It’s impossible to not pay so much attention to Fox News these days.
Not what’s on the air, but everything that’s going on with the tornado of chaos swirling around the cable network.
Every few days, a little more of the curtain is pulled back and we get a peek at how the cable news giant operated during some of the most divisive times in our nation’s history.
Depositions and documents in Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News have shown us disturbing things that many always suspected: Some Fox News executives and on-air personalities didn’t really believe all those false claims of a fraudulent 2020 election that were being spewed by Donald Trump and his people, but they allowed such conspiracy theories to go out on their airways.
We’ve seen texts and emails and testimony from the likes of Fox News big boss Rupert Murdoch, as well as prime-time stars such as Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. It showed that often even they didn’t buy into Trump’s lies. Sidney Powell, a Trump adviser, was considered a crackpot by some at the network. So was Rudy Giuliani.
Even Carlson was saying “I hate him passionately” about Trump as he grew tired of covering the phony allegations.
Yet, under the guise that they were merely reporting on what the then-president and his advisers were saying, the network continued to promote the idea that the election might have been rigged.
Check out The Washington Post for many of the details revealed in the Dominion suit.
Did they do it just because they were afraid that if they didn’t, their viewers would leave in droves? Were they afraid of Trump? Were they worried that their viewers would flock to a conservative channel such as Newsmax? Was it all of the above?
The question now is: What will it all mean? The trial between Dominion and Fox is set for next month. It could go either way, but many legal experts feel Dominion has a strong case.
But another question — one that I have asked before in this newsletter — is whether Fox News viewers even care. This whole ordeal would suggest that many Fox News viewers tune in for the news they want to hear, as opposed to what’s really happening. That’s exactly why Fox News often kept alive the idea that Trump was robbed of the 2020 election. And it may be why Carlson spent two nights on his show this week showing carefully curated footage to downplay what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.
Meanwhile, Fox News holds its breath as the Dominion suit hangs over its collective head.
In a piece for Vanity Fair, media journalist Brian Stelter reported that sources at Fox News are saying executives there are lying low. One said, “Our bosses are acting like nothing is happening.”
Stelter wrote, “In speaking with sources, I heard an echo of Dominion’s charge that Fox execs were too passive, too lackadaisical while the voting technology company was allegedly being defamed. Now the internal critique is that (Fox News CEO Suzanne) Scott is staying silent while the network needs defending. But what could she possibly say? Like most companies in a fraught legal position, Fox is letting its lawyers do the talking.”
Stelter said a quote he has heard quite often from Fox employees is, “We’re all embarrassed.”
As far as the lawsuit, Stelter reports there is hope inside the Fox News offices that there’s a settlement before the trial begins. Stelter wrote, “No one I spoke to expects Fox to come out of a trial as a stronger brand.”
The latest
Here are a few leftovers and reactions from the most recent dump of documents in the Dominion lawsuit that came down Wednesday evening:
- NPR’s David Folkenflik with “How a civil war erupted at Fox News after the 2020 election.”
- Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent with “Revealing Fox News texts point to the right’s long war on the truth.” Sargent wrote, “This is one of the most extraordinary scandals to ever buffet a major American network. But it also points to an even bigger story: The right wing media’s long war on the truth. For decades, conservative media outlets have expressly sought to build and capture an audience that would accept only their version of events, and would be cordoned off to place them beyond the reach of mainstream news sources entirely.”
- Also in The Washington Post, Aaron Blake with “4 takeaways from the new Dominion-Fox lawsuit documents.”
- In a new court filing on Wednesday, Dominion said, in part, “Fox has produced no evidence — none, zero — supporting those lies (about the 2020 election.) 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. … Fox seeks a First Amendment license to knowingly spread lies.”
- Meanwhile, here’s the latest statement from Fox News: “Dominion and its private equity owners join a long line of public figures and corporations across the country that have long tried to silence the press and this lawsuit from Staple Street Capital-owned Dominion is nothing more than another flagrant attack on the First Amendment. Fox News will continue to fiercely protect the free press as a ruling in favor of Dominion would have grave consequences for journalism across this country.”
The White House reacts
In an unusual move, the White House spoke out against a specific on-air personality by criticizing Fox News’ Tucker Carlson over his whitewashing of the insurrection on Jan. 6.
Deputy White House press secretary Andrew J. Bates said in a statement, “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. 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.”
The part about Carlson was referring to revelations found in the documents in the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News.
Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Carlson’s commentary about Jan. 6 “just shameful.”
A source inside Fox News told Puck’s Dylan Byers that Carlson’s two-part “investigation” into Jan. 6 was “horse (expletive).”
A journalist and a mother
Last month, two journalists were selected to travel with President Joe Biden on his secret trip to Ukraine. One of them was The Wall Street Journal’s Sabrina Siddiqui, who wrote about her experience in this piece for the Journal: “‘How Will I Pump?’: When Your First Work Trip After Maternity Leave Is to Ukraine With President Biden.”
