Former Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA) has been ordered to pay about $220,000 in attorneys’ fees to a British tabloid and two conservative journalists she sued in her unsuccessful revenge porn lawsuit, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Tabloid Will Pay FEC Fine for Hush-Money Payment
“The tabloid publishing company that paid $150,000 to a former Playboy model in 2016 to suppress her account of an alleged affair with Donald Trump, then a presidential candidate, has agreed to pay $187,500 to the Federal Election Commission to settle accusations that the company violated campaign finance law in making the payment,” the New York Times reports.
“The commission found that the firm, American Media Inc., and its former chief executive, David Pecker, had ‘knowingly and willfully’ violated campaign laws by secretly routing the $150,000 payment to the former model, Karen McDougal, in coordination with senior officials with the Trump campaign, including Michael D. Cohen, who served as Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer at the time.”
Why Winning Over Rural Voters Is So Hard for Democrats
Barack Obama on the Ezra Klein Show:
“I could go to the fish fry, or the V.F.W. hall, or all these other venues, and just talk to people. And they didn’t have any preconceptions about what I believed. They could just take me at face value. If I went into those same places now — or if any Democratic who’s campaigning goes in those places now — almost all news is from either Fox News, Sinclair news stations, talk radio, or some Facebook page. And trying to penetrate that is really difficult.”
“It’s not that the people in these communities have changed. It’s that if that’s what you are being fed, day in and day out, then you’re going to come to every conversation with a certain set of predispositions that are really hard to break through. And that is one of the biggest challenges I think we face.”
Why the Lab-Leak Theory Matters
Ross Douthat: “Because the lab leak theory was associated early on with Republican China hawks … and eventually picked up by the Trump administration, there was self-reinforcing pressure — among journalists who covered the story and Twitter experts who opined on it — to put the possibility in the QAnon box and leave it there.”
“I will leave it to the reader to consider how a similar pressure might manifest itself in other areas, from the 2020-21 murder spike to the recent rise in anti-Semitic violence, where journalists might wish to avoid making concessions to conservative interpretations of reality.”
Luntz Conflicts Rattle Los Angeles Times
“Well-known Republican pollster Frank Luntz’s work is causing headaches for the Los Angeles Times’ newsroom,” the Daily Beast reports
“Recent revelations that he conducted undisclosed, behind-the-scenes partisan consulting while also doing unpaid work for the paper came as little surprise to staffers, who have previously raised concerns about conflicts-of-interest in his work.”
“The embarrassment also opened up an old wound within the newsroom, where Luntz’s public-opinion surveys had previously been the subject of internal tension and concerns voiced by newspaper staffers.”
Fox News Intensifies Its Pro-Trump Slant
New York Times: “For seven years, Juan Williams was the lone liberal voice on ‘The Five,’ the network’s popular afternoon chat show. On Wednesday, he announced that he was leaving the program, after months of harsh on-air blowback from his conservative co-hosts. … Donna Brazile, the former Democratic Party chairwoman, was hired by Fox News with great fanfare in 2019 as a dissenting voice for its political coverage. … Brazile has now left Fox News; last week, she quietly started a new job at ABC.”
“Onscreen and off, in ways subtle and overt, Fox News has adapted to the post-Trump era by moving in a single direction: Trumpward. … In January, the network fired its veteran politics editor, Chris Stirewalt, who had been an onscreen face of the early call in Arizona for Mr. Biden. This month, it brought on a new editor in the Washington bureau: Kerri Kupec, a former spokeswoman for Mr. Trump’s attorney general William P. Barr. She had no journalistic experience.”
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Take Limbaugh’s Slot
“The Rush Limbaugh replacements are in, as Clay Travis and Buck Sexton will take over his three-hour conservative talk radio show time slot,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The duo will serve up similar right-wing fare, tackling news stories of the day, politics and current events, peppered with call-ins from listeners and humor.”
Does Jeff Bezos Now Control ‘The Apprentice’ Outtakes?
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Santorum Says He Was Fired for ‘Telling the Truth’
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) explained his firing from CNN in a Fox News interview, after the network fired him over past comments about Native American culture.
Said Santorum: “You get savaged for telling the truth.”
He added: “CNN has a right to fire me if they don’t like what I’m saying or what they are doing. I have no animus, I appreciate the opportunity that they gave me, but it shows that the left is intolerant. They are worried, I’m sure that their viewership which is very left was going to pay a price.”
