Fox News, Sinclair Broadcast Group and other Right-Wing Media: Fake News, Lies, Alternative Facts, Propaganda and Conspiracy Theories - Page 3
Fox News, Sinclair Broadcast Group and other Right-Wing Media use fake news, lies, disinformation, fear, hate, racism, propaganda, alternative facts, conspiracy theories and Russian propaganda to divide America and promote the rabbit right and the Russian agendas.
Fox News is grooming Americans
Story by Areeba ShahDominion Voting Systems on Wednesday asked a judge to issue a ruling in its $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News before next month's scheduled trial after submitting evidence showing that Fox hosts and executives knew the TrumpWorld election lies they aired were false. Dominion asked the judge to decide the case in its favor, arguing that Fox News had "produced no evidence – none, zero – supporting those lies.""This concession should come as no surprise. Discovery into Fox has proven that from the top of the organization to the bottom, Fox always knew the absurdity of the Dominion 'stolen election' story," Dominion said in the filing. "Despite having conceded it was all a lie, and despite internal documents proving they knew it was a lie all along, Fox still will not retract the lies and tell its audience the truth," the company's lawyers added.Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged in his deposition that some hosts "endorsed" false claims. Internal messages also showed that top hosts, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, derided the stolen election claims in private text messages but continued to air them in an effort to keep viewers from turning their attention to competing networks.
Story by David GoldmanThe White House lashed out at Fox News host Tucker Carlson Wednesday in an extraordinary rebuke of the late-night commentator who has been airing false depictions of the January 6, 2021, attack this week. Carlson, given access to about 40,000 hours of US Capitol security camera footage by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, has aired carefully selected clips to portray the pro-Trump mob as peaceful patriots. Carlson falsely claimed that the footage provided “conclusive” evidence that Democrats and the House select committee that investigated January 6 lied to Americans about the day’s events.According to the Justice Department, 140 officers were assaulted at the Capitol that day, including 60 Metropolitan Police officers and 80 US Capitol Police officers. The Fox News host was roundly lambasted by the Capitol Police, Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans this week. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates added to the condemnation Wednesday. “We agree with the chief of the Capitol Police and the wide range of bipartisan lawmakers who have condemned this false depiction of the unprecedented, violent attack on our Constitution and the rule of law – which cost police officers their lives,” Bates said. “We also agree with what Fox News’s own attorneys and executives have now repeatedly stressed in multiple courts of law: That Tucker Carlson is not credible.”
Fox News caught again manipulating the news and deceiving their viewers. Fox News is fake news, lies, right wing and Russian propagandaStory by tporter@businessinsider.com (Tom Porter)Fox News cut out comments by former President Donald Trump in which he said he would have considered letting Russia have parts of Ukraine as part of a peace deal between the nations. In an interview on Fox News host Sean Hannity's radio show on Monday, which is not broadcast by Fox, Trump revealed how he would try and broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine in the wake of Russia's invasion last year.Trump has claimed he can quickly bring an end to the war as he seeks election again in 2024. In the interview, he boasted of how Russia would not have dared to launch an attack during his presidency, and added: "I could have negotiated. At worst, I could've made a deal to take over something, there are certain areas that are Russian-speaking areas, frankly, but you could've worked a deal."The Daily Beast's Justin Baragona reported that when Hannity played excerpts from the interview later that day on his prime time Fox News show, the part where Trump suggests he may have backed an agreement handing parts of Ukraine to Russia was edited out, with the excerpt cutting out after Trump says "I could've negotiated."
Fox 'absolutely knew' they were lying — and Dominion is about to secure a huge victory: legal expertMatthew ChapmanFox News continues to vehemently deny the allegations made against them in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion lawsuit against their network, claiming that they were only trying to report both sides of a controversy.But to the contrary, argued former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House" on Tuesday, Dominion has ample evidence that Fox was willfully spreading false information, putting on claims they rigged the 2020 presidential election while executives and top on-air personalities privately admitted to knowing it was all false. And this, she said, is a degree of evidence you don't usually see in defamation cases."I want to understand, Joyce, what the significance is, again, of Sidney Powell was only on TV because she was peddling the lie that these hosts knew to be just that, a lie," said anchor Nicolle Wallace. "They also understand that their viewers believed it. How do those sorts of peeks into their inner understanding of the facts play as this lawsuit goes forward?"
Fox 'absolutely knew' they were lying — and Dominion is about to secure a huge victory: legal expertStory by Matthew ChapmanFox News continues to vehemently deny the allegations made against them in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion lawsuit against their network, claiming that they were only trying to report both sides of a controversy.But to the contrary, argued former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House" on Tuesday, Dominion has ample evidence that Fox was willfully spreading false information, putting on claims they rigged the 2020 presidential election while executives and top on-air personalities privately admitted to knowing it was all false. And this, she said, is a degree of evidence you don't usually see in defamation cases."I want to understand, Joyce, what the significance is, again, of Sidney Powell was only on TV because she was peddling the lie that these hosts knew to be just that, a lie," said anchor Nicolle Wallace. "They also understand that their viewers believed it. How do those sorts of peeks into their inner understanding of the facts play as this lawsuit goes forward?""So this is absolutely the key point in this lawsuit for Fox. This is the hurdle that they face," said Vance. "So the defamation here would be Fox defamation of Dominion and their voting machines, not their perpetration of the Big Lie. But ultimately, it's just one big ball of wax, because if the Big Lie isn't true, then the claims against Dominion aren't true. And in a libel case where you have a public figure as the plaintiff — and for better or worse, the courts have decided that little Dominion Voting Machines is a public figure — they have to prove that Fox acted with actual malice. That the statements that Fox made were made with knowledge of their falsity, or with reckless disregard for their truth."
The Fox News pundit is trying to rewrite the history of Jan. 6 — and failing miserablyBY NIKKI MCCANN RAMIREZFOR THE SECOND night this week, Tucker Carlson devoted the majority of his broadcast to his long standing campaign to re-write the history of Jan. 6. Tuesday night’s broadcast features virtually none of the 44,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage to which House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy granted Carlson and his team exclusive access. Instead, Carlson spent the hour casting Jan. 6 defendants and himself as the true victims of the unseen forces preventing you, dear Fox viewer, from learning the truth of Jan. 6.On Monday night, Carlson released his initial “findings” from the footage. As expected, the host made explosive accusations of lies and deception against the Jan. 6 committee and democrats based on little more than tidbits of footage of protesters milling about the capitol. Carlson claimed that the protesters had been “meek and obedient […] sightseers” who had treated the Capitol with “reverence.”On Tuesday the sheer nothingness of Carlson’s discovery became plainly apparent. Carlson opened the show by lambasting lawmakers who had criticized his coverage, particularly the widespread condemnation he received from members of his own party. The Fox host accused lawmakers criticizing him of degrading themselves and endorsing lies and censorship.
Sorry Fox news and the right peaceful gathering do not end with over 140 police officers injured or the damage done to the capitol. Please stop lying to the American people we deserve better than that.By Sahil KapurWASHINGTON — Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Monday released security video from the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, using footage provided exclusively to him by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to portray the riot as a peaceful gathering.Carlson acquired the tapes as part of a push by McCarthy, R-Calif., to win the speaker’s gavel. When McCarthy was struggling to gather the votes to lead the House, Carlson used his program to list two “concessions” he could make to win over far-right Republicans.“First, release the January 6 files. Not some of the January 6 files and video — all of it,” Carlson, the most-watched host on cable news, said after McCarthy faced three failed votes. “So that the rest of us can finally know what actually happened on January 6, 2021.”
