Fox News, known for the primetime hot talk backed by primetime regulars like Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters, is ready to enforce silence — for a good cause.
The Fox Corp.-backed cable-news outlet is vying for a presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, and top news personnel say they are willing to consider muting the candidates’ microphones when they are not responding directly to questions. The condition, which has not been traditionally employed, appeared to be a key one that helped CNN land its June 27 debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.
“It seems as if they liked it,” says Jay Wallace, president and executive editor of Fox News Media, and one of the executives who recently sent a letter to both the Biden and Harris campaigns proposing a debate on Fox News Channel for Sept. 17 — one week after ABC News had reserved a date between Biden and Trump that Harris seems intent on keeping. “I don’t think it was a horrible thing.”
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Wallace’s letter, sent last week, told each campaign that “We are open to discussion on the exact date, format and location — with or without an audience.”
Presidential debates have long been august, staid affairs, with the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates organizing the affairs in each election cycle. But a showdown between Biden and Trump in the 2020 election proved off-putting, with Trump refusing to stay quiet when his opponent talked and both candidates hurling invective at their opponent. CNN’s use of muting microphones in 2024 did make the event flow more easily. Trump seemed less chaotic, though still wildly evasive on most questions, but Biden’s lackluster, enervated performance spurred questions about his physical condition that eventually spurred him to exit the campaign.
Fox News has made the case that the size of its viewership would be an aid to both candidates. Fox News’ audience is regularly larger than that of its direct rivals, CNN and MSNBC. In recent weeks, a series of shocking national news developments, including Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 race for the White House and an assassination attempt on Trump in western Pennsylvania, have helped boost ratings. Fox News saw its total day viewership in July among viewers between 25 and 54 – the demographic most coveted by advertisers – surge 120%, to an average of 268,000.Between July 13 and July 21, Fox News’ overall audience on a total-day basis was higher than that of ABC, CBS and NBC, according to figures from Nielsen.
Fox News’ Wallace says the company would keep an open mind in talks with both campaigns. “If we can get these guys to the table, both sides are going to want different things in negotiations,” he says, and Fox News would consider “what is the right thing for the audience, for the candidates,” he adds. “They both have important messages to get out and it’s an important time for our country.”
Baier, who has been proposed as a co-anchor, along with Martha MacCallum for a debate that would take place in Pennsylvania, thinks the muted microphones created an atmosphere that was more conducive to focusing on the issues. “It kind of worked,” he says. “We’d have to look at that and see what the campaigns would say. I think we are open to do a lot of things.”
