Major Garrett: Fox News Wants Polarization (VIDEO)

Major Garrett, Fox News' former Chief White House Correspondent, appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Monday to talk about the Juan Williams controversy and the midterm elections.

Garrett, who is now the Congressional correspondent for the newly revamped National Journal, appeared with National Journal colleague Ron Brownstein and Time's Mark Halperin. Co-host Joe Scarborough immediately brought up Juan Williams, whose firing last week by NPR set off a controversy that is still raging. (In the past two days, Williams and Brit Hume blasted NPR on "Fox News Sunday," and NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller apologized for the network's handling of the situation, though she defended the decision to fire Williams.)

Scarborough said to Garrett that Williams had only been fired from NPR because he works for Fox News. Garrett agreed with Scarborough, saying he had talked with Williams about the blowback he was getting from NPR listeners over his appearances on Fox News. He also said that NPR's anger at Williams' association with Fox News was reflective of the polarization in the American media something he said neither Fox nor NPR wanted to solve. Indeed, he said, Fox News thrives on that polarization:

"For a certain amount of marketing points of view, Fox actually wants to keep that polarization. They can say look, we're different. We're dramatically different, you can see how we're different. And if you like that difference you better come over here and you better stay here. That is an embedded part of the marketing that surrounds what happens in the news division at Fox. It's been incredibly successful."

Watch (Garrett comments begin at 4:24):

Garrett added that he thought it was "no coincidence" that Fox News signed Williams to a new, $2 million contract on the day NPR fired him. He said it was a message that Williams "is ours, he's going to stay ours, and if you're outraged, this is the place to be."

Comments

[thegreatdaveo]

04:23 PM on 11/08/2010

I've always said FOX runs their operation like the WWE, which is another enormously successful business. People flock to conflict and controversy and both FNC and the WWE produce it in incredible amounts. Both get very high ratings and make a lot of money while showing a carefully choreographed masquerade. The main difference is most people know the WWE is fake.

[farmilyman]

12:26 AM on 10/28/2010

It's has always been about the money. When the little people fight each other the rich people laugh all the way to the bank.

[KarlaElisa]

12:06 PM on 10/28/2010

Works pretty good for them, doesn't it?

[jerryatthebeach]

05:53 PM on 10/27/2010

Well this is America and there are 500 channels to watch...

[aussieguy55]

04:18 PM on 10/27/2010

Wow what a reasoned good natured discussion between these guys.It's a pity Fox does not follow your example.

[Ldiddy]

03:34 PM on 10/27/2010

There's a "news division" at Fox?

[paleoimage]

02:54 PM on 10/27/2010

"Fox Wants Polarization" No kidding? That old slime ball Murdoch has known for a long time that you can "divide and conquer" the American people. You want to create an American oligarchy? Get the masses in a snit over gay marriage, illegal immigrants, mosque construction and an imaginary war on Christmas... then have your way with them.

[thetruthitburns]

01:56 PM on 10/27/2010

"He also said that NPR's anger at Williams' association with Fox News was reflective of the polarization in the American media something he said neither Fox nor NPR wanted to solve"

There goes that false equivalence again.

[Denni]

01:09 PM on 10/27/2010

No 2million dollar payoff for David Frum... I'm not upset that he doesn't appear on FN, I don't watch FN, just noting the hypocrisy.

[nothingchanges]

10:24 AM on 10/27/2010

When you can't sell a less than stellar product based on it's merits, you have to resort to exploiting your customers base emotions.

Fox does this better than any company in America. Their ratings are proof of that.

[ta2t2o]

01:09 AM on 10/28/2010

Good thing Hannity, O'Reilly and Beck aren't on opposite Sponge Bob.

[Adam616]

02:18 AM on 10/27/2010

"Fox Wants Polarization" is an earth-shattering headline, much like, "Men Want to Have Sex Often."

[JP1493]

12:54 AM on 10/27/2010

You think O'Reilly, Hannity, et al, will trash Major now too?

[Terrible Towel]

10:26 AM on 10/27/2010

of course.

[Canadian on the border]

08:30 PM on 10/26/2010

lol why is everyone bashing npr, isn't an institution allowed to have standards

[bobbyvand]

12:53 AM on 10/27/2010

Yes they are allowed to have standards. But they need to have them applied equally to all employees. Not just those that appear on Fox News.

[whiskeywisdom]

01:29 AM on 10/27/2010

Hw do you know they are not applied equally?

[catrst]

08:03 AM on 10/27/2010

I don't think your meme is correct. NPR fired Juan Williams because of the blatant profiling in his comment. Lou Dobbs was let go from CNN for the same thing. Many commentators have been let go for this. Rick Sanchez, Helen Thomas, Dr. Laura (?, I can't remember her name) to mention a few. FNC is very opportunistic and is building the idea among their listeners that they should not be consuming any other media than theirs. This is what cults do.

[LiberalDemIda]

05:01 PM on 10/26/2010

Of course FNC wants polarization. It's divide and conquer. A united people are a dangerous people, and Murdoch knows that.

I'm starting to like Major Garrett.

[NEWSWOMAN]

12:37 PM on 10/27/2010

Major Garrett was always the best commentater on Fox and I wondered why he was with them. Now I think he has found his nitch. He is a good reporter.

[Handyman2]

04:32 PM on 10/26/2010

Definition of "Left Wing": "Any political position that's no overtly right wing"

[mistlesuede]

04:25 PM on 10/26/2010

It appears that Mr. Garrett is actually a journalist reporting the truth for a change. This is the second time in two days that he has done this. Remember he broke the story about McConnell saying that "his main job is to make sure that President Obama is a one termer." That is all he (McConnell) has done for two years now from what I can see. He serves no other purpose and that is apparent.
I can only imagine that Mr. Garrett was more than a bit uncomfortable working for FOXPAC.

[LiberalDemIda]

05:04 PM on 10/26/2010

Who knows? Major Garrett is possibly the leader in bringing back our lost Fourth Estate? Dare we hope?

[MarsAmbassador]

01:39 PM on 10/27/2010

I hold out no hope for the entrenched and corporate media. The bloggers and renegade journalists that cover local and state issues are the only hope here, as are sites like WikiLeaks. Problem is they rarely have a national audience (except for WikiLeaks), and if they do they are trumped by the 'official lines' coming out of the corporate-owned media giants. I have LITTLE hope for this country if investigative journalism stays as dead as it's been for the past 10 years.

[brwnizofmine]

07:40 PM on 10/26/2010

McConnell thought he was still talking to Fox. He forgot Garrett cut them loose and told the truth. Kudos to you Major!