Story by Alex WoodwardDays after court filings revealed Fox News personalities and executives privately rejecting bogus claims surrounding the 2020 presidential election, one of the network’s most-watched stars cast about its legitimacy and appeared to defend hundreds of rioters who breached the halls of Congress. In a segment on 6 March that sought to downplay the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021, Tucker Carlson said rioters were “right” to believe that the election was “unfairly conducted”.“The protesters were angry. They believed that the election they had just voted in had been unfairly conducted. And they were right. In retrospect, it is clear that the 2020 election was a grave betrayal of American democracy,” he stated. “No honest person can deny it.” He added: “The real crime, they will tell you again and again, is not what happened on Election Day 2020. The real crime is what happened two months later, on January 6.”But according to court documents, Carlson and other top Fox News personalities, producers and executives privately rejected Donald Trump’s baseless narrative that the election was stolen from him, including bogus claims about a voting machine company suing the network for defamation, while Carlson and others broadly gesture at unfounded conspiracy theories that fuelled the attack.
MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber reports on a bombshell leak in the billion dollar legal earthquake rocking Fox News and its Chief Rupert Murdoch. The New York Times obtaining a recording of a Zoom meeting with Fox’s CEO and the network’s top anchors, which reveals an internal panic over losing viewers for reporting accurate facts. CEO Suzanne Scott saying “if we hadn’t called Arizona… our ratings would have been even bigger.” (This is an excerpt of the full discussion that aired on MSNBC).
Story by Winston ChoA complaint has been filed against Fox Corp. and chairman Rupert Murdoch over allegations that the network chief gave confidential information in 2020 to former president Donald Trump’s campaign.In a suit filed with the Federal Election Commission on Friday, progressive watchdog group Media Matters claims that Fox made an illegal contribution to Trump’s political action committee when Murdoch shared then-candidate Joe Biden’s campaign advertisements with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. The liberal nonprofit seeks the maximum fine allowable for violations of campaign contribution laws and “appropriate remedial action” against Fox, Murdoch and the Make America Great Again PAC for a “nefarious attempt by people in power to operate a press entity as a political organization.”
Fox News Chief Rupert Murdoch admitted under oath that some Fox hosts “endorsed” Donald Trump’s election lies, according to new court filings. Murdoch acknowledged in testimony that some of Fox hosts, including Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo specifically pushed the lie. Murdoch’s testimony is part of Dominion Voting’s $1.6 billion defamation suit against the network.
Story by Oliver DarcyFox News continues to be exposed for the dishonest organization that it is — this time, with the help of its billionaire owner. A Monday filing in Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion lawsuit against the right-wing talk channel offered additional revelations — including the fact that Fox Corporation chair Rupert Murdoch admitted in a deposition that some of his top hosts were pushing election lies to his audience.Murdoch rejected that Fox News, as an entity, endorsed former President Donald Trump’s election lies. But Murdoch conceded that Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, and former host Lou Dobbs promoted falsehoods about the 2020 presidential contest being stolen. “Yes. They endorsed,” Murdoch said, according to the filing, when asked about the hosts’ promotion of false claims about the election.A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight,” the media mogul added at another point in the deposition. That’s just one of the several revelations included in Monday’s filing. Here are some additional highlights:
Oliver DarcyBy Oliver Darcy and Jon Passantino, CNNNew York CNN — Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corporation, acknowledged in a deposition taken by Dominion Voting Systems that some Fox News hosts endorsed false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Murdoch’s remarks were made public in a legal filing as part of Dominion’s $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News. In his deposition, Murdoch rejected that the right-wing talk network as an entity endorsed former President Donald Trump’s election lies. But Murdoch conceded that Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, and former host Lou Dobbs promoted the falsehood about the presidential contest being stolen.“Some of our commentators were endorsing it,,” Murdoch said, according to the filing, when asked about the talk hosts’ on-air positions about the election. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight,” he added. The filing also revealed that Murdoch referred to some of Trump’s 2020 election lies as “bulls**t and damaging.”
Story by hgetahun@insider.com (Hannah Getahun,Cheryl Teh)Rupert Murdoch, the media magnate behind the sprawling Fox News media empire, was eager to keep the election-denying MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's advertisements on-air because of how much ad revenue he provided to the network, per a new court filing from Dominion Voting Systems. "The man is on every night. Pays us a lot of money," read a snippet from Murdoch's January deposition in a court filing released on Monday. "At first you think it's comic, and then you get bored."Murdoch went on to admit in his deposition that he could have pulled Lindell's MyPillow advertisements — but did not. This was even after the pillow CEO made wild, unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud on Fox News' programs, per Dominion's court filing. "It is not red or blue, it is green," Murdoch said of Lindell during his deposition — presumably a reference to money. Dominion's filing on Monday also alleges that Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott sent Lindell gifts and urged various Fox shows to book Lindell to "get ratings." But Lindell told Insider in mid-February that the idea that Fox might have bought him a gift is a "Dominion lie" and that Fox "never sent anything."
Fox News is not news but is the propaganda wing of Putin, Trump and the Republican PartyStory by Alex GriffingThe latest bombshell court filing from Dominion Voting Systems was made public Monday, ahead of the April trial for the company’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News. Included in the filing is a brief section looking at contact between Rupert Murdoch, the CEO and chairman of Fox Corps, and then President Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign – specifically Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner.The voting technology company is suing Fox News, alleging the network knowingly aired election lies and conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election — falsely implicating Dominion. “Executives at all levels of Fox — both (Fox News Network) and (Fox Corporation) — knowingly opened Fox’s airwaves to false conspiracy theories about Dominion,” Dominion wrote in the unsealed filing Monday. “During Trump’s campaign, Rupert provided Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, with Fox confidential information about Biden’s ads, along with debate strategy. Ex.600, R.Murdoch 210:6-9; 213:17-20; Ex.603 (providing Kushner a preview of Biden’s ads before they were public),” reads the filing.
Fox News is not news just propaganda for Putin, Trump and the right.Story by Tommy ChristopherA new filing in the bombshell Dominion defamation suit against Fox News shows an anchor got reamed out from the very top over “smug” coverage that was too consistently “anti-Trump.” Damning comments made by Fox News hosts and executives in private in the aftermath of the election were revealed in a recent filing by Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing Fox News for defamation and seeking $1.6 billion in damages. The suit has prompted copious doomsaying by a spectrum of pundits including Mediaite Editor-in-Chief Aidan McLaughlin and famed First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams.On Monday afternoon, a new bombshell filing dropped that’s chock full of fresh revelations. One section details the way then-Fox anchor Leland Vittert — who has since moved on to an anchor role at NewsNation — was targeted for criticism in a pipeline that went from Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott right to the control room because his “anti-Trump” coverage was deemed “smug and condescending”:
"I strongly disagree": Fox News host calls out bosses for banning him from covering Dominion lawsuitStory by Gabriella FerrigineFox News anchor Howard Kurtz said Sunday that the conservative network barred him from covering the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed against the company by Dominion Voting Systems. "Some of you have been asking why I'm not covering the Dominion Voting Machines lawsuit against Fox involving the unproven claims of election fraud in 2020, and it's absolutely a fair question," Kurtz said during his "MediaBuzz" weekly news segment. "I believe I should be covering it. It's a major media story, given my role here at Fox." "But the company has decided that as part of the organization being sued, I can't talk about it or write about it, at least for now," he added. "I strongly disagree with that decision, but as an employee, I have to abide by it. If that changes, I'll let you know."
