It’s been a wild two weeks for the stock markets as President Donald Trump‘s new slate of tariffs stoked the embers of a global trade war.
The ensuing roller coaster ride through the market’s peaks and valleys has been a ratings-driver for CNBC and Fox Business, as well as the big three cable news networks. Trump administration officials have made numerous appearances on those outlets to argue the case for calm amidst the chaos—frequently in the face of skeptical reactions from anchors and economic experts.
But some on-air talent weren’t skeptical in the slightest. During the height of the tariff drama—which spanned a week from Trump’s Rose Garden announcement on April 2 to his 90-day pause on all tariffs except for China on April 9—Fox Business anchor Charles Payne was an enthusiastic supporter of Trump’s market moves.
Even as a majority of business executives and economists forecast calamitous outcomes as stocks plunged, the Making Money host stuck to his pro-tariff stance, a position echoed by other quarters within the Fox News Media universe.
“I’m really thrilled at what I’ve done personally, and what I’ve seen on Fox Business,” Payne tells TVNewser about the tenor of his coverage, which he says draws on his four decade career as a financial analyst.
“I’m more than just a journalist,” he adds. “No one understands investors better than I do, and I take that expertise with me everyday.” (Payne was suspended by Fox Business in the summer of 2017 following an investigation into sexual harassment claims. He returned to the airwaves that September after being cleared of the claims.)
Far from feeling the need to defend Fox, Payne points the finger at other media outlets for “fanning the flames” of investor and consumer fear through their reporting. “I think it’s unfair to the viewer when only one potential worst case scenario is presented,” he argues.
But other media watchers feel that non-Fox networks more accurately captured the damage Trump’s tariffs inflicted on both the American and global markets.
“While not a fan of Fox News, their financial coverage is typically fair,” Les Rose, a professor of broadcast and digital journalism at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, notes to TVNewser. “To suggest what has happened on the markets in the past week is anything but insane flies in the face of what most other financial analysts are saying and, from a broadcast perspective is, unfortunately, what I have come to expect from Fox.”