President Donald Trump has put his allies in a difficult position with his insistence on outing the White House whistleblower.
"The Whistleblower got it sooo wrong that HE must come forward," Trump tweeted on Sunday. "Reveal the Whistleblower and end the Impeachment Hoax!"
Donald Trump, Jr. followed his father's stance -- and faced significant backlash after outing the whistleblower on Wednesday.
The attorney representing the whistleblower believes that the outing campaign puts the whistleblower's entire family at risk.
While Trump's son is siding with him on outing the whistleblower, Trump will not be receiving the same support from Fox News.
"Fox News hosts and personalities have been instructed over the last several days not to identify the whistleblower whose complaint sparked an impeachment probe against President Trump," CNN reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
"Several hosts and commentators on the network who have been supportive of President Trump seem to want to name the person they believe to be the whistleblower, but Fox's guidelines have said not to do so," CNN noted. "Right-wing media hyped a report from a website last week which claimed it had likely identified the possible whistleblower. Fox is perhaps the only major component of the right-wing media machine that has, thus far, refrained from naming the person identified by that story."
CNN obtained an email from a Fox executive ordering production staff to "NOT fulfill any video or graphic requests" related to the whistleblower's identity.
"Much of Fox effectively operates as a messaging arm of the White House. Its opinion hosts have defended the President at nearly every turn, and the network employs a stable of pro-Trump contributors who appear throughout the day to offer commentary," CNN noted. "Fox's news anchors and journalists also frequently cover the day's news from angles beneficial to the Trump White House."
