Amid a torrent of negative press for former President Donald Trump in Rupert Murdoch-owned outlets, and a splashy new A1 New York Times story suggesting that he’s being frozen out at Fox News, one prominent host on the network insists that there’s no ban on the former commander in chief.

In a commentary on Sunday’s edition of MediaBuzz, Fox News host Howard Kurtz took umbrage with the Times report, and stated that Trump is not forbidden from appearing on the network.

“A front page New York Times story this weekend strongly suggests that Fox News has not interviewed Donald Trump for over 100 days because the Murdoch family, whose Wall Street Journal and New York Post have run highly critical editorials, is said to have soured on him,” Kurtz said. “But I can report, there is no edict whatsoever against having Trump on this network.”

Kurtz added that he recently has asked Trump to appear on his own show.

“I have reached out myself with an invitation some weeks ago and people close to the former president confirmed he has not said yes to any Fox show or been turned down after asking to be on a Fox show, just for the record,” Kurtz said.

The New York Post and Wall Street Journal editorials to which Kurtz is referring both ran on the day after the most recently Jan. 6 committee hearing. The editorial boards of both papers laced into Trump — with the Post calling him “unworthy” of office, and the Journal writing that he “utterly failed.”

Fox News also recently posted a three-minute video featuring a group of one-time Trump supporters stating their preference that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) be the GOP standard bearer in 2024. They also, on Tuesday, aired 15 minutes of a Washington speech by former Vice President Mike Pence, and ignored a Trump DC speech later in the day.

The Times report said that Trump — who has not been interviewed on Fox News since mid-April — has complained that the network has ignored him.

‘In the former president’s view, according to two people who have spoken to him recently, Fox’s ignoring him is an affront far worse than running stories and commentary that he has complained are ‘too negative,'” wrote Times reporter Jeremy Peters. “The network is effectively displacing him from his favorite spot: the center of the news cycle. … Mr. Trump has complained recently to aides that even Sean Hannity, his friend of 20 years, doesn’t seem to be paying him much attention anymore, one person who spoke to him recalled.”

Watch above, via Fox News.

The post Fox’s Howard Kurtz Takes Umbrage With NY Times Report That Trump is Persona Non Grata at the Network: ‘No Edict Whatsoever’ Against Him first appeared on Mediaite.

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