There’s no doubt Fox News has its fair share of critics, but CNN President Jeff Zucker took things a step further when he labeled the news network “state-run TV.”
"[Fox News] is really state-run TV," he said during a Financial Times “Future of News” conference in New York City. "It is a pure propaganda machine and I think does incredible disservice to this country."
Zucker acknowledged that there are some “good journalists” at his competitor, but that the network has changed dramatically in the years following founder Roger Ailes’s departure.
"There are a handful of good journalists there, but I think they are lost in what is a complete propaganda machine,” he said.
"The idea that it's a news channel, I think, is really not the case at all," he added.
Lachlan Murdoch, the executive chairman of parent company 21st Century Fox, has previously denied claims that Fox News is tantamount to state-run television.
"I don't think that's true," he said, responding to a question posed by Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget during a discussion at the Ignition conference in November.
"I don’t think any media organization should be behind an individual," he said, referring to claims Fox props up President Trump.
Murdoch pointed to Fox News anchor Shepard Smith as an example of the network’s balanced nature: "You can't say that Shepard Smith is behind the president.”
Conservatives were quick to point out the irony of Zucker's statement.
Ironic, considering this is the network that organized an exploitative townhall that did not foster actual discussion, and cued me to enter an arena, WWE-style, to a Black Eyed Peas song. https://t.co/S4ZvS7PkYY
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 22, 2018
....and fed questions to Hillary before a primary.
— Paul Russo (@PaulieRusso) March 22, 2018