Fox News caught lying to the American people, again.Story by Justin BaragonaFox News is refusing to run an ad from political action group MoveOn that accuses the conservative cable giant of “lying to its viewers” over the 2020 election, the progressive organization said on Monday. The commercial, which MoveOn said they hoped to run nationally on the right-wing network, spotlights a slew of texts from the recent legal filing by Dominion Voting Systems in its $1.6-billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News. “Texts show they lied to you about the 2020 election for profit,” the ad states while quoting messages from Fox News stars Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, as well as from the network’s owner Rupert Murdoch.
Fox News is lying to the America people.Story by Ken MeyerFox News has been accused of forbidding a progressive organization from running an ad on the network that accuses their hosts of knowingly amplifying lies and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Politico Playbook reported that Fox wouldn’t air an ad from the progressive PAC, MoveOn, focusing on the accusations the network faces from Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit. The ad gravitates explicitly around the unflattering revelations of leaked emails and text messages from the network’s top brass and most prominent figures.“Texts show they lied to you about the 2020 election for profit,” the ad states. The video cycles through Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham privately trashing Sidney Powell as a “complete nut,” while Rupert Murdoch and Sean Hannity commented similarly about Rudy Giuliani. The messages came from a recently unsealed filing from Dominion’s defamation suit against Fox News. Since the 2020 election, Dominion has accused Fox of damaging the company’s reputation by airing conspiratorial claims that they rigged the election against former President Donald Trump. While Dominion is seeking $1.6 billion in damages, Fox has filed a counterclaim arguing that Dominion has not financially suffered due to the network’s coverage.
Fox News accused of lying to its viewers, againOpinion by Tom BoggioniQuestions continue to be raised over Fox News executives allowing on-air personalities to continue to spout conspiracy rumors about the 2020 presidential election results while at the same time they were privately texting and emailing each other, acknowledging that they were helping to spread lies. With the conservative network now looking like it will be on the losing end of a massive $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, conservative columnist David French suggested Fox employees threw away what little credibility they had for more than just higher ratings and power.In his column for the Washington Post, he wrote that the pathology of amplifying lies indicates a deeper problem for the network as they deal with the lawsuit and the blowback since the private texts and emails became public in a legal briefing. "There is now compelling evidence that America’s most-watched cable news network presented information it knew to be false as part of an effort to placate an angry audience. It knowingly sacrificed its integrity to maintain its market share," he wrote before asking, "Why?" Writing that the answer to that question "goes deeper" than "universal human temptations," he added that Fox increasingly panders to its audience -- journalistic ethics be damned.
Story by Andrew StantonConservative pundit Ann Coulter expressed her latest criticism against former President Donald Trump on Friday. Coulter, once a vocal Trump supporter, turned against the former president during his White House tenure. She has also continued voicing criticisms about his effectiveness as he again runs in the 2024 GOP presidential primary and following the 2022 midterm elections, when Trump-endorsed candidates underperformed in key races across the country.Following the midterms, the GOP has grappled with these losses. Republicans won only a narrow victory in the House of Representatives and lost ground in the Senate. Some Republicans have said that the party should move away from Trump, adding that his 2020 election fraud claims are toxic among moderate and swing voters.
Fox News is on defense and facing over a billion dollars in potential punishment for fueling Donald Trump’s election lies. The CEO of Fox News Suzanne Scott admitting President Biden was legitimately elected despite the network’s coverage. MSNBC’s Ari Melber reports on explosive legal filings that show top Fox hosts didn't believe the 2020 election was stolen, as more evidence is expected to be released.
Story by Tom BoggioniThe "staggering volume" of texts from Fox News personalities showing they knew they were lying to their viewers about 2020 election fraud could lead the judge overseeing the $1.6 billion Dominion lawsuits to quickly rule against the conservative network without even going to trial. That is the opinion of legal scholars -- some of whom were stunned by the mountain of evidence presented in the legal brief submitted to the court by Dominion Voting Systems -- who spoke with the Guardian's Charles Kaiser.With the Fox hosts candidly admitting in private texts that they lied on-air in an effort to drive up their ratings, several of the legal experts suggested Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis could make a landmark ruling and cut to the damages phase. According to noted legal scholar Laurence Tribe, "I have never seen a defamation case with such overwhelming proof that the defendant admitted in writing that it was making up fake information in order to increase its viewership and its revenues. Fox and its producers and performers were lying as part of their business model.”
Opinion by Margaret SullivanIf you’ve paid even the slightest attention to how Fox News operates, the recent revelations from a legal filing come as no huge surprise. From the moment it was founded in the mid-1990s, Fox has been a partisan outlet – very much by the design of its founder, Australian-born media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and its founding chief executive, Roger Ailes. It never was the “fair and balanced” news source that its motto claimed. Calling it “conservative” has always been putting things far too mildly; but for a time, it observed a modicum of journalistic standards.But Fox became much more extreme over the years, moving well outside the journalistic mainstream and turning into a propaganda arm of the US right wing. As it stoked outrage on immigration, race, vaccines and abortion, it dedicated itself to maximizing market share and seldom letting the truth get in the way. Through a strange alchemy, it transformed polarization into profits and, in the process, harmed our democracy and culture.But paradoxically, it is shocking to read the specific details that have emerged from a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit brought against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems. (The complaint is that Fox allowed damaging lies to circulate about how the election was rigged, with Dominion supposedly flipping votes from Trump to Biden.) The shock doesn’t come from what these details indicate about the network’s mission; that much we already knew.
Fox News caught lying to the American people, again.Story by Oliver DarcyFox News is in serious hot water. That’s what several legal experts told CNN this week following Dominion Voting Systems explosive legal filing against the right-wing talk channel, revealing the network’s executives and hosts privately blasted the election fraud claims being peddled by Donald Trump’s team, despite allowing lies about the 2020 contest to be promoted on its air.While the legal experts cautioned that they would like to see Fox News’ formal legal response to the filing, they all indicated in no uncertain terms that the evidence compiled in Dominion’s legal filing represents a serious threat to the channel. “It’s a major blow,” attorney Floyd Abrams of Pentagon Papers fame said, adding that the “recent revelations certainly put Fox in a more precarious situation” in defending against the lawsuit on First Amendment grounds.
Story by Lee MoranJon Stewart compared and contrasted Fox News and InfoWars host Alex Jones — and suggested Jones is a “far less pernicious influence” on America than Rupert Murdoch’s conservative network. On the latest episode of his podcast, “The Problem With Jon Stewart,” the comedian acknowledged Jones’ history of pushing conspiracy theories and defaming the families of the Sandy Hook victims, but then argued people know what Jones does and who he is.“As a cultural pathogen, Fox News is far more powerful, far more devious, far more pernicious and has created far more damage than Alex Jones ever will,” Stewart told University of Utah law professor RonNell Andersen Jones. “And at least Alex Jones gives you supplements to help offset the damage,” Stewart jokingly added, referencing Jones’ penchant for hawking dietary aides. “Alex Jones is a wolf in wolf’s clothing,” Stewart said during a lengthy discussion about defamation law and the falsehoods knowingly peddled by personalities on Fox. “Fox News is the opposite,” he added.
