Everything you’re hearing, reading and seeing about the big Fox News meltdown Tuesday night — Karl Rove refutes Ohio call; goads Megyn Kelly to leap from desk to confront the channel’s statisticians and demand an explanation — is wrong.
Or at least a long way out of context. Because no matter how genuine Rove’s denialist fury might have been, the dramatic climax of the scene — Kelly’s abrupt trip down the FNC hall to confront the statistician’s in their little lair — was a put-on.
Here’s how you can see it for yourself. First of all, watch the video. At 1:10 you’ll hear Kelly say “….when we practiced this before, uh, in our rehearsals…” as she starts to talk about her earpiece reception. Then notice one more thing: Right about then the perspective shifts from the cameras that followed her out of the studio to another camera crew waiting for her at the far end of the hall.
I have no idea what FNC was hoping to achieve with this pre-planned stunt. Did they want to affirm their conservative street cred by establishing the distance (physical and spiritual) between the fact guys and the Republican advocacy they perform virtually 24/7? Or were they signaling the exact opposite point; establishing that the network actually can play it straight even when it means undermining their philosophical agenda?
Your guess is precisely as good as mine. But I can tell you two things for sure: Nothing in that segment happened by accident; and if the real goal was to get as much attention as possible, they succeeded majestically..