Poor CNN. They just don’t understand why no one loves them anymore, and why the Democrat candidates are now offering to do town halls on the dreaded Fox News Channel.

Yes, really. After seeing Bernie Sanders’s success during his Fox News town hall (and the Bernie-friendly crowd that was cheering him on), other Democrats are now having a change of heart.

Amy Klobuchar to hold Fox News town hall https://t.co/dtxmbJoFC5 pic.twitter.com/Zi4SUDTI0q

— New York Post (@nypost) April 17, 2019

O'Rourke says he is willing to appear on Fox News https://t.co/g1ixGmHOO2 pic.twitter.com/d9M2VydcnF

— The Hill (@thehill) April 17, 2019

Maybe those ratings numbers had something to do with it?

Fox News’ town hall featuring presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) marked the top-rated such event in the 2020 election so far, per data accumulated by Nielsen Media Research.”

The town hall, which was held from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. ET, accumulated 2,554,000 viewers total and 489,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demographic. CNN’s competing numbers for that hour were 913,000 and 281,000 in the demo, while MSNBC recorded 1,441,000 and just over 200,000 in the 25-54 range. Sanders’s appearance on the network set the record for top-rated weekday cable news program this year.”

Most of the declared 2020 candidates have already held similar events on CNN, with more to follow. South Bend, IN Mayor Pete Buttigieg is reportedly in talks to participate in a Fox News town hall of his own.”

The Democratic candidate held the event several weeks after the DNC announced they would not hold a primary debate on the network, and has since been criticized by some on the left due to Fox News’ recent spate of controversies.”

And CNN is probably staring at the refrigerator chest full of flowers that they brought for all their prom dates, who are now deciding that Fox News is so much more popular to be seen with.

There are two people who are really not happy with this turn of events. The first, obviously, is DNC Chair Tom Perez, who got snotty with anchor Bill Hemmer over the subject.

At the end of the mostly issue-oriented interview segment, Hemmer asked: “Will you reconsider your decision of having debates on the Fox News channel?”

Perez appeared ready for the question and pounced in his reply: “Here is why we won’t do that. I don’t have faith in your leadership at Fox News at the senior levels.”

“I have great respect for Bret [Baier] and for Chris [Wallace] and for you,” Perez continued, praising the news division at Fox. “But you’ve demonstrated that above your pay-grade, they don’t trust your own listeners and so they feel like they have to put their thumb on the scale.”

When asked by Hemmer who he was referring to, Perez clarified that he was referencing “the senior leadership of Fox News.”

“They have pierced that line between editorial and your Sean Hannity shows,” Perez said. “If they want to do that, that’s fine.”

Hemmer pushed back, saying “You know there is a line between what we do at 9:00 and what happens in the prime time. It’s like reading a newspaper, Tom. And it has been the same way for a long time. I really hope you come back. I really hope you reconsider.”

Perez got in one last comment saying “I hope you have a good conversation with the people at the top to say don’t do that.”

And now with Amy Klobuchar and Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke saying that they would like to have some actual viewers pay attention to them (Beto especially is feeling the heat right now, as the media seem to have fallen out of love with him and focused on their new crush, Pete Buttigieg), this has got to be chafing Tom Perez’s hide like a case of poison ivy. I’m pretty sure he’s sticking needles into a voodoo doll of Bernie right now, cursing him for this.

But the other person who is not happy with Democrats being on Fox News is…. Donald Trump.

Many Trump Fans & Signs were outside of the @FoxNews Studio last night in the now thriving (Thank you President Trump) Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for the interview with Crazy Bernie Sanders. Big complaints about not being let in-stuffed with Bernie supporters. What’s with @FoxNews?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2019

According to reports, Trump is not happy that Fox News is being nice to Democrats.

It was late March, and Donald Trump was preoccupied with the swirl of new investigations launched by House Democrats against him and his inner sanctum, and with the coming delivery of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s long-awaited report on Russian election meddling and Trump’s possible obstruction of justice.”

In the midst of all this, there was another question weighing heavily on the president’s mind: Was Fox News, his favorite organ of conservative media and pro-Trump messaging, being sufficiently subservient to him?”

“Keep an eye on it,” Trump started telling aides, according to two people with direct knowledge of his directive, in conversations about what was going on behind-the-scenes at Fox, and if there was any cause for concern for even the slightest positive coverage of any Democrat.”

To any casual observer of Fox News or the Fox Business Network, this might seem like a hilariously irrational fear. The networks’ ratings-driving primetime lineups are jam-packed with vociferous Trump defenders, and some of Fox’s biggest names—such as Pete Hegseth, Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Rupert Murdoch, to name just a few—have long served as sounding boards, phone-a-friends, and informal advisors to the president.”

But privately, President Trump had been raising these questions of institutional loyalty, on-and-off, since at least the middle of last year. Several people who’ve heard him do this view it as more of a gutcheck than a loss of faith, and as yet another indication that Trump can interpret even the smallest deviations as a slight or a betrayal.”

Now, this is a report from The Daily Beast, so a grain of salt is warranted. However, it would not shock me in the least that Donald Trump saw Fox News as “his,” because CNN and MSNBC, along with so many other outlets, are basically mouthpieces for the Democrat party (example A being when Dafna Linzer of NBC/MSNBC tried to put the screws to Yashar Ali in order to keep him from breaking news before the DNC did). I can completely see Trump thinking “those are yours, but Fox News is mine” when it comes to media favorability. And we all know Trump is big on personal loyalty. So yes, he isn’t going to like it one bit if he sees Democrats getting fair treatment where he has always gotten favorable coverage.

Fox News Channel is trying to be an actual news outlet. They’ve seen the ratings; they know they’re beating CNN handily. But any sensible news outlet knows they need to keep drawing fresh eyes. No one loses from having Democrats do town halls on Fox News. Well, no one except CNN (who is probably texting all the Democratic candidates right now, asking if they still “like like” them).

Featured image: Bernie Sanders on the Fox News Channel town hall, screenshot from April 15, 2019, via Fox News and Bernie Sanders on YouTube