Opinion by Zeeshan AleemHouse Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has reportedly shared over 40,000 hours of U.S. Capitol surveillance footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection with Fox News host Tucker Carlson. If you thought the right’s attitude toward Jan. 6 was worrisome before, it’s likely about to get worse. Carlson is the most influential MAGA-aligned pundit in the country, and he can use this footage to do huge damage to public memory of one of the most brazen strikes against democracy in American history.Axios reported Monday that McCarthy’s office has been sharing a huge trove of raw video footage with Carlson since early February, and excerpts from the footage are expected to air in the coming weeks. Carlson appears to have admitted to the arrangement through his statement to Axios. “If there was ever a question that’s in the public’s interest to know, it’s what actually happened on January 6. By definition, this video will reveal it. It’s impossible for me to understand why any honest person would be bothered by that,” Carlson said. The problem is that Carlson is not an honest person.
New evidence from a defamation lawsuit reveals Fox hosts and staff secretly viewed Trump’s election lies as “mind-blowingly nuts," “reckless” and "insane" while promoting the claims and related guests on air. MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber reports on the new evidence, the legal issues in the case, Fox's defense that it was reporting on “newsworthy” claims, and why the internal messages cast many claims in a new light
Story by Ewan PalmerSeveral Fox News hosts were quick to downplay the significance appearance of classified documents at the home of former vice president Mike Pence, in stark contrast to their reaction when news broke that classified materials had been discovered at Joe Biden's home and former office. Pence's lawyers confirmed that a "small number of documents" were found inside boxes at his Indiana home last week, which have since been returned to the National Archives.The discovery of the boxes coincides with former President Donald Trump being under criminal investigation for failing to hand over hundreds of classified and top secret documents found at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Biden is also under scrutiny after sensitive materials were discovered at his Delaware home and a Washington D.C. office the president previously used. Rather than openly criticize Pence for having classified materials at an insecure location, something conservative figures have frequently condemned Biden for, Fox News hosts suggested there are key differences in how Pence handled the materials.
Story by Michael LucianoNewsmax host and former Fox News talking head Eric Bolling said “Putin’s press secretary” Tucker Carlson owes Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) an apology for comments he made about the senator’s personal life. On Thursday, Carlson attacked Graham over his support for U.S. aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia, which invaded the country in February. The Fox News host’s remarks came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint session of Congress.Graham had said the war will end when President Vladimir Putin is no longer in power. Carlson said calling for regime change in Russia is wrongheaded. “So, the other day Lindsey Graham came out–” Carlson began, taking a long pause “–the Republican from South Carolina, and said that he agreed with Joe Biden and Zelensky.” Some have speculated about the sexuality of Graham, who is a bachelor.
Will Fox News have to answer for its misleading coverage of the 2020 election?By Nicole Narea@nicolenareaFox News’ Sean Hannity may have uncritically elevated baseless conspiracy theories about widespread fraud committed by voting machine suppliers in the 2020 election — even though he didn’t think they were true. That’s the latest revelation out of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corporation, which is slated to go to trial in April in a Delaware court.Dominion sells election technology, including voting machines, that was employed in over two dozen states in 2020. And it argues that, following former President Donald Trump’s election loss, Fox broadcasted a series of unfounded and defamatory allegations about the company that it knew to be untrue. In the process, Dominion says Fox “destroyed the enterprise value of a business that was worth potentially more than $1 billion.”According to Dominion’s March 2021 complaint, Fox advanced the lies that Dominion had “committed election fraud by rigging the 2020 Presidential Election,” including by using its software and algorithms to alter vote counts; that Dominion is owned by a company founded in Venezuela that has tried to rig elections in favor of the dictator Hugo Chávez; and that Dominion paid officials to adopt its machines in 2020.
Heard on Morning EditionDavid FolkenflikThe last time Rupert Murdoch testified about a scandal involving his company, it played out in public. He sought to convey contrition about the monstrous activities that had come to light inside one of his newsrooms while skirting any responsibility for it. "This is the most humble day in my life," Murdoch testified before the British Parliament in 2011, interrupting the opening statement of his son James — then his heir apparent — to do so. Others had "let me down," Rupert Murdoch added, intoning, "It's time for them to pay."In front of MPs and, later, a judicial inquiry, Murdoch mumbled. He said he couldn't hear, playing up his age. (Murdoch was then in his early 80s.) He occasionally went on the attack — only to express regret. He said — again and again and again — that he simply couldn't recall what he had once known of the operations of his beloved London newspapers.
Story by Josephine HarveyThe National Hockey League showed its support for trans women last week, and now Tucker Carlson is suggesting all professional sports are a vessel for left-wing “forces” to brainwash the masses. Carlson slipped the ridiculous new conspiracy theory into a Fox News segment Wednesday bashing the league after it supported a draft tournament in Wisconsin earlier this month comprised entirely of transgender and nonbinary players. In response to a critical tweet, the NHL’s Twitter account replied: “Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Nonbinary identity is real.”Apparently very miffed about this, the Fox News host bashed the NHL and professional sports in general as mouthpieces for so-called “woke” ideologies. “So clearly political forces hijack professional sports as a way to brainwash the young men who watch professional sports,” he said. “That’s, of course, the entire point of it. It’s strategic. But why does nobody push back?” Earlier in the segment, Carlson noted that the NHL has one of the most conservative fanbases of all major American professional sports, “so it’s a little weird ... that the NHL has decided to push woke propaganda on its fans.” By “woke propaganda,” he was referring to the league’s efforts to increase diversity among its employees and fans.
Ron DickerSean Hannity appeared to utter a big fat lie on Fox News this week, claiming no Republican has ever said they wanted to take away Social Security. Cue the riposte from the Twitter user Acyn, who shared 2010 video of Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), then a candidate, saying his objective was “to phase out Social Security ― to pull it out by the roots and get rid of it.” Hannity’s comment on Tuesday’s “Hannity” added to the conservative channel’s dismissal of Democratic Party concerns over the fate of Social Security as “scare tactics” before Tuesday’s midterm elections.The New York Times reported Wednesday that congressional Republicans “have embraced plans to reduce federal spending on Social Security and Medicare, including cutting benefits for some retirees and raising the retirement age for both safety net programs.” Some lawmakers have revealed a few specifics on the table if the GOP retakes the House, including raising the Social Security eligibility age to 70, requiring the elderly to pay increased premiums for health insurance, and imposing a strict government debt ceiling that could adversely impact entitlement programs, according to Bloomberg Government and the Times.
Michael LucianoAccording to the Q-Anon conspiracy theory, there is a global cabal of elites who sexually traffic children and kill them. As a corollary, former President Donald Trump was working to expose the operation to the world. During his opening monologue, Carlson said Democrats are not reaping the political benefits they were hoping to gain by speaking about abortion ahead of the midterm elections next month. In June, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and with it a constitutional right to abortion. The ruling has had a galvanizing effect on the Democratic base, but whether it helps the party at the polls next month remains to be seen.“They’re going to take your abortions away. That was the Democratic message for the midterm elections, coming up in just a few days,” Carlson told viewers. “But there was a problem with the messaging. So, Covid had just ended and people – not being entirely stupid – still remembered this very same Democratic party, the same people, had forced the entire population to wear paper masks like children, and then to take the shot as a condition of going outside.”
