McKay Coppins: “Of course, it’s easy to romanticize past eras of journalism. The families that used to own the bulk of America’s local newspapers—the Bonfilses of Denver, the Chandlers of Los Angeles—were never perfect stewards. They could be vain, bumbling, even corrupt. At their worst, they used their papers to maintain oppressive social hierarchies. But most of them also had a stake in the communities their papers served, which meant that, if nothing else, their egos were wrapped up in putting out a respectable product.”

“The 21st century has seen many of these generational owners flee the industry, to devastating effect. In the past 15 years, more than a quarter of American newspapers have gone out of business. Those that have survived are smaller, weaker, and more vulnerable to acquisition. Today, half of all daily newspapers in the U.S. are controlled by financial firms, according to an analysis by the Financial Times, and the number is almost certain to grow.”

“Right now things in Washington, as you all know, are awfully noisy. Turn on the news and every conversation is a confrontation. Every disagreement is a crisis. But when you take a step back and look at what’s happening, we’re actually making real progress.”

— President Biden, quoted by Politico.

Fox News CEO Suzanna Scott told The Hollywood Reporter that Arnon Mishkin, the head of the network’s election decision desk whose early call of Arizona for Joe Biden in 2020 enraged many Republicans, will stay on the job through 2024.

A new Gallup poll finds just 7% of U.S. adults say they have “a great deal” and 29% “a fair amount” of trust and confidence in newspapers, television and radio news reporting.

“One America News, the far-right network whose fortunes and viewership rose amid the triumph and tumult of the Trump administration, has flourished with support from a surprising source: AT&T Inc, the world’s largest communications company,” Reuters reports.

“A Reuters review of court records shows the role AT&T played in creating and funding OAN, a network that continues to spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence told Fox News the media’s focus on the January 6th inssurection is a distraction intended to “demean” millions of Trump supporters.

Said Pence: “They want to use that one day to try and demean the character and intentions of 74 million Americans who believed we could be strong again and prosperous again and supported our administration in 2016 and 2020.”

“Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist who hosts the right-wing commentary website Infowars, was found legally responsible in two lawsuits for damages caused by his claims surrounding the 2012 Sandy Hook school mass shooting,” CNN reports.

“Jones falsely claimed that the December 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, was a ‘giant hoax’ carried out by crisis actors on behalf of people who oppose the Second Amendment.”

“The office of Vice President Kamala Harris is vexed with The View after the false Covid-19 positive tests revealed just before Harris was to appear on the show last week sent the program into chaos,” CNN reports.

“One of the people explained that Harris’ office required the hosts of The View to take a PCR test within 24 hours of the interview. That person said that a representative of the ABC talk show suggested the night before Harris’ appearance that the tests had come back negative.”

“Harris and her staff didn’t learn the truth until the dramatic moment on live television when co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro were abruptly pulled from the set.”

Ben Smith has a truly bonkers story:

Ozy Media had an employee impersonate a top YouTube executive in an attempt to secure a $40 million investment from Goldman Sachs, and then when they were discovered, blamed it on the executive’s “mental health.”

Rudy Giulaini has been banned from Fox News, Politico reports.

The ban has reportedly been in place since the start of the summer, but Giuliani didn’t realize it until he was cut from a show on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Shelley Ross, a former executive producer at ABC News, accused CNN anchor Chris Cuomo in the New York Times of sexual harassment back in 2005.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson continued his relentless anti-vaccine crusade by bizarrely claiming that the military’s new vaccination mandate was an effort by the Biden administration to weed out Christians and “men with high testosterone,” the Daily Beast reports.

Said Carlson: “The point of mandatory vaccination is to identify the sincere Christians in the ranks, the free thinkers, the men with high testosterone levels, and anyone else who doesn’t love Joe Biden and make them leave immediately. It’s a takeover of the U.S. military!”

He added: “This was specifically designed to separate the obedient from the free.”

Aaron Blake: Tucker Carlson outdoes himself on vaccines, again.

The New Republic tracks Tucker Carlson’s embrace of the dark side.

“A year after his CPAC speech, Carlson would take a stab at creating the type of hard news–focused outlet he described. When he launched The Daily Caller in 2010, he vowed that it would ‘primarily be a news site’ with a straightforward approach to the news: ‘Find out what’s happening and tell you about it. We plan to be accurate, both in the facts we assert and in the conclusions we imply.’ There wasn’t an audience. Within a few months, it was publishing fake news and outrage-driven commentary.”

“The transformation of The Daily Caller is the Rosetta Stone moment of Carlson’s career, a period during which he learned his lesson. He never sought respectability again…”