NEW YORK (AP) – A Fox News official said on Saturday that the network had not paid Kyle Rittenhouse’s family for any special access during Rittenhouse’s murder trial or after his acquittal, after it was reported that ‘he would speak to Tucker Carlson for an interview to air on Monday.
The comment came after Rittenhouse trial attorney Mark Richards said a Fox documentary team was put on the Rittenhouse team against their will. Richards told The Associated Press on Saturday that he didn’t think the shoot was appropriate and that he had fired the team on several occasions.
“It was not approved by me, but I am not always in control,” he told the AP. “I think it affected what we were trying to do, and obviously that was to get Kyle to be found not guilty.”
Richards, to the AP and in similar remarks to CNN Friday night, said it was organized by those who fundraise for Rittenhouse, although he did not say Fox paid Rittenhouse.
Carlson, on his Friday show, showed clips of what his film crew recorded, including Rittenhouse’s first public comments after he was acquitted of murder charges in a trial that sparked a nationwide debate over firearms and self-defense.
Justin Wells, senior executive producer of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” said no payment was made for access, registration fees, legal fees or any other purpose to Rittenhouse or his family.
It is considered unethical for a news agency to pay for an interview. Broadcasters have found workarounds for highly sought after interview topics, including paying for old photos or hosting an interview topic in different locations and placing them in hotels.
David Hancock, spokesperson for the Rittenhouse family, said any potential payment from Fox “has never been offered and has never been requested and has never been discussed.”
The intention of the documentary, which is due to air next month on streaming service Fox Nation, is to commemorate Rittenhouse’s experience during the trial and to show people who he really is, he said. .
By choosing Fox, the Rittenhouse family is presenting the story to an audience most likely to be supportive. The Conservatives paid his $ 2 million bond after his arrest last year. A website devoted to defending and raising funds for Rittenhouse greets visitors with a quote attributed to James Monroe: “The right to self-defense never ceases.”
Carlson was chosen to conduct the first post-trial interview with Rittenhouse because he “was honest. At the very beginning he saw what was going on and he pointed out that Kyle was defending himself, ”Hancock said.
The spokesperson said Rittenhouse plans to do further interviews with other news organizations, although they have yet to be scheduled.
In Carlson, the 18-year-old will sit down with an interviewer who said on his Friday night show that it was “a day we should all party.”
Carlson, along with his colleagues Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, performed victory tricks on their shows and attacked politicians and members of the media who believed Rittenhouse should be doomed.
“For the authoritarians among us, this is a disaster,” Carlson said. “They can’t give up. Why? Because they understand that the Rittenhouse case is a referendum on the most basic right of all – the old right of self-defense. If Kyle Rittenhouse can save his own life from the mob, so can you, and it’s driving them crazy.
Speaking to CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Friday, Richards said Rittenhouse “is going to have some tough choices in his life as to which direction he takes and what he stands for. These will eventually have to be made by Kyle. … He must learn to take responsibility and say “no”.
Richards also told reporter Ashleigh Banfield in a separate interview that while he’s “not a big Fox guy,” he also had harsh words for some of the covers he saw on CNN and MSNBC.
“It pisses me off that they couldn’t take the time to at least correct the generic and basic facts because it didn’t fit the story they wanted to tell,” he said.