Michael LucianoAccording to the Q-Anon conspiracy theory, there is a global cabal of elites who sexually traffic children and kill them. As a corollary, former President Donald Trump was working to expose the operation to the world. During his opening monologue, Carlson said Democrats are not reaping the political benefits they were hoping to gain by speaking about abortion ahead of the midterm elections next month. In June, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and with it a constitutional right to abortion. The ruling has had a galvanizing effect on the Democratic base, but whether it helps the party at the polls next month remains to be seen.“They’re going to take your abortions away. That was the Democratic message for the midterm elections, coming up in just a few days,” Carlson told viewers. “But there was a problem with the messaging. So, Covid had just ended and people – not being entirely stupid – still remembered this very same Democratic party, the same people, had forced the entire population to wear paper masks like children, and then to take the shot as a condition of going outside.”
By Meaghan Ellis | AlterNetFox News' Tucker Carlson launched a new conspiracy theory against John Fetterman after the Democratic Senate candidate discussed his health in a recent interview. Earlier this week, Fetterman conducted his first interview since he suffered a stroke in May of this year. According to HuffPost, Carlson "claimed that Fetterman merged 'with a computer' and could be 'hacked' due to his use of an electronic captioning device in the interview." As Fetterman spoke with NBC News' Dasha Burns, the Democrat “occasionally stuttered and had trouble finding words.” Burns also said “'it wasn’t clear' that Fetterman was understanding the conversation while engaging in small talk before the interview." Carlson attempted to spin Fetterman's condition and his use of the closed captioning device.
Ron DickerTucker Carlson got way too animated on Wednesday, according to a supercut that highlighted his “complete meltdown.” The clip includes the antics of the Fox News host reacting to media dismissal of his report that the United States was behind the damage to the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Europe, and not the Russians themselves as widely believed. Carlson laughed in wild bursts, did accents and looked a little unhinged in the video shared by Twitter user Kat Abu, who writes on her profile that she watches Carlson “so you don’t have to.” Abu wrote that her coverage “is just another chapter in my regularly-updated saga of Tucker Carlson’s descent into madness.” You be the judge:
Matt WilsteinNew York Attorney General Letitia James had been speaking live for about 10 minutes on Wednesday morning about the state’s massive fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump, his adult children, and their business organization when Fox News made the abrupt decision to cut away. James was just starting to lay out the specifics of the Trump family’s alleged crimes when “straight news” anchor Harris Faulker broke in to tell viewers the news likely did not concern them.
By Armando TinocoMaren Morris has turned an insult from Tucker Carlson into an opportunity to raise funds that help people in the transgender community. The Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter got into the Fox News host’s radar after an online feud with digital influencer Brittany Aldean, wife of country singer Jason Aldean. Brittany shared a video on Instagram where she showcased herself before and after getting her makeup and hair done. Although the video is not controversial, it was the caption that landed her in hot water. “I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life,” she posted.
Fake News (Fox News) is at it again with another Fake Photo. Like most on the right, they accuse the left of doing the very things they are doing.Alex GriffingFox News aired a photoshopped photo of the judge who authorized the FBI’s raid on Donald Trump’s Florida mansion during Tucker Carlson Tonight on Thursday, which was being guest hosted by Brian Kilmeade at the time. “This is the judge in charge of the, of the, of the, um, as you know, of the warrant, and we’ll see if he’s going to release it next — he likes Oreos and whiskey,” Kilmeade said, appearing caught off guard after the photoshopped image appeared on-screen. The photoshopped image superimposed the head of Judge Bruce Reinhart on the body of Jeffrey Epstein while Ghislaine Maxwell massaged his feet.
“The Five” co-host Greg Gutfeld bizarrely suggested that the press is turning the threats into a story in order to move on from the “actual injustice” of the raid.William VaillancourtHosts of the Fox News roundtable show The Five were dismissive of reports that threats have been made against the federal judge in Florida who approved the search warrant that resulted in the FBI raiding former President Donald Trump’s home in Palm Beach. Following the Monday raid, right-wing extremists have threatened the judge in online posts, with some sharing what looks to be his home address, phone numbers, and relatives’ names. Accordingly, the judge’s profile was removed from the court’s website. Commentators on the right like The Five’s Jesse Watters have also worked to link the judge to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender, since the judge was at one point a defense attorney for Epstein’s pilots and a scheduler.When Jessica Tarlov, The Five’s resident left-of-center co-host, noted the threats against the judge, some of which were antisemitic, the subject was immediately changed to threats against Supreme Court justices. “This judge, by the way—who donated to President Obama and to Jeb Bush—now he had to have his information scrubbed from the internet,” Tarlov recapped. “He and his family have been threatened.” “So have Supreme Court justices,” Judge Jeanine Pirro interjected, likely referring to backlash against the court’s conservative wing after it overturned Roe v. Wade.
Despite recent criticism in the New York Post and Wall Street Journal—and Lachlan Murdoch reportedly ripping the former president behind the scenes—Fox News hosts and guests have gone all-in defending the former president following the Mar-a-Lago raid.By Caleb EcarmaIn recent weeks, elements within the Murdoch media empire have leveled relatively harsh criticisms against Donald Trump and flirted with the idea of Florida governor Ron DeSantis running in 2024. In June, Fox & Friends cohost Brian Kilmeade said the former president was “unhinged” in the weeks between the 2020 election and January 6—a period he described as “the worst moment of Donald Trump’s political career.” The New York Post’s editorial board later reacted to the January 6 committee’s findings by declaring Trump “unworthy” of reelection, while The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote that he “utterly failed” the country that day.That sentiment is reportedly shared at the very top of the network’s food chain: Fox News chief executive Lachlan Murdoch has privately lambasted some of Trump’s behavior, arguing that another Trump bid in 2024 would be bad for the country, according to CNN’s Oliver Darcy. Additionally, The New York Times and The Washington Post published reports in July suggesting that the Murdochs are attempting to quietly wean Fox News off its Trump-centric coverage, with The Post noting that Trump may have outlived his usefulness in the eyes of Rupert Murdoch. But news of the FBI’s raid on Trump’s Palm Beach home this week appears to have triggered a total relapse of the network’s pro-Trump messaging, complete with hosts and guests pushing a baseless conspiracy theory in defense of the former president.
By Oliver Darcy, CNN BusinessFox News largely refrains from criticizing Donald Trump. But, in private, Lachlan Murdoch has denounced some of the former President's behavior in harsh terms. In private this year, the Fox Corp. chief executive has freely criticized Trump, saying that he disagrees with much of the way the former President behaves, sources tell me. Murdoch has gone so far as to tell people that he believes if Trump were to run again, it would be bad for the country, I'm told. But, the sources added, Murdoch has also noted that the Fox News audience continues to support Trump. Which is to say that Murdoch knows that supporting Trump is good for business -- and, more importantly, he knows that pillorying him is bad for business because it would alienate the channel's core audience.This is notable. Patriarch Rupert Murdoch's low opinion of Trump has been endlessly covered. But, until now, the younger Murdoch's opinion has been somewhat of a mystery. A Fox Corp. spokesperson declined to comment on this reporting. But the dichotomy helps explain why the right-wing channel continues to be supportive of Trump, despite recent reporting that indicates the Murdochs are privately disillusioned with him. Last month, The New York Times and The Washington Post published stories indicating that the Murdochs were quietly giving Trump the cold shoulder by emphasizing him less in coverage on Fox. That reporting prompted some to wonder: Could the Murdochs finally be steering Fox in an anti-Trump direction?
