Michael Cohen's campaign finance violations directly implicated US President Donald Trump. Photo / AP
New from me: Fox News HAD the story of Trump's hush money payoffs to Stormy Daniels BEFORE the election but killed it because the reporter said she was told, "Good reporting Kiddo, but Rupert Murdoch wants Donald Trump to win. So set it aside." Reporter sued, is bound by an NDA. https://t.co/md9B4fLm1i
— Jane Mayer (@JaneMayerNYer) March 4, 2019
It's an interesting thought experiment to imagine what would have happened if Fox News Channel had access to some of the biggest stories about US President Donald Trump before other outlets.
If it had been Fox that got the Access Hollywood" tape in October 2016, how would it have handled the story? How would it have been framed?
Or would it have run? A report from the New Yorker's Jane Mayer, an extensive look at Fox News from one of journalism's most respected investigative reporters, gives reason to think that the network may have been reluctant to run it at all.
After all, Mayer said, Diana Falzone, a reporter for the network, learned that Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen had arranged to pay off adult-film actress Stormy Daniels so she wouldn't publicly discuss an alleged affair with Trump - but the story was never published.
The New Yorker story said: "But Falzone's story didn't run - it kept being passed off from one editor to the next. After getting one noncommittal answer after another from her editors, Falzone at last heard from LaCorte, who was then the head of FoxNews.com. Falzone told colleagues that LaCorte said to her, 'Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert [Murdoch] wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go.' "
Ken LaCorte denies having said that, Mayer writes, although Falzone's colleagues confirmed having been told about it at the time.
Fox News consistently covered Daniels' story much less frequently than its competitors did, data show.
On average, from January 1, 2018, to the beginning of this month, CNN mentioned "Stormy" in 0.61 per cent of segments. MSNBC mentioned her in 0.54 per cent. Fox News mentioned her in 0.17 per cent - less than a third as often as its competitors.
The characterisation of the payment to Daniels as "hush money" led to that term being used regularly in the first half of 2018 by Fox's competitors but not by Fox. It was used more regularly by the network once Cohen admitted to federal crimes in August and, most recently, when Cohen testified on Capitol Hill last week.
Fox News reportedly killed Stormy Daniels story to help Trump win https://t.co/uJe5TB9sIV
— Guardian US (@GuardianUS) March 4, 2019
Cohen, of course, admitted to several types of crime in August and December: fraud related to a bank loan he obtained, tax evasion, lying to Congress, and campaign finance violations related to the Daniels payment and another, similar agreement to silence Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model. Those campaign finance violations directly implicated Trump, as Cohen reinforced in his congressional testimony last week.
When talking about Cohen, Fox was less likely than its competitors to mention campaign finance.
It was more likely, after Cohen admitted guilt on eight federal felonies last year, to mention his involvement in fraud.
It covered his admission of lying to Congress as much as its competitors did last year - and last week, during his testimony, was just as likely to mention that crime.
In fact, it mentioned that particular admitted crime as often last week when Cohen was testifying as it had when the story first broke.
Jane Mayer's article is bigger than Fox News killing the Stormy Daniels story. It's an indictment of Fox, Trump, Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, Sean Hannity and the GOP and exposes an Australian billionaire and a New York billionaire corroding our democracy. https://t.co/JPHzOJxQX2
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) March 4, 2019
This isn't specific to the Daniels story. Although none of the networks gave McDougal's story as much coverage as Daniels', Fox still trailed in its coverage.
And, circling back to our original question, Fox News has also mentioned Access Hollywood less frequently than its competitors did.
From October 1, 2016, through to the end of the year, Fox News mentioned Access Hollywood in 0.07 per cent of its daily 15-second segments. CNN and MSNBC each mentioned it more than twice as often.
Last year John Dean mused in an interview with Rolling Stone about what might have happened if Fox News were around when Richard Nixon was president. Dean was White House counsel under Nixon until he agreed to testify against his former boss, helping lead to Nixon's resignation.
"Nixon might have survived," Dean said, "if he had Fox News and the conservative media that exists today."
By directing the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, Trump may have committed multiple criminal offenses. pic.twitter.com/4h3di4Lctk
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) March 3, 2019