Brian Stelter: “The basic story of Fox News and the 2020 election is well understood. Fox’s relatively small news operation covered the vote count accurately; this coverage infuriated President Donald Trump, the MAGA base, and Fox’s opinion stars; some viewers temporarily flipped to further-right outlets, such as Newsmax; and Fox panicked…”

“Some of Fox’s top shows began broadcasting a better story, one that its viewers did want to watch: a conspiracy-laden tale about crooked Democrats stealing an election. Dominion is arguing that Fox knew full well that Trumpworld’s voter-fraud allegations were bunk but promoted the lies anyway. Whether or not Dominion prevails in court, and many experts believe it will, the lawsuit is already forcing an ethical reckoning over Fox’s disrespect of its audience. Hour after hour, day after day, Fox stars kept signaling to viewers that Trump might still win the election not because they thought he would, but because they were worried about their ratings. And we all witnessed the consequences on January 6.”

Steve Schmidt: “The CNN morning experiment has come to its end, even if Don Lemon survives for a few more days or weeks. His thoughtlessness revealed his callousness and objectification of half the population and a majority of his audience — many trapped on airplanes forced to watch on the small screens. He demonstrated his untrustworthiness to them by showing his disregard.”

“If ever there was a dumber utterance made on CNN about something having nothing to do with Trump, it should be put forward, otherwise, Lemon is incontestably the gold medalist for dumb by leaps and bounds.”

“A court filing in a lawsuit against Fox News lays bare a panic at the network that it had alienated its viewers and damaged its brand by not lining up with President Donald Trump’s false claims that he had won the 2020 presidential election,” the AP reports.

“That worry — a real one, judging by Fox’s ratings in the election’s aftermath — played a key role in Fox not setting the record straight about unfounded fraud claims, the network’s accuser contends.”

“Don Lemon, the CNN morning-show anchor, faced an internal rebuke from the chairman of his own network on Friday after his on-air comments about women and aging set off an uproar inside the cable news channel,” the New York Times reports.

Said Chris Licht: “His remarks were upsetting, unacceptable and unfair to his co-hosts, and ultimately a huge distraction to the great work of this organization.”

Politico: “Hannity and Carlson tried to get Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich fired for fact-checking a Trump tweet about Dominion and noting that there was no evidence of votes being destroyed.”

Texted Carlson to Hannity and Ingraham: “Please get her fired. Seriously… What the fuck? It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.

“Fox News Chairman Rupert Murdoch emailed CEO Suzanne Scott in November 2020 to say then-President Donald Trump was toast, and that the network should focus on boosting Republican U.S. Senate candidates in Georgia,” Mediaite reports.

Wrote Murdoch: “These people should be watched, if skeptically. Trump will concede eventually and we should concentrate on Georgia, helping any way we can. We don’t want to antagonize Trump further, but Giuliani taken with a large grain of salt. Everything at stake here.”

Things got a little awkward on the set of CNN This Morning after Don Lemon curiously suggested that Nikki Haley shouldn’t bash politicians’ ages because she’s past her “prime” as a woman.

Kirsten Powers: “It’s not a coincidence that Don Lemon — who is very much seen in his prime at age 56 — has female co-hosts who are in their thirties, who are also seen as being in their prime.”

It’s an obviously stupid comment. Margaret Thatcher began her 11-year stint as Britan’s prime minister at age 54.

Chris Cuomo admitted the viewership of his NewsNation primetime show has been “kind of embarrassing,” the Daily Beast reports.

Associated Press: “Half of Americans in a recent survey indicated they believe national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting.”

“The survey, released Wednesday by Gallup and the Knight Foundation, goes beyond others that have shown a low level of trust in the media to the startling point where many believe there is an intent to deceive.”

“President Biden will not sit for the traditional pre-Super Bowl interview with Fox, which is airing the game on Sunday,” The Hill reports.

Said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: “The President was looking forward to an interview… We’ve been informed that Fox Corp has asked for the interview to be cancelled.”

Daily Beast: “This would mark a departure from the traditional interview that features the sitting president being interviewed by a news figure from the network hosting the big game. Fox is airing Sunday’s matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.”

A new report finds that Stephen Bannon’s “War Room” podcast has been the top spreader of misinformation in the conservative media ecosystem, The Hill reports.

“More than 200 employees of NBC represented by the NewsGuild of New York plan to walk off the job for 24 hours on Thursday to signal frustration with the company’s decision to lay off seven union-covered journalists last month,” the Washington Post reports.

The National Enquirer, the scandal-plagued tabloid that engaged in “catch-and-kill” practices to bury stories about Donald Trump during his presidential campaign, has been sold, the AP reports.

“I’ve been amazed and horrified by how many people are frightened of a guy called Tucker Carlson. Has anybody heard of somebody called — Has anybody heard of Tucker Carlson? What is it with this guy? All these wonderful Republicans seem somehow intimidated by his — by his perspective.”

— Former British prime minister Boris Johnson, quoted by the Washington Post.

New Yorker: “Half a century ago, most of the public said they trusted the news media. Today, most say they don’t. What happened to the power of the press?”