David FolkenflikAfter FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Florida estate of former President Donald Trump, conservative outlets and media personalities immediately swung to defend him — and to sharply attack the Biden administration. From Fox News, to Newsmax, to PJ Media, to the Blaze, to the wilds of right-wing talk radio, YouTube, blogs and social media, the line was consistent. The rhetoric was clear, it was dark, and even, at times, apocalyptic. "It almost feels like a pre-emptive coup," conservative talk show host Buck Sexton told Fox News' Jesse Watters last night."This is so wrong, so tyrannical," said right-wing YouTube and Blaze commentator Steven Crowder on a video call for "war" that had more than 600,000 views in eight hours. "There needs to be a hill you're willing to die on. This is it." (Crowder added he was not calling for actual violence, then called for his viewers to fight fire with fire.) "What the Biden administration did today was a shot between the eyes of this Republic," Fox News host Mark Levin told listeners of his Westwood One radio program. Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union and CPAC, wrote for Fox that the incident showed the U.S. had become a "Third World country."
Jon SkolnikOn Monday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed that busing for the purposes of racial desegregation "wrecked" the country's school system, suggesting that it's morally tantamount to a government overthrow. The pundit's comments came just days after thousands of protesters stormed the Sri Lankan capitol building in protest of poor living conditions, leading to the impending resignation of the country's president this Wednesday. Carlson, not a known expert in Sri Lankan politics, blamed the upheaval on liberals and environmentalism."So we know what you're thinking: 'Oh, so pampered, lifestyle liberals just destroyed something else.' They did to Sri Lanka what busing did to American education, just absolutely wrecked it and walked away like it never happened. That's the downside. People's lives were destroyed. It happened a lot," Carlson said as the Fox News chyron suggested this was a result of the so-called Green New Deal, a proposal to tackle climate change that has stalled in the U.S. Congress.
Fox News’s chief wingnut has spent all week fawning over authoritarian President Jair Bolsonaro and making absurd, ignorant statements about the country.Andre PagliariniLast year, Tucker Carlson traveled to Budapest to celebrate Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s aggressively illiberal and xenophobic prime minister, by filming a week of episodes that included “lessons” the United States could draw from his anti-democratic, immigration-restrictionist rule. In a sit-down interview, Carlson nodded approvingly as Orbán railed against “post-Christian, post-national societies” and their “very risky” mixture of Muslim and Christian communities. This week, Carlson visited another country undergoing an alarming democratic erosion and fawned over its far-right ruler: Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro.Broadcasting from both Rio de Janeiro and the capital, Brasília, Carlson has been urging his viewers to pay attention to what’s happening there. This October, Brazilians will go to the polls either to reelect Bolsonaro or cast him out of office. Carlson was there to insist that Bolsonaro isn’t the villain he seems to be in much stateside coverage. “Guess what, this will shock you: Bolsonaro bears no resemblance whatsoever to the descriptions of Bolsonaro you have read in The New York Times—completely different person,” Carlson said in a teaser of his sit-down interview with Bolsonaro, which aired Thursday night. “Seen that before?”
Erik Larson and Michael Leonard(Bloomberg) -- Fox News’s parent company can be sued by a voting-machine maker because Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch may have acted with “actual malice” in directing the network to broadcast conspiracy theories alleging the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Donald Trump. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis on Tuesday denied Fox Corp.’s motion to dismiss the suit, saying Dominion Voting Systems had shown that the Murdochs may have been on notice that the conspiracy theory that rigged voting machines tilted the vote was false but let Fox News broadcast it anyway. Dominion cited in its suit a report that Rupert Murdoch spoke with Trump a few days after the election “and informed him that he had lost,” the judge noted. “These allegations support a reasonable inference that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch either knew Dominion had not manipulated the election or at least recklessly disregarded the truth when they allegedly caused Fox News to propagate its claims about Dominion,” said Davis, who previously allowed Dominion’s claim against the conservative news network to proceed. Fox’s press representatives didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment. The company has previously argued that its reporting is protected by the First Amendment.
A coup was attempted and our capitol was sacked but Fox News downplays the significance of Jan. 6.Emma Kinery(Bloomberg) -- While the US watched new, bloody footage of the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, Fox News hosts disputed the significance of the deadly assault that left one protester dead and more than 100 law enforcement officers injured. Fox News was the sole major network that did not carry the prime-time Jan. 6 committee hearings live Thursday night. Host Tucker Carlson began his program referring to the deadly insurrection as “an outbreak in mob violence, a forgettably minor one.” Carlson and Sean Hannity both anchored their respective programs uninterrupted for the full hearing. The network did not break for a commercial for more than two and a half hours as the hearings aired. Meanwhile, even the January 6th Committee took a short break midway through. Frequently throughout the night, Fox News showed a live video feed from the Capitol hearing room without audio as the hosts and their guests criticized the proceedings as a sham. The network did not show the much-discussed footage from the day. “This is the only hour on American television that is not broadcasting unfiltered propaganda into the homes of unsuspecting viewers,” Carlson said.
Fox News caught downplaying the Trump coup attempt and the sacking on our capitol.by Philip BumpFox News didn’t need to announce that it wasn’t going to cover Thursday night’s prime-time hearing from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The network has been all-but-completely ignoring the subject for 17 months; skipping this hearing was a continuation of a pattern, not a break from one. But it nonetheless announced that coverage would be shunted to Fox Business and the network’s streaming platform, and it shrugged at the various scoldings that followed. When 8 p.m. Eastern rolled around, though, it became clear that the network wasn’t simply going to not cover the hearing. Instead, it began more than two hours of commercial-free rebuttal. It didn’t simply cover other things, it focused almost entirely on the hearing as though it was former president Donald Trump’s defense team — without, of course, showing its audience the prosecution’s case. Part of that was probably timing. The hearing began just as Tucker Carlson’s show kicked off, and few people in America have been more energetically engaged than Carlson in casting the Jan. 6 riot as not worthy of discussion. Or as largely innocuous, save for some vandalism. Or maybe it’s a government false flag aimed at casting Republicans as racists or something. Rhetorical consistency is not Carlson’s strength, but that is happily for him not a limitation for his job.
Fox News caught downplaying the Trump coup attempt and the sacking on our capitol.Jeremy Barr, Elahe Izadi, Sarah Ellison, Paul FarhiThere was a striking and somber uniformity across most major television channels Thursday night, as broadcast networks abandoned their usual sitcoms and dramas to stand alongside cable news channels to provide live coverage of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. With one key exception. ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN and MSNBC were among the networks that carried two full hours of the hearing — an event they largely let unfurl on its own, with few interruptions or enhancements, waiting until the end for their anchors and guests to offer solemn commentary. “This was horrible,” said CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell, after a Capitol Police officer described slipping in an injured colleague’s blood and being knocked unconscious. “So many big bombshell scoops,” said CNN’s Jake Tapper. Fox News, though, stuck to its regular block of conservative opinion shows — frequently showing a live glimpse of the proceedings on Capitol Hill but pointedly omitting the accompanying audio, while its hosts and guests criticized the committee floridly. “The dullest, the most boring, there’s absolutely nothing new, multi-hour Democratic fundraiser masquerading as a Jan. 6 hearing,” Fox host Sean Hannity declared.
