In Which Oliver Darcy's Fox News Hypocrisy Accidentally Gets Exposed by ... CNN's Oliver Darcy

AP featured image — *People walk outside CNN Center, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Ron Harris)*

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One of the chief criticisms from CNN’s media tag team of Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy about Fox News is how the latter allegedly does not air diverse and differing viewpoints. This is, they claim, because their anchors and journalists have received marching orders from the top not to deviate from whatever President Trump says on any given issue.

Fox News, Stelter and Darcy insinuate in every tweet and live segment about Fox, is nothing more than a mouthpiece for Trump. Trump gives out marching orders and “right-wing media” outlets like Fox News fall into line, according to Stelter and Darcy.

This piece written by Darcy last week is a classic example:

Major news organizations are reflecting this grim [Wuhan coronavirus] reality with clear-eyed reporting, bold headlines, and historic front pages. So what is Trump, Fox News, and the right-wing media machine doing? They’re constructing a separate alternate reality to keep their fans distracted from the news and outraged at the long-standing villains in the right-wing media universe.

With all of that in mind, it might surprise people to find out that Darcy tweeted out a different kind of criticism of Fox News in the aftermath of all the media outlets including CNN that predictably went bonkers after Trump told reporters Monday he had been taking hydroxychloroquine as a Wuhan coronavirus preventative after consulting with the White House doctor.

Darcy’s criticism of Fox News’s coverage of the story? That there was no unified opinion on it at Fox. Instead, there were … differing views among anchors and guests, which did not seem to compute with Darcy:

Fox can't get its story straight: While one host zings Trump for taking hydorxychloroquine, another host encourages its use. While one medical contributor calls it "highly irresponsible," another says it's "reasonable." What are viewers to believe? https://t.co/6tWjJ1llnR

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 19, 2020

It was the first story he pushed in his and Stelter’s nightly newsletter. The headline he used was “Fox vs. Fox.”

Darcy outed himself here. Not only as someone who was flip-flopping from his prior claims about how Fox News supposedly spoke with one voice instead of allowing a diversity of viewpoints, but also as someone who at one point in his career used to understand there was a difference between straight news reporting and opinion/commentary programming:

Fox is State TV that only airs what Trump tells them to on CoronaVirus drugs.

Fox can’t get multiple opinions to fall in line.

Oliver Darcy and the network who pays him thinks you’re stupid. pic.twitter.com/zjiUKzwuap

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 19, 2020

Oliver Darcy on the "Opinion vs. Hard News" distinction at the Washington Post versus Oliver Darcy on the "Opinion vs. Hard News" distinction at Fox News. pic.twitter.com/k0mH0BW1Gk

— James Hasson (@JamesHasson20) May 19, 2020

You just revealed why Fox has kicked CNN’s ass in the ratings for years but you’re not bright enough to understand why.

Diversity of thought and opinion.

CNN doesn’t have it. Fox does.

And you actually thinking this makes CNN superior to Fox is VERY revealing.

— Brian Cates //Flynn & Breitbart’s Army! (@drawandstrike) May 19, 2020