The media world was shocked when veteran news anchor Chris Wallace left Fox News channel after 18 years to join CNN in December of last year.
Now, Chris Wallace is speaking out, trying to shed some light on the reasons behind his decision to leave the conservative network.
In the first interview he has given since his departure, Wallace told The New York Times:
“I just no longer felt comfortable with the programming at Fox. I’m fine with opinion: conservative opinion, liberal opinion … But when people start to question the truth — Who won the 2020 election? Was Jan. 6 an insurrection? — I found that unsustainable.”
Wallace was seen as an outlier on Fox News — as he was one of the few big-name stars on the channel who openly contradicted the conservative voices typically featured on the network. But following the 2020 election, Wallace said he felt a clear shift at Fox News as the network got rid of its nightly newscast and promoted its more “controversial” hosts.
“Before, I found it was an environment in which I could do my job and feel good about my involvement at Fox. And since November of 2020, that just became unsustainable, increasingly unsustainable as time went on,” Wallace told the New York Times.
“One of the reasons that I left Fox was because I wanted to put all of that behind me. There has not
been a moment when I have second-guessed myself about that decision,” the news anchor added.
A TV insider told the publication that Chris Wallace is now feeling “irate” over the news that Jeff Zucker has resigned from CNN, according to a new report from Radar last month.
After his decision to leave Fox News, Wallace said in a statement “I am honored and delighted to join
Jeff Zucker and his great team.”Zucker had returned the praise, saying “it is not often that a news organization gets the opportunity
to bring someone of Chris Wallace’s caliber on board.”Wallace is set to host an interview program on CNN+ the embattled network’s digital streaming
service.Now, with Zucker gone, Wallace is “second-guessing his decision.”
“Chris is the type of person who makes it known if he doesn’t like something,” the insider told
Radar.
“He went over there for Zucker and now Zucker is gone. Wallace feels that he has been stiffed. He’s
got no staff, no Executive Producer, and the guy he gave up a prized gig for has just walked out the
door,” he continued.“It’s no secret in DC that Wallace hates Jake Tapper and despises Sam Feist,” the source added.
“Zucker spun his magic to allay Chris’ concern about the pair, promising that his status as a ‘premiere
journalist’ would not be compromised while working out of the DC bureau.