Fox News was the first major outlet to predict the House would flip to blue, in a show of professional confidence that drew praise from journalists.

Sean Hannity of the Fox News Channel appears onstage at a political rally with Donald J. Trump, a move that drew outrage from rank-and-file journalists working for Fox News.

The decision desk’s call made me think that somewhere — under all its appalling propaganda and conspiracy peddling — a beating heart of news is still pumping away, however wany, at Fox.

The problem is that Fox has done itself so much harm by letting Hannity and its other fear-mongering pundits run wild that even its best work immediately drew howls of disbelief and distrust. It’s the network that cried wolf.

And so, shortly after the call was made, Twitter erupted with conspiracy theories: That Fox was going out on this limb for cynical political purposes: to discourage Democrats who hadn’t voted from bothering to do so.

But that wasn’t the case.

It was just good mechanics — and plenty of confidence — from the team that had set up a new voter analysis system at the network, the details of which haven’t been revealed. —Margaret Sullivan (Opinion, Washington Post)