you chased people away from you.
EARL PITTS "Media Expert" American
December 6, 2023 at 6:39 am
Good Mornting my Besty, Rick,
Remember to watch CNN no more than 20 minutes per day. Any more than that and your brain will begin to rot out from the center to the outer edge of the brain. Totally un-decetable by the sage brain doctors of the world until its too late.
This will cause problems thinking but more impotantly will cause your sphincter to lock up and create a dook back up filling your brain with dook.
Take care out there my Besty Rick the world of Media propaganda is a little more dangerous than anyone ever knew.
Earl Pitts “Media Expert” American
rick whitaker
December 6, 2023 at 9:55 am
earl, you fool, i never watch cnn. i watch tyt, you ought to watch it too. of course you wouldn’t understand anything tyt has to say, you’re too christian to think. i also watch npr, but that’s out of your league too. you right wing christian nationalist are stuck with fox and fox clones.
Earl Pitts "Religious Conversion Scientist" American
December 6, 2023 at 11:36 am
Relax your sphincter Rick,
Resistance and anger are the first phase in your conversion. So yes your initial rejection along with denial and throwing a big baby tantrum are very good signs.
Based on our past conversion to Christanity cases you are right on track. We will have you receiting the books of the Old and New Testaments by memory no later than June of 2024. So dont get discouraged your conversion is right on track.
We will have you teaching Sunday School in Jimmy Carter’s old church in Planes, GA in around 2 short years.
Thanks Rick,
Your guide to Christanity,
Earl Pitts American
*queue sweet Christian music to sooth the savage heart: ” Holy Holy Holy merciful and mighty: God in Three Persons Blessed Trinity”*
rick whitaker
December 6, 2023 at 11:46 am
CAUTION ⚠ TROLL COMMENT BY SPHINCTER EARL
Sonja Fitch
December 6, 2023 at 4:46 am
It ain’t a debate! Trump ain’t there! Trump you smell like a chicken! Pluck pluck ! Scared are you Trump? Lol.
Unsafe For Jews And Blacks: Florida
December 6, 2023 at 6:10 am
Loser TV with blog-meister Dan Abrams
EARL PITTS "Media Expert" American
December 6, 2023 at 6:44 am
Good mornting Sonja my Dear,
Please review my “Sage Media Warning” to my other Besty, Rick, above. The problem also effects women. So please monitor your CNN time my Dear.
Yours Truley,
Earl Pitts “Media Expert” American
rick whitaker
December 6, 2023 at 9:46 am
warning ⚠ troll comment by earl shitts
Michael K
December 6, 2023 at 9:01 am
Less than half of Americans have cable TV. Besides, we already know who “won.” But I will be curious to know if Ron brings a poop map.
Unsafe For Jews And Blacks: Florida
December 6, 2023 at 5:29 pm
Who is here for the boots’ walk?!? ✋🏼
Unsafe For Jews And Blacks: Florida
December 6, 2023 at 6:25 pm
What’s a Podcast?!
Comments are closed.