October 4th, 2017 — Top Headlines
#1: Talks of Secretary of State Tillerson resigning and allegedly calling President Trump a moron
NBC News: Rex Tillerson almost resigned in July; now rift with Trump reportedly deepens
NBC News: Tillerson’s Fury at Trump Required an Intervention From Pence (after Tillerson press conference)
Fox News: Tillerson blasts report of rift with Trump, as president rips ‘fake news’
Fox News: NBC News won’t apologize to America despite Trump’s ‘fake news’ claim
Fox News: Tillerson denies he weighed resigning or called boss ‘moron’
CNN: President Trump focuses anti-media ire on NBC after Tillerson ‘moron’ report
NYT: Tillerson’s News Conference Only Highlights Strains With Trump
The real news story here is whether or not the secretary of state is going to resign. However, the press decides to take the tabloid approach and focus on the name-calling gossip (more eyeballs and clicks?). NBC breaks the news on this story and tries to play it up in the headline. After Tillerson’s news conference, NBC doubles down and goes after him again and fails to report in the headlines that Tillerson denied thinking about resigning.
CNN and NYT want to highlight any potential strains between Tillerson and Trump. The White House has seen a number of departures in recent months and they want the readers to think another one may be on the way.
Fox News knows “fake news” is a trigger for their conservative audience, so they make sure to mention that in the headlines. Notably, Fox News has a headline saying Tillerson denies resignation talks AND calling Trump a moron. Tillerson did not directly deny the latter during the press conference, but did later through a spokeswoman. Its a bit misleading in the headline, but more importantly other outlets don’t mention Tillerson denying the “moron” report.
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