Fired Fox News political editor said television news as entertainment has 'really damaged' Americans' capacity to be 'good citizens'

Chris Stirewalt, a former Fox News political editor, said he was surprised by the internal uproar that erupted after Fox called for President Joe Biden to run for president.

Stirewalt, who was fired from Fox in January 2021, testified before the January 6 committee investigating the Capitol riot on Monday, telling lawmakers that former President Donald Trump's chance at victory was virtually zero after most networks called the election for Biden.

Stirewalt said he was confident in his team's work despite the fact that Trump was angry that Fox called the swing state of Arizona for Biden. Biden won the state by a large margin.

Stirewalt said that they were able to make a call early. We were able to win.

Stirewalt didn't expect the backlash that followed the accurate projection.

Stirewalt told David Folkenflik that people close to Trump were trying to get Fox executives to back off.

We do not give any electoral votes. We don't vote. Stirewalt told NPR that they are some nerds in a room. We are not making anything happen.

He told the outlet that he was dissatisfied with the state of network news in the United States.

The perception of events of television as entertainment, news as entertainment, and treating it like a sport had damaged the capacity of Americans to be good citizens in a republic.

Fox News' opinion hosts repeated baseless claims about Trump's odds and the sanctity of the election in order to make Trump's supporters angry at the Arizona decision.

Fox News should be proud of what we did. Stirewalt said that they should have been lifted up and that they should have defended the journalists they hired.

The Arizona projection caused Fox to fire Stirewalt. His dismissal was not commented on by the network.

He spoke about the "murderous rage" and attacks he faced from conservatives after the call. He toldNPR that he hopes the sensationalism of 2020 is over.

Are we going to look back on 2020 to see if it was weird? Are we about to enter a new chapter in American history where we can't agree on the results of the election? Stirewalt spoke.