According to emails obtained by the Sierra Club via a Freedom of Information Act request and shared with TheWrap, Fox News producers and EPA staffers showed remarkable levels of pre-show cooperation between media and government officials that fall well outside journalistic practices.
“Would this be okay as the setup to his segment?” Fox producer Diana Aloi asked EPA press secretary Amy Graham before a May 2017 appearance by Scott Pruitt, according to one email. Graham had already sent Aloi several talking points Pruitt wanted to cover during his “Fox & Friends” hit.
“There’s a new direction at the Environmental Protection Agency under President Trump–and it includes a back-to-basics approach,” Aloi wrote. “This after the Obama administration left behind a huge mess more than 1,300 super-fund sites which are heavily contaminated–still require clean-ups. So why was President Obama touted as an environmental savior if all these problems still exist?”
Graham was apparently satisfied, responding, “Yes — perfect.” The following day’s show stuck to the agreed-upon script.
According to the emails, Pruitt’s team routinely reviewed talking points with Fox News producers beforehand — talking points that networks hosts rarely deviated from. Coal mining and a claim President Trump’s border wall would endanger jaguars were two other topics green lit by Pruitt’s team and discussed on the show.
Read More: thewrap.com
Fox News Allows Ex-EPA Chief Scott Pruitt to Review ‘Fox & Friends’ Scripts Before Appearances
