A few days ago we got a glimpse at a deposition in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox News. It showed that primetime stars like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson knew that conspiracy theories about ballot machines were nonsense, but didn't want to stop talking about it because it might be bad for ratings.
Today brings us a further deposition. This time it's Fox News's billionaire owner, Rupert Murdoch, being questioned. Here's the Washington Post:
When asked in particular if Fox News host Jeanine Pirro was among the hosts who endorsed the claims, Murdoch replied “I think so.” He said that former host Lou Dobbs did so “a lot,” and that prime-time host Sean Hannity did so “a bit.” Yet Murdoch denied that Fox itself endorsed the claims.
....In the filing on Monday, Murdoch is quoted saying that it was “wrong” to allow MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, a staunch Trump ally, to appear on Tucker Carlson’s show in January 2021, during which he repeated allegations against Dominion. And he acknowledged that he could have stopped Giuliani from appearing on his network “but didn’t.”
And this from the New York Times:
Dominion’s latest filing also described how Paul D. Ryan, a former Republican speaker of the House and current member of the Fox Corporation board of directors, said in his deposition that he had told Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Murdoch’s son Lachlan, the chief executive officer, “Fox News should not be spreading conspiracy theories.” Mr. Ryan suggested that the network pivot and “move on from Donald Trump and stop spouting election lies.”
On January 5, Murdoch and [CEO Suzanne Scott] discussed whether hosts Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham should say some version of “The election is over and Joe Biden won.” Murdoch believed those words “would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election was stolen.”
Scott told Murdoch that “privately they are all there” but “we need to be careful about using the shows and pissing off the viewers.”
I would also offer you a quote from the Wall Street Journal—owned by one Rupert Murdoch—but they're apparently less motivated to report this story than other outlets. I'm sure they'll have something soon.
All this is just warmed and humid air passed over cartilage in various configurations while a tempest rages.
The storm won't notice and those with the levers will shrug and we'll all lurch towards Jerusalem. Maybe Murdoch will be slightly lighter in the wallet for a small time but there are plenty of ways to make that up.
"The storm won't notice and those with the levers will shrug and we'll all lurch towards Jerusalem."
From the Second Coming by Yeats:
'And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?'
I cannot plagiarize blatantly! I could be sued into submission, never to snark again.
Hey, Sylvia did! Blatantly plagiarize, I mean.
Not alleging plagiarism. Just pointing out that things look as bleak as they did just before the first world war.
Snark. My fellow commenter, snark. Also I think Yeats wrote the poem after the war in the waning days of that pandemic. Things are bleak indeed.
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Yet, you guys could care less that CNN spent two years touting the conspiracy theory that Trump was a Russian plant. I bet most of you still believe in the "hands up, don't shoot" narrative that resulted in riots that destroyed small businesses (many black-owned) in Ferguson, MS.
FOX is no worse than CNN or MSNBC.
How very pathetic as an attempt at distraction (and dezinformatsia - as of course the reporting on Trump in re Russians was never "Russian plant"[unless of course you're reading the dishonest and tenditious glurge of the hard right American yellow partisan publications, where perhaps such funhouse distortions are believe to be actual representations rather than dezinformatsia spin - the Russian-issue reporting was that Trump was supported and perhaps compromised by Russian dirty money. Which remains plausible)
Of course "no worse" .... that is vaguely amusing insofar as none of the other American media companies have seen under actual malice standards a Delaware court permit multiple multi-billion dollar defamation suits to proceed.
So, in fact actual evidence, Fox is indeed worse - as in less competent - than the others.
"touting the conspiracy theory that Trump was a Russian plant"
On the one hand:
(1) Reporting on weird and unsettling ties between Trump and Russia and how Trump lied to cover them up made sense, because there are weird and unsettling ties between Trump and Russia that Trump kept lying to cover up.
Conversely, on the other:
(2) Fox reporting on how Trump was electionfrauded out of an amazing victory is pretty horrible, because Trump lost fair and square, and a healthy, functioning democracy kinda depends on most people being aware of and agreeing about basic public facts like who won and who lost an election.
Given that the implications of (1) were that an unpopular generally awful president was (maybe!) slightly constrained by public inquiry into his weird and unsettling ties with Russia while the implications of (2) were an attempted coup and a sacking of the Capitol, there really isn't an equivalency between the two.
Spasibo, comrade!
I have serious doubts that « hands up don’t shoot » is a lie. I’ve seen it expressed by various right wingers but never have seen it conclusively established. As Aristotle said, he who asserts must prove, so I’d like some proof, please.
As for Trump and Russia, there’s a substantial debate to be had on whether he is a Russian agent of influence. https://www.lawfareblog.com/trump-russian-agent-legal-analysis
Not just right wingers. The Washington Post, CNN and many others all reported what the federal investigators concluded*. It's certainly possible they got it wrong but the federal investigation was pretty thorough and they did not find the hands up don't shoot story very credible. At this point the burden of proof is on you for believing the "hands up don't shoot" version of events. Otherwise you are just supporting some of civiltwilight's otherwise silly posting .
*https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/doj_report_on_shooting_of_michael_brown_1.pdf
OT: SIGAR report on why Afghan forces collapsed, https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/evaluations/SIGAR-23-16-IP.pdf
As far as I can tell, Murdoch's New York Post has also failed to publish a single story about this affair. Too busy recycling stories about Hunter Biden from 2020.
Fox and New York Post are providing a vital service - the ivy drip of conspiracy theories and lies that some 30% of the population is addicted to.
I would also offer you a quote from the Wall Street Journal—owned by one Rupert Murdoch—but they're apparently less motivated to report this story than other outlets. I'm sure they'll have something soon.
Don't count on it. Even Howie Kurtz, Fox's "media reporter" told the media that he's not allowed to cover this "media" story on Fox.
From CNN and others today, reporting on Dominion's legal filing:
Murdoch gave Jared Kushner “confidential information” about then-candidate Joe Biden’s ads “along with debate strategy” in 2020, the filing said, offering Trump’s son-in-law “a preview of Biden’s ads before they were public.”
Sounds like a violation of some election law, but certainly could be grounds for a Biden Campaign lawsuit against Fox News. We have come a long way from the day when the Gore campaign received George W's debate prep video, and immediately handed the material to the FBI.
The most worrying thing about this stuff is that apparently Fox "news" consider letting this stuff out in public a better option than settling the case early. Apparently they don't believe they are going to be hurt that much by either the bad publicity or the court case.