Fox News host Bret Baier was put in the uncomfortable position of having to defend his most unhinged colleagues’ behavior by The New Yorker editor David Remnick.
Appearing on the magazine’s podcast this week, Baier was pressed about the antics of some of Fox’s other hosts, such as Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin.
Remnick put the question bluntly: “Do you ever wanna throw a shoe at at some of your colleagues—or their flickering images on the screen?”
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At first, Baier offered a diplomatic deflection.
“Listen, they have a different job than I have. I think they do it very well,” he said. “Their opinions, they come from an advocacy point of view or a perspective. They oftentimes stir the pot. We are under one umbrella. We’re rowing in the same way, but we do something completely different.”
That answer didn’t satisfy Remnick, who pressed further, asking, “Do you not feel implicated in some way by their excesses at times?”
Baier defended his network. “The people who have a really, really big problem with Fox likely haven’t watched Fox,” he said, explaining that he tells them to watch his show and decide whether he’s “fair.”
“But they’re not just watching your show,” Remnick said. “They’re gonna watch Laura Ingraham. They’re gonna watch all of them. Sean Hannity.”
Baier fired back that MSNBC strikes a similarly opinionated tone, just from the other side of the political aisle.
“Do you think Rachel Maddow is just the equivalent of Mark Levin or Laura Ingraham?” Remnick asked, adding, “Is one more fact-based than the other?”
“It depends on your point of view, I suppose,” Baier said, which led Remnick to retort, “Facts don’t depend necessarily on the point of view.”
Remnick pressed once more, asking Baier if it worries him that the “gravy” (the highest ratings) at Fox is coming from the hosts who are “in another mode.”
Baier refused to take the bait, explaining that he prefers to “focus on my product with horse blinders on” rather than reflecting on the network’s other shows.
While Fox News is known for its at-times fawning coverage of Trump, Baier has developed a reputation for presenting the facts with less spin than others at the network.
His approach has irked Trump, who fumed after an interview with Baier in 2023 that “there was nothing friendly about it. You know, it was nasty.”
