Brian Stelter Says Jesse Watters ‘Has Taken Over as the Fox Primetime Extremist’

Former CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter branded Fox News host Jesse Watters as the network’s new “primetime extremist” on Friday in response to Watters’ comments about Muslims and Arab Americans.

During an interview with Stelter on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, host Joy Reid played the viral clip from Nov. 1 of Watters on The Five saying he has “had it” with “Arab Americans” and “the Muslim world.”

Watters is also the host of Jesse Watters Primetime.

Reid asked Stelter, “Is it a bottom-up thing? Is this the audience craves this and so Fox serves it, or are they engineering this kind of necrophilic attitude toward American culture and divisiveness?”

He replied, “In the Roger Ailes era, it was top-down. But now, as you said, it is bottom-up. It is now driven by the audience. The audience is in charge, which is a scary prospect sometimes, even though I love our viewers right now, Joy.”

Reacting to MSNBC’s chyron, which read, “Jesse Watters takes over from Tucker Carlson as Fox’s prime-time extremist,” Stelter said:

I agree with your banner a moment ago. Jesse Watters has taken over as the Fox primetime extremist. They think they are, quote, “respecting the audience,” and that’s the quote that comes up time and time again in the treasure trove of emails from 2020. They think they’re respecting the audience by giving the audience what they want, but that’s actually disrespectful, and you know what? It’s hurt the GOP.

Stelter concluded, “Look at what happened to the off-year elections on Tuesday. I would argue that Fox is actually sometimes hurting the Republican Party that it thinks it’s helping, and that’s an interesting dynamic going into 2024.”

Watch above via MSNBC.