Siddiqui explained that she had just dropped her 9-month-old daughter off at daycare when she was called to the White House for a private meeting. She was told that in 24 hours, she and Associated Press photojournalist Evan Vucci would be headed with Biden to Ukraine.
She would be leaving her daughter for the first time, but Siddiqui had one demand: “I can do it, but I really just need to be able to pump. That’s nonnegotiable.”
The White House went over the various security measures and logistics, and Siddiqui wrote, “I was amused that my pump would be among the many details to be sorted out in the president’s highly confidential trip to Ukraine.”
She also made sure to thank the White House for working with her to make sure her needs were met.
It’s a powerful story that not only details the trip from a journalist’s point of view, but from a mother’s point of view. Siddiqui wrote, “I am no longer just a journalist, I am also Sofia’s mom. She occupies permanent real estate in my mind.”
Siddiqui added that she was grateful to two working moms who helped organize the trip — White House communications director Kate Bedingfield and Tamara Keith, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. (Bedingfield, in fact, left her post at the end of February to spend more time with her family, which includes two children, ages 9 and 5.)
Siddiqui wrote, “What a difference it makes when working moms are inside the room to make decisions. And as a new mom, it was a good reminder that motherhood doesn’t come at the expense of our jobs but makes us stronger to do them. Although Sofia is far too young to realize any of it, when she is someday old enough, I hope if she has one takeaway from her mother’s trip to Kyiv with the president, it is what working moms are capable of.”
Michael Irvin speaks
NFL Hall of Famer and broadcaster Michael Irvin, shown here in 2021. (AP Photo/Tyler Kaufman)
In the week before the Super Bowl, NFL Hall of Famer and broadcaster Michael Irvin was sent home by the NFL Network and ESPN after allegations surfaced that he harassed a woman who was an employee at the Renaissance Phoenix Hotel & Spa in Arizona.
At the time, Irvin told The Dallas Morning News’ Michael Gehlken that he had a 45-second conversation with a woman in the lobby of the hotel, but that he didn’t do or say anything inappropriate.
Irvin has since filed a $100 million lawsuit against her and her employer, Marriott International, Inc.
In a video posted by Gehlken, Irvin spoke out for the first time since the suit and said, “This sickens me, this sickens me. Because in this great country, it takes me back to a time where a white woman would accuse a Black man of something, and they would take a bunch of guys that were above the law, run in a barn, put a rope around his foot and drag him through the mud and hang him by a tree.”
Irvin also said, “This just blows my mind that in 2023, we’re still dragging and hanging brothers by a tree. That blows my mind that I have no opportunity to defend. I don’t even know what I’m defending.”
Irvin was emotional while talking. Earlier this week, Marriott was ordered to release surveillance video of Irvin’s interaction with the woman. According to Irvin’s attorney Levi McCathern, who said he has seen the video, Irvin made contact four times with the woman. He twice brushed up against her elbow and twice shook her hand.
Media tidbits
- Ethan Zuckerman with “Elon Musk’s Compelling Case for Worst Human of 2023.”
- Washington Post editorial writer Molly Roberts with “Twitter was — and is — broken.”
- Vox’s Ian Millhiser with “Ron DeSantis’s plan to strip First Amendment rights from the press, explained.”
- The New York Times’ April Rubin with “Toni Morrison Appears on Postal Service’s Latest Forever Stamp.”
- If you missed it, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Barbara Laker and David Gambacorta had a stunning story on Tuesday that showed possible ties between six Philadelphia Phillies who died of brain cancer and the field turf used at Philadelphia’s old Veterans Stadium. On Wednesday, Gambacorta talked about the story with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Hot type
- The Wall Street Journal’s Andrew Beaton and Joshua Robinson with “How Sexual Assault Allegations Against a U.S. Chess Grandmaster Went Unaddressed for Yearw.”
- Do you know Big League Chew? It is bubble gum that came out in 1980 and was packaged to make it look like chewing tobacco. But it was gum and safe for kids — well, aside from the sugar. Anyway, the guy who helped inspire it was a former minor-league bat boy who went on to become the director of the Oscar-nominated film “Tar.” Todd Field is the topic of this Wall Street Journal story by Lindsey Adler and Ben Cohen: “And the Oscar Goes to…The Guy Who Inspired Big League Chew?”
- Calvin Ridley is an NFL receiver who was suspended for one year for gambling. But there is so much more to his story. Be sure to check out his powerful essay for The Players’ Tribune: “A Letter to the Game.”
More resources for journalists
- Subscribe to Poynter’s Friday newsletter, Open Tabs with Poynter managing editor Ren LaForme, and get behind-the-scenes stories only available to subscribers.
- Spend “An Evening with NBC News’ Kerry Sanders: Reflections of a Fearless Broadcast Journalist,” March 23.
- Poynter’s Beat Academy (March-Oct.) (Webinar series) — Enroll now.
- Early-career journalists: Apply for the Poynter/Koch Fellowship for the coaching, networking and skills handy for a lasting career in journalism. Due March 10.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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