Fox backs off Women’s March coverage ... for Trump at church

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Protesters gather in midtown Manhattan as part of the Women's march vowing to resist US President Trump. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:53pm, 22 Jan 2017Updated: 10:20pm, 22 Jan 2017

The three main US cable news networks may have been equal in their wall-to-wall coverage of Friday’s inauguration and its festivities, but during their coverage of the Women’s March on Washington, the historical divide between Fox News and its compatriots had been firmly reinstated.

CNN, MSNBC and Fox News were all dinged by many viewers for choosing to open their Saturday morning coverage with footage of newly minted US President Donald Trump at the National Prayer Service rather than the estimated 500,000 marchers.

But whereas by midmorning CNN and MSNBC had turned their multi-screened attention to the throngs of protesters, Fox, which had drawn a tweet of praise from the president for its coverage of the inauguration, continued to do just that.

Showing shots of the White House, Fox recapped the previous day’s events, discussed the swearing-in of the secretary of Defence and reported on the Trump family’s bowling in their new Pennsylvania Avenue home.

As the day wore on and millions marched and rallied around the country, commentators at MSNBC and CNN repeatedly expressed surprise at the number of people involved and invited a wide range of conversation about what such an event could mean for the country.