Donald Trump has blamed Fox News for Republican losses in the midterm elections, turning on the network in a series of posts as Democrats took control of both chambers of Congress.
The president accused Fox of giving too much airtime to Democratic opponents, writing on Truth Social that it “bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition”.
Democrats won seats in states usually considered favourable to Republicans, including Texas, South Carolina and Kansas. Trump also pointed to a fall in Fox News’ ratings as evidence that the broadcaster was losing viewers.
“FoxNews Ratings are way down (27%!) because they’re spending too much time covering the Trump Deranged Dumocrats!” he wrote. “All of those people who used to watch Fox, and no longer do, get it. It’s them, not me.”
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The network reported average viewership of 1.1 million in October, down about 27% from the same month a year earlier. Lachlan Murdoch, chief executive of Fox Corp, attributed the decline to “viewer fatigue” during the company’s quarterly earnings call.
Mr Murdoch said the change was expected in the run-up to a midterm election held during a president’s second term, and was not because viewers had moved to rival networks.
“Those viewers are not going to any other news channel. They’re not switching to MS NOW or to CNN,” he said. “They’re just fatigued and watching slightly less television overall.”
MS NOW and CNN both reported double-digit increases in primetime viewership in October compared with the previous year, although Fox News retained the larger total-day audience. MS NOW recorded 588,000 average viewers across all day parts, while CNN had 402,000, according to Nielsen data cited by Fox.
Despite the decline in viewing figures, Fox Corp reported a strong quarter. Revenue rose 22% year on year to 4.57 billion dollars, helped by a 47% increase in advertising revenue, which the company said was supported by political advertising and the FIFA Men’s World Cup.
Trump has frequently criticised media companies he believes are biased against him, including NBC and ABC. He has generally maintained a friendlier relationship with Fox and appeared on Fox News’ Hannity on Monday night before the election.
