On Friday, Beat the Press host Emily Rooney joined Boston Public Radio to defend Fox News’ decision not to air the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump this week.
"It’s a marketing tool," Rooney said. "It’s a programming decision based on income. Fox News is winning at nights… their listeners are listening to Fox because that’s their niche in the first place. If they wanted to hear the proceedings, they could turn to somewhere else.”
"Can you imagine next week if MSNBC and CNN declined to run the coverage, saying it was a marketing decision?” Eagan asked.
“I’d be fine with that,” Rooney responded.
Rooney continued, pointing to a recent tease by NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt as evidence that network cable companies believe impeachment coverage to be boring.
"Lester Holt did the longest tease I’ve ever seen in my life,” she said, pointing to other stories the anchor spent time discussing before cutting to impeachment coverage. "It was almost like a sense of obligation on the part of the networks that they have to cover this thing,” Rooney said. "They don’t want to."
