The Fox News Effect

[Commentary] The past month has made it quite clear that Fox News plays an outsized role in President Donald Trump’s information diet. Compared to 2017, the president has built in more unstructured time to watch television in 2018. And President Trump, like most Republicans, watches and trusts Fox News far more than any other outlet. Just as President Trump has paid more attention to Fox News, the channel has lavished more favorable attention on the president.  Just as the CNN effect is subject to debate, it is worth pointing out the limits of any Fox News effect. The president’s actual advisers were able to get him to reverse his position on the Section 702 authorization. If anything really important crops up, President Trump will hear about it eventually.

[Daniel Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University]