Rick Santorum Axed After Racist Comments
CNN has terminated its contract with senior political commentator Rick Santorum after racist, inaccurate remarks he made about Native Americans, HuffPost reports.
Reporter’s Email, Phone Records Secretly Obtained
“The Justice Department under the Trump administration targeted the phone and email records of a prominent CNN journalist who covers the Pentagon as part of an investigation into the apparent disclosure of classified information,” the New York Times reports.
“Federal prosecutors secretly obtained the records, which covered a two-month period beginning in June 2017. In a letter to CNN, prosecutors acknowledged they not only sought records for Barbara Starr’s work and personal email accounts, but also phone records for her offices at the Pentagon and at home, as well as for her cellphones.”
Cuomo Advised Brother on Handling Allegations
“CNN anchor Chris Cuomo advised his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and senior members of the governor’s staff on how to respond to sexual harassment allegations made earlier this year by women who had worked with the governor,” the Washington Post reports.
“Cuomo, one of the network’s top stars, joined a series of conference calls that included the Democratic governor’s top aide, his communications team, lawyers and a number of outside advisers.”
“The cable news anchor encouraged his brother to take a defiant position and not to resign from the governor’s office.”
OAN Reporters Raise Money for Bogus Election ‘Audit’
“Two reporters at One America News, a far-right TV station, are running a dark money organization that they say is helping fund a counter-reality ‘audit’ that former President Donald Trump and his supporters believe will overturn Arizona’s 2020 election results in his favor,” BuzzFeed News reports.
“What’s more, one of those reporters, Christina Bobb, is the network’s most visible correspondent covering that audit.”
Cheney Says Fox News Must Tell Truth About Election
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) went after Fox News in an interview on Fox News, Politico reports.
Said Cheney: “We all have an obligation, and I would say Fox News especially, especially Fox News, has a particular obligation to make sure people know the election wasn’t stolen.”
The Big Lie Is a Big Deal
Dan Rather: “Republicans desperately want the mainstream press to cover the daily news cycle through the lens of traditional party politics. At the same time, they go on their propaganda channels and stir up their base against the mechanics of fair and open elections. They spread the poison of illegitimacy to attack the Biden Administration. On Fox News you get a concerted and coordinated attack. Outside of that echo chamber you get what was once the normal news diet of a spectrum of different stories.”
“But this is not a normal news environment. This is an attack on American values, and our ability to continue to function as a government that represents the will of the majority of Americans. The Big Lie is everything right now and the press and the American people must not provide safe harbor for it to continue to metastasize.”
Newsmax Anchor Confronted on Election Lies
This is worth watching: Former Obama speechwriter David Litt confronted Newsmax host Rob Finnerty during a segment — intended to be about Elon Musk hosting Saturday Night Live — over the network’s promotion of conspiracy theories about Donald Trump winning the 2020 election.
Understanding Tucker Carlson
David Frum: “To Carlson, it’s all just sounds and images on a box, to be spoken, then forgotten. Say one thing today, the opposite tomorrow. Urge a war on national television, then disavow it afterward as if it had nothing to do with you. It’s cynical, but above all it’s cowardly.”
“Maybe that’s the fascination of the Carlson TV persona. We all sense that if a Murdoch ordered him, he would say the opposite of everything he says now. Last year, he flipped from ‘COVID is real’ to ‘COVID is fake.’ He could flip from anti-vax to pro-vax literally tomorrow.”
“Carlson’s like a one-man TV special effect, a creation of market analysis of race-baiting as a segment within an ever more fragmented infotainment industry.”
Closeness to Trump Now a Liability for Newsmax
Washington Post: “Newsmax’s visibility rose during the Trump era in no small part because Ruddy’s did. In numerous news stories that were often built on the accounts of unnamed Trump aides and allies, Ruddy was the rare associate willing to lend a colorful quote with his name attached. Through sheer ubiquity — and a strategically public presence at Trump’s clubs — he cultivated a brand name as a Trump ‘insider’ — though advisers to the former president maintain Ruddy was never as close to the man as he led people to believe.”
“Along the way, he presented an image of his small television operation as a David poised to overcome the Goliaths of cable news — and perhaps even join forces with the Trump family.”
“Yet Ruddy’s attempts to attach himself to Trump, and ingratiate himself with Trump’s base, have landed him in legal jeopardy. Far more so than Fox, Newsmax promoted Trump’s lie of a stolen election, and carried on with that message through and beyond Jan. 6, when a violent mob stormed the Capitol.”
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