The Associated Press, who collaborated with Fox on a voter analysis survey that was used to determine the election results, seconded the call of Arizona for Biden.
[18] Bill Hemmer, standing at the Fox News election map, was caught by surprise when Arizona "flipped to blue".
"[21] Expressing pride in "being first to project that Joe Biden would win Arizona, and very happy to defend that call in the face of a public backlash egged on by former President Trump," in a Los Angeles Times op-ed, Stirewalt stated that: "Being right and beating the competition is no act of heroism; it's just meeting the job description of the work I love.
In hindsight, he realized the impact as "effective in defeating Trump's attempt to disrupt the election––to steal an election, because yes, the narrative was broken.
[23] "Chris Stirewalt's leaving had nothing to do with the correct Arizona call by the Fox decision desk," Rupert Murdoch stated in an email to The Washington Post, rather Murdoch was concerned about "Stirewalt's on-air manner, which he perceived as overly casual for a discussion of the election results."
Though respected in the Fox newsroom, analysis of "ratings on a minute-by-minute basis" indicated viewership flattening or falling during Stirewalt's frequent appearances.
[24] Stirewalt's first book, Every Man a King: A Short, Colorful History of American Populists, was published in September 2018[25] by Twelve.
[26] In it he writes about Andrew Jackson, William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, Huey Long, George Wallace, Pat Buchanan, and H. Ross Perot.
[27][28] He is the author of the book, Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back, published by Hachette imprint Center Street in August 2022.