Fox News spends bucks to poke fun at The New York Times

NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News Channel gave The New York Times more than $100,000 to poke fun at the newspaper.

Fox ran a full-page advertisement in the Times on Thursday, blurbing a recent review in the newspaper that called the “Fox & Friends” morning show “the most powerful TV show in America.”

Television critic James Poniewozik’s review wasn’t exactly complimentary, as it traced the show’s close relationship with the nation’s tweeter-in-chief, President Donald Trump.

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In addition to the Times, Fox News ran the same full-page ad in the Washington Post and New York Post. The network wouldn’t say how much it spent. The Times’ ad rates say a full-page ad with color generally runs around $130,000.

“They’ve decided to move upmarket and support our journalism with their money,” said Mark Thompson, the Times’ CEO, president and director. “So we’re very pleased to have them.”

Trump, and by extension many Fox News viewers, generally don’t look kindly at the Times. The three hosts of “Fox & Friends” held up newspapers with the ad clearly visible at the top of their show on Thursday.

“For The New York Times to say that, it must have been tough,” said Brian Kilmeade, one of the show’s hosts.

In his review, Poniewozik called the show an “interactive magic mirror” for Trump.

“For years, it was a nontaxing mix of news, lifestyle and conservative couch gab, a warm-up before Fox’s day of politics and commentary,” Poniewozik wrote. “Suddenly, for no other reason than its No. 1 fan, it is the most powerful TV show in America.”

Poniewozik outlined how Trump has frequently tweeted out material from “Fox & Friends,” illustrating that he’s watching in the morning, and the show reports on his tweets.

“Diagraming the feedback loop between ‘Fox & Friends’ and the president requires a very small bulletin board and maybe six inches of yarn,” he wrote.

As if to prove his point, the president tweeted at 6:48 a.m. on Thursday: “Wow, the failing @NYTimes said about @foxandfriends ‘...the most powerful TV show in America.’”