Is it true that Fox News Channel did not air the impeachment proceedings on Wednesday, February 10, 2021? No, that's not true: Fox News aired the impeachment from the beginning at 12 p.m. EST to 5 p.m. EST, and then cut away at 5 p.m. to air the network's "The Five" panel talk show. While the proceedings were on Fox during "The Five," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called a recess around 5:25 pm. Fox News resumed coverage again around 6:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. when the channel cut away again for "Fox News Primetime." Impeachment proceedings continued past 7 p.m.
The claim appeared in a tweet thread (archived here) posted by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on February 10, 2021. The tweet read:
Thinking of it particularly because Fox News Channel has not been taking the trial today. There will be a disconnect between GOP Senators seeing all this stuff, and their base voters whose news today was, like, culture war stuff about the NBA or the War on Christmas or whatever.
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Thu Feb 11 00:05:45 2021 UTC)
A couple hours later, Maddow tweeted partially clarifying her earlier tweet:
(To be clear, Fox did take some of the trial today but they bugged out early)
-- Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) February 11, 2021
At 5 p.m. when the network cut away, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) showed never-before-seen security camera footage and explained just how close the insurrectionists came to being face to face with members of congress.
Here's the moment @FoxNews abruptly cut away from the #ImpeachmentTrial so viewers could hear vital analysis from @JesseBWatters, @greggutfeld and @JudgeJeanine https://t.co/Ao2nmaJ19O pic.twitter.com/qzjugmngCF
-- Matt Wilstein (@mattwilstein) February 10, 2021
Lead Stories spoke to press officers for both Fox News and MSNBC and neither would comment on the record on their respective networks' decisions.
