The new German owner of Politico sent an email to his closest executives asking if they should meet up to pray for Donald Trump’s re-election, the Washington Post reports.
When asked about the email, Mathias Döpfner initially denied it existed: “It has never been sent and has never been even imagined.”
When confronted with a printout of the email, he explained that he may have sent it “as an ironic, provocative statement in the circle of people that hate Donald Trump.”
Donald Trump tore into Fox News, accusing the network of promoting the Democratic agenda.
Said Trump: “Wow! Fox News is really pushing the Democrats and the Democrat agenda. Gets worse every single day. So many Dems interviewed with only softball questions, then Republican counterparts get creamed.”
Allahpundit announced that he is leaving the conservative site Hot Air.
“That’s one reason why, when I’ve been forced to choose, I preferred to be a traitor than a propagandist. Here’s another: What is the right’s ’cause’ at this point? What cause does the Republican Party presently serve? It has no meaningful policy agenda. It literally has no platform. The closest thing it has to a cause is justifying abuses of state power to own the libs and defending whatever Trump’s latest boorish or corrupt thought-fart happens to be. Imagine being a propagandist for a cause as impoverished as that. Many don’t need to imagine.”
“The GOP does have a cause. The cause is consolidating power. Overturn the rigged elections, purge the disloyal bureaucrats, smash the corrupt institutions that stand in the way. Give the leader a free hand. It’s plain as day to those who are willing to see where this is going, what the highest ambitions of this personality cult are. Those who support it without insisting on reform should at least stop pretending that they’re voting for anything else.”
And this is perfect: “Lastly, to those who spent the last seven years barking insults at me in the comments for not genuflecting to Trump, I’ll give you this: You’re not phonies. You believe what you say. We have that much in common. I respect honesty and paid you the respect of being honest. It would scandalize you to know how many of your heroes sound like you in public and like me in private. Audience capture has brought most of conservative media to ruin by making it predictable and shrill.”
“Broadcast networks passed on carrying Joe Biden’s speech in Philadelphia, as the president cast MAGA Republicans as a threat to democracy,” Deadline reports.
“ABC ran Press Your Luck, CBS went with a Young Sheldon rerun and NBC with a Law & Order replay. CNN and MSNBC carried the address, as did news division streaming channels, but Fox News stuck with Tucker Carlson and his critique of the speech as it was happening.”
“Maria Bartiromo will be the next Fox News star to appear for a deposition in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case against the network over its airing of false claims made about