Fox News caught downplaying the Trump coup attempt and the sacking on our capitol.Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona RepublicThere were so many surreal moments during the initial House Select Committee hearings investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection Thursday night that it’s hard to pick just one. But not impossible. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC covered the hearing live. As well they should — this is by any reasonable definition news. And what transpired made it even more important to cover.Fox News stuck with Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura IngrahamBut there’s more to it than that. Fox News didn’t just stick with its prime-time lineup of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. Instead, it sought to actively undermine the hearings. “The whole thing is insulting,” Carlson said at the beginning of his show. “In fact, it’s deranged. And we’re not playing along. This is the only hour on an American news channel that will not be carrying their propaganda live. They are lying and we are not going to help them do it.” And just how devoted were they to undermining the validity of the hearings for its partisan audience? Fox News ran Carlson’s and Hannity's shows without commercials. That amounts to an investment in discrediting the hearings. The chyron running beneath his show read, “The January 6th ‘show trial’ is underway.”
Carly Wanna(Bloomberg) -- Fox News won’t show continuous live coverage of Thursday’s first televised hearing into the deadly attack on the US Capitol, putting the conservative news outlet at odds with its competitors. Fox News said on Monday it will cover the hearings that begin at 8 p.m. New York time “as news warrants” on its flagship news channel. Fox News will offer special coverage beginning at 11 p.m., after its regular schedule of primetime shows by hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. Live coverage will be relegated to other platforms like the Fox News website, Fox News Audio and Fox Business Network. Rival networks plan to interrupt their primetime lineups for the hearings. CBS and ABC will air the proceedings live, according to network representatives. NBC will offer live coverage on its cable news channel, MSNBC, and its streaming service, Peacock, and special coverage on its network channel.
Fox News suppressing the truth while prompting alternate facts, racism, hate and lies.By Sarah K. Burris | Raw Story"The View" on Tuesday welcomed guest co-host Lindsey Granger to join in the discussion about the upcoming Jan. 6 hearings and whether the American people actually care about the issue.Joy Behar, for one, pointed the finger at Fox News for refusing to cover hearings where their own hosts will feature prominently as part of the evidence. "Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity and Brian Kilmeade were begging the president, Trump, to stop the attack, so now they're saying the opposite?" asked Behar. "They're implicated in the day, of course, they don't want to report that, you know. And as far as the criticism that's it's a theatrical event, they did hire a former ABC news president to go there, he used to work here, we know him, James Goldstein, with the hearings on Thursday." Conservative Granger said that Fox is airing the hearing, but it was going to be on Fox Business, a channel that Behar noted no one watches. "Tucker Carlson is the most-watched program across cable news and on Fox News in particular," Sunny Hostin cut in. "I think it's a disservice to their viewers they peddled all of this misinformation and they're not allowing viewers to see the Jan. 6th committee, don't you think that's -- you think the average Fox News viewer will go somewhere else?" Granger said she didn't think that, but she said that people watched the Jan. 6 attack on every channel and saw it.
Fox News suppressing the truth while prompting alternate facts, racism, hate and lies.Adam StatenAformer high-ranking official at the FBI has criticized Fox News for its decision not to provide live coverage on Fox News Channel of the first hearing of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. On Tuesday morning, Frank Figliuzzi, a former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, called out Fox News, saying the news outlet was attempting to suppress the truth surrounding the January 6 riot. Figliuzzi posted an article on Twitter about Fox News' plans not to provide continuous prime-time coverage of the hearing. He commented, "Radicalization includes suppression of truth: Fox News to Skip Coverage of Jan. 6 Committee Hearings." His comments came after Fox News posted on its website on Monday night that instead of carrying coverage of the first January 6 committee hearing live on Fox News Channel, it will be shown on Fox Business Network, which will be anchored by Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier beginning at 8 p.m. on Thursday. Figliuzzi was not the only notable person to comment on Fox News' planned coverage of Thursday's hearing. Illinois Representative and January 6 committee member Adam Kinzinger, a vocal anti-Trump Republican, also criticized the network's decision. On Twitter, Kinzinger urged those who "work for @FoxNews and want to maintain your credibility as a journalist" to "speak out" or "quit" over the decision, writing that "enough is enough."
by Dominick MastrangeloFox News Channel has announced that it will not provide continuous live coverage on Thursday evening of the first hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. In an announcement on Monday, Fox News Media said hosts on the air as the proceedings are taking place will “cover the hearings as news warrants,” before anchor and chief legal correspondent Shannon Bream will anchor a two-hour live special focusing on the hearings starting at 11 p.m. The conservative media giant will instead show live continuous coverage of the hearings on Fox Business, with anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum hosting. It will also provide coverage via Fox News Digital, Fox News Audio and Fox Nation. The announcement signals Fox will not preempt its regularly scheduled opinion shows, featuring controversial hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, All three of whom draw in millions of viewers a night.
Zeleb.esFrom Christchurch to Buffalo, white supremacy has been mentioned over and over again as the cause that has incited mass shootings in the United States and elsewhere. Fox News journalist Tucker Carlson has been singled out as the biggest promoter of these views, but how true are in these allegations?
Fox News host Tucker Carlson has pushed the racist “great replacement theory” on television more than 400 times. But after the conspiracy theory was cited by the Buffalo shooting suspect in his online manifesto, Carlson now insists that he does not know what the conspiracy is and that “the left” is responsible for pushing it. In this special report, MSNBC’s Ari Melber calls Carlson out for his hypocrisy, pointing to footage from Carlson’s own show as evidence, and highlights the double standard in his reporting of incidents of gun violence.
jlahut@insider.com (Jake Lahut)Fox News weekend host Howard Kurtz dedicated a segment on his Sunday show to defending colleague Tucker Carlson, marking the latest example of the network taking a top-down approach to backing its primetime star. Carlson, the face of the nation's most viewed cable news show, is again facing backlash and the heightened attention he's become accustomed to, this time following the May 14 Buffalo mass shooting and his well-documented echoing of white supremacist rhetoric and adjacent conspiracy theories, including the shooting suspect's self-professed embrace of the "great replacement" theory. "Now his comments on immigration and politics and those of anyone at this network are, of course, fair game for public debate," Kurtz said, with Mediaite first cataloging the segment. "But blaming him for the shooting is absurd. The latest case of a blood on your hands approach to finger pointing." Kurtz, who joined Fox News in 2013 after hosting "Reliable Sources" for CNN, dismissed comparisons to the suspect's online writings with Carlson's on-air rhetoric as "knee-jerk partisanship." He also compared Carlson to the late conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, falsely asserting that former President Bill Clinton blamed Limbaugh "in part" for the Oklahoma City bombing (Clinton only referred to "promoters of paranoia" and did not mention Limbaugh by name).
ydzhanova@businessinsider.com (Yelena Dzhanova)A former correspondent with Fox News suggested on Saturday that law enforcement agencies will have to take action against Fox News and Tucker Carlson to "stop the lying." Carl Cameron, Fox's former chief political correspondent, told CNN's Jim Acosta that Carlson in particular has been "screaming fire in a crowded movie house for years." "The fact of the matter is, if you disturb the peace by starting a riot in a movie theater, cops are going to arrest you and you might end up in jail or you might end up in something worse," Cameron said. "And that kind of stuff absolutely has to stop, whether it's the antitrust bill to take down and deplatform people who lie and put out falsehoods that cause damage and violent, violent hate — there ought to be something done about it," he continued. Cameron was referencing Carlson's remarks on the Buffalo shooting suspect from earlier this week. As Insider's Connor Perrett and Kieran Press-Reynolds reported, police say they found a document belonging to the Buffalo shooting suspect that was rife with conspiracy theories such as the white nationalist "replacement theory," which claims immigration by non-white people is an attempt to replace the white population in the US.
