Brian Stelter on Fox News and Reed Hastings on Netflix
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In his new book, “Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth,” the CNN journalist Brian Stelter provides what our reviewer David Enrich called “a thorough and damning exploration of the incestuous relationship between Trump and his favorite channel.” Stelter talks about “Hoax” on this week’s podcast.
“Fox’s influence is constant,” he says. “When Trump threatened North Korea and said he had a bigger button than Kim Jong-un, it was because of a Fox segment. When he grants pardons, it’s because of Fox. When he attacks big technology companies, it’s because of Fox. When he raged about migrant caravans, it was because of Fox.” Stelter contrasts this with previous presidents, who may have taken cues from the media but not in such an overwhelming way. “Barack Obama watched ESPN in the evening rather than MSNBC. George W. Bush might have watched some Fox, but he wasn’t consumed by it the way that this president is. So it’s an unprecedented relationship, it really is.”
Reed Hastings, the co-chief executive of Netflix, visits the podcast to talk about his new book, written with Erin Meyer, “No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention.” “I think all forms of entertainment, including video games and YouTube and books and television, compete for people’s attentions,” Hastings says. “But any one form is not going to achieve success by imitating another. So we don’t sit around and say, ‘Let’s make our movies to be more like Fortnite, the video game.’”
Also on this week’s episode, Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; and MJ Franklin and John Williams talk about what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.
Here are the books discussed in this week’s “What We’re Reading”:
- “A Legacy” by Sybille Bedford
- “The Heart’s Invisible Furies” by John Boyne
- “The Soul of an Octopus” by Sy Montgomery
- “The Book of Eels” by Patrik Svensson
We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.