Fox News host reveals the moment channel went too far and he decided to quit

Chris Wallace spent almost 20 years at Fox News.

He was there as the channel pushed for war in Iraq. He was there when it ran cover for Donald Trump during his tumultuous presidency. And he was there as vaccine-skeptics were invited onto prime-time shows to demand their withdrawal.

But despite enduring, and implicitly accepting, all of that, there eventually came a point which was too much even for him.

The 2020 election, and its horrific aftermath, was the straw that broke the camel's back - when he says the channel started to throw doubt on the election result, and played down the subsequent Capitol riot.

“I’m fine with opinion: conservative opinion, liberal opinion,” Wallace told the New York Times in an interview published Sunday. “But when people start to question the truth — Who won the 2020 election? Was Jan. 6 an insurrection? — I found that unsustainable.”

He added that he “spent a lot of 2021 looking to see if there was a different place for me to do my job". He ultimately landed at CNN's new streaming service, CNN+, where his new interview show "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace?" starts on Tuesday.

Chris Wallace (L), with Donald Trump following one of the presidential debates in 2016Getty Images

Wallace said there was a step change at the channel following Donald Trump's defeat by Joe Biden in November 2020.

Despite months of panicked Fox News segments about Black Lives Matter protests across America, some people at the channel were quick to play down the violent attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Fox News' double-standards were later thrown into sharp contrast when a genius Daily Show segment dubbed anchors' BLM comments over footage of the notorious January 6 attack.

Fox News hasn't commented on his claims.

Wallace also said he was so concerned about Tucker Carlson's documentary "Patriot Purge" - which claimed January 6 was a "false flag" operation to smear conservatives - that he complained to Fox News management.

He said some people may brand him a "slow learner" for taking so long to wise-up and quit Fox News, but he said the change at the channel was more rapid than people might realise.

"Some people might have drawn the line earlier, or at a different point. I think Fox has changed over the course of the last year and a half."

Fox News often makes the news - for all the wrong reasons.

This month Sean Hannity was accused of ‘parroting Russian propaganda’ online after using a statement from the Kremlin to criticise Joe Biden on his show.

A few days earlier, Tucker Carlson asked 'Who's siding with Putin?' ... 3 years after he said he was 'rooting for Russia'.

Even attempts to boost Trump have gone awry, while attempting to list the former president's achievements, Laura Ingraham's show suffered technical difficulties, and the screen showed blank spaces where the achievements were supposed to be.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.