The pro-tariff coverage of FBN’s Charles Payne

Ethan Alter of TVNewser profiles Fox Business Network anchor Charles Payne, who has been an advocate of the United States implementing tariffs.

Alter writes, “But some on-air talent weren’t skeptical in the slightest. During the height of the tariff drama—which spanned a week from Trump’s Rose Garden announcement on April 2 to his 90-day pause on all tariffs except for China on April 9—Fox Business anchor Charles Payne was an enthusiastic supporter of Trump’s market moves.

“Even as a majority of business executives and economists forecast calamitous outcomes as stocks plunged, the Making Money host stuck to his pro-tariff stance, a position echoed by other quarters within the Fox News Media universe.

“‘I’m really thrilled at what I’ve done personally, and what I’ve seen on Fox Business,’ Payne tells TVNewser about the tenor of his coverage, which he says draws on his four decade career as a financial analyst.

“‘I’m more than just a journalist,’ he adds. ‘No one understands investors better than I do, and I take that expertise with me everyday.’ (Payne was suspended by Fox Business in the summer of 2017 following an investigation into sexual harassment claims. He returned to the airwaves that September after being cleared of the claims.)”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.