Opinion by Savannah Morning News"Another 10 law-abiding, innocent civilians enjoying life just shopping killed by a right-wing, white supremest lunatic because of his learned racist behavior. Where are all of the good guys with guns?" "When it appears that everything wrong is what defines our world today, then senseless gun violence becomes a way of our letting off steam, hate or lust." "If you are not a Native American, you are an immigrant!" "I hope Herschel Walker wins the Georgia Primary next Tuesday. I would like it if in the next 20 years he ran for the Senate or Vice Presidency" "Please bring back Palmer's to Wilmington Island" "Tucker Carlson is no different than Charles Manson!" "That was an interesting story about refilling plastic containers. Any suggestions for what to do with plastic coffee containers (not k-cups) and prescription bottles?"
Bill McCarthyFox News host Tucker Carlson has repeatedly invoked the “great replacement theory” on his show, platforming a racist and antisemitic conspiracy theory that has inspired several mass shootings, including the recent attack in Buffalo, New York. A New York Times investigation identified more than 400 episodes of Carlson’s show in which he pushed core tenets of the conspiracy theory. Minutes after claiming he was “still not sure exactly what it is,” Carlson again promoted the theory, claiming that Democrats were conspiring to transform the electorate. Fox News host Tucker Carlson falsely claimed he was unfamiliar with the racist and antisemitic "great replacement theory" cited by the mass shooter in Buffalo, New York. "You’ve heard a lot about the ‘great replacement theory’ recently," Carlson said on his primetime show May 17. "It is everywhere in the last two days, and we are still not sure exactly what it is." Carlson’s critics and viewers would have been right to think twice about his feigned ignorance.
Is Tucker Carlson just Russian friendly or something far worse?Jon JacksonHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Thursday said shows like Tucker Carlson's should be broadcast "24/7." Orban made the comment during a meeting of the U.S.-based Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Budapest, Hungary. According to The Guardian, he also railed against liberals and "neo-Marxists" who are "dazed by the woke dream." Orban, who won a fourth term as prime minister in Hungary's April elections, has maintained close ties with Putin during his time in office. In February, the two appeared at a joint news conference during which they discussed their countries' economic relationship. Hungary was the first country in the European Union (EU) to buy Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, even though it hadn't been approved by European regulators. However, Orban's bond with Putin has been tested since the beginning of Russia's war in Ukraine. While Orban has publicly criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, his country supports Ukraine's membership application to the EU. Orban has also said that even though he doesn't support the EU's sanctions on Russia, he will not block them. Addressing the CPAC crowd, Orban spoke of the importance of media and denounced what he called Western media's "leftist viewpoint" before bringing up Fox News' Carlson.
Is Tucker Carlson on drugs or just deflecting because the killer was white?Ron DickerTucker Carlson on Thursday said he doesn’t believe that the self-professed white supremacist charged in the shooting deaths of 10 people in a Buffalo, New York, supermarket was influenced by racist ideology. (Watch the video below.) The Fox News host used a domestic terrorism bill passed by the House this week as a jumping-off point into denial of the problem. He obfuscated the definition of white supremacists and hate crimes ― “whatever those are” ― and referenced Martin Luther King Jr. to bolster his argument. After showing a clip of lawmakers decrying the proliferation of racially motivated domestic terrorism, Carlson offered his twisted take: “So, they are continuing to tell you, in the face of all available evidence, that the mass murder you saw over the weekend in Buffalo was inspired by hateful right-wing rhetoric, when in fact that mass murder was committed by someone with diagnosed mental illness that the adults around him apparently ignored,” the prime time star said. “So, you saw a shooting by a crazy person that has been hijacked by partisan forces to crush political dissent, to attack civil liberties in this country. You should care about that,” he continued. Mediaite noted there’s been no public disclosure of the accused shooter’s mental health diagnosis after an evaluation last year.
by Justin BaragonaAliberal Fox News guest took the opportunity on Thursday to call out the network for repeatedly peddling the white supremacist theory that was the self-stated reason for the alleged Buffalo shooter’s killing spree last week. Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner, of course, waved away the criticism, saying her network would allow the court to “adjudicate the case without us commenting on it” before turning to a conservative guest to offer a rebuttal. Following the horrific massacre in which a gunman killed 10 people at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood, much media attention has focused on the alleged shooter’s embrace of the so-called “Great Replacement” theory. The racist notion, also known as white replacement theory, claims liberals plan to replace white voters in western countries with non-white immigrants. Immediately following the shooting, however, Fox News gave scant coverage to the fact that the suspect was motivated by the racist conspiracy theory. Of course, this omission wasn’t exactly surprising considering that Fox News star Tucker Carlson alone had pushed a version of replacement theory at least 400 times on his show. (Addressing the backlash over his full-throated endorsement of the conspiracy, Carlson played dumb by insisting this week he’s “still not sure exactly what it is” before claiming the “Great Replacement” theory actually comes “from the left.”)
Jon Skolnik| SalonMehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor running to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate, thanked Fox News host Sean Hannity for providing him with "behind-the-scenes" advice on his campaign, both pouring salt in an open wound and setting off a new round of bitter backlash. "I want to thank Sean Hannity. Sean is like a brother to me," Oz ahead of his primary election on Wednesday. "He understands how to make a difference and he's been doing that this entire campaign, much of it behind the scenes, giving me advice on late night conversations." The admission underscores a significant conflict of interest between the two men. Typically, members of the media are discouraged from providing direct support, financial or advisory, to politicians, lest they impugn the credibility of their platform.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson has pushed the racist “great replacement theory” on television more than 400 times. But after the conspiracy theory was cited by the Buffalo shooting suspect in his online manifesto, Carlson now insists that he does not know what the conspiracy is and that “the left” is responsible for pushing it. In this special report, MSNBC’s Ari Melber calls Carlson out for his hypocrisy, pointing to footage from Carlson’s own show as evidence, and highlights the double standard in his reporting of incidents of gun violence.
Fox News exploits Buffalo shooting to further radicalize Republicans with "great replacement" theoryby Amanda MarcotteThe bodies of the mostly-Black victims of the white nationalism-inspired mass shooting in Buffalo weren't even cold on Saturday before the folks at Fox News identified the real victims here: White conservatives. As I predicted they would on Sunday, the whining from right-wing media has since reached ear-piercing levels of shrill in response to mainstream media correctly pointing out that Republicans and their media have been hyping the "great replacement" conspiracy theory that shooter Payton Gendron used to justify the killing of 10 people. But this isn't just an attempt to evade accountability. Fox News pundits are now exploiting the Buffalo shooting to draw their viewers further into white nationalism. Network personalities are romanticizing the hateful ideology that allegedly inspired a massacre as a dangerous truth that the "elite" are trying to suppress. This shooting really illustrates how Fox News has created a victim narrative for its viewers that is so potent that no event is so horrible or violent — including a deadly insurrection in the Capitol or the mass murder of innocent people — that can't be weaponized by the propaganda machine to further radicalize Republican voters.
Former Fox News chief political correspondent Carl Cameron doesn't understand "how the network can go through with it."By Lee MoranCarl Cameron on Tuesday slammed his old employer, Fox News, and its prime-time personality Tucker Carlson for peddling the same kind of racist rhetoric that reportedly inspired the deadly massacre in Buffalo, New York, in which 10 people were killed over the weekend. MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace noted to Cameron, who was the chief political correspondent at Fox until 2017, how “the ideology left in the mass shooter’s screed” at a supermarket “mirrors the ideology championed” by Carlson, who has frequently talked on his show about the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory cited by the killer.
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