Fox News allegedly offered Democratic 2020 candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren a platform for a town hall, but Warren is now bragging that she turned it down because it would only help the “hate-for-profit machine” Fox News.

According to a page on Elizabeth Warren’s website, you’re hit with bold all-caps letters that read: “FOX NEWS INVITED ELIZABETH TO DO A TOWN HALL. SHE TURNED THEM DOWN.”

This is then followed by an explanation as to why:

A Democratic town hall gives the Fox News sales team a way to tell potential sponsors it’s safe to buy ads on Fox — no harm to their brand or reputation. So Elizabeth won’t ask millions of Democratic primary voters to tune into an outlet that profits from racism and hate in order to see our candidates.

Below that is a call to fight “profits from racism and hate” by signing up for Warren’s mailing list.

Charming.

Warren also took to Twitter for a hard-earned victory lap.

“Fox News is a hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists—it’s designed to turn us against each other, risking life and death consequences, to provide cover for the corruption that’s rotting our government and hollowing out our middle class,” tweeted Warren.

“Hate-for-profit works only if there’s profit, so Fox News balances a mix of bigotry, racism, and outright lies with enough legit journalism to make the claim to advertisers that it’s a reputable news outlet. It’s all about dragging in ad money—big ad money,” she added.

https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1128314854622859265

Hate-for-profit works only if there’s profit, so Fox News balances a mix of bigotry, racism, and outright lies with enough legit journalism to make the claim to advertisers that it’s a reputable news outlet. It’s all about dragging in ad money—big ad money.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 14, 2019

Warren then claimed that Fox News is struggling due to loss of advertisers in their “hate-filled” space and that Warren’s presence would signal to corporations (corporations she’s promising to strangle if she’s elected) that it’s okay to run ads on Fox News.

But Fox News is struggling as more and more advertisers pull out of their hate-filled space. A Democratic town hall gives the Fox News sales team a way to tell potential sponsors it's safe to buy ads on Fox—no harm to their brand or reputation (spoiler: It’s not).

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 14, 2019

If the claim is true, Fox News still hasn’t confirmed it as of this writing.

The thing is, Fox News offering Warren a platform would be doing her a favor. At this time, CNN and MSNBC combined can’t equal out to the prime time viewership of Fox News.

What’s more, Fox News isn’t struggling monetarily as Bloomberg seemed to begrudgingly admit at the end of last March:

The new Fox is valued at $23 billion, most of which hinges on the success of Fox News. About 90 percent of Fox Corp.’s cable-network Ebitda may come from the Fox News brand, estimates Michael Nathanson, an analyst for MoffettNathanson LLC. And with Fox News Channel’s cash-flow margin of nearly 60 percent in 2018, it has a big lead over Comcast Corp.’s MSNBC and AT&T Inc.’s CNN, according to estimates by Kagan, a unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The likely story is that Warren is afraid of appearing on Fox News. There are questions she doesn’t want to be asked, and answers she’d rather not be seen giving, or more likely, not giving. There are narratives she’d rather keep intact, and the idea of any further embarrassment on her part is likely a terrifying concept for her.

It’s not likely that Warren is going to win the nomination, much less the White House. Trump knows how to get under her skin, and she demonstrated it gloriously with an unnecessary DNA test. For Warren, Fox News is frightening. It would be great exposure, but it would be exposed in a forum that would be challenging.

If Warren has learned anything, run-ins with the truth are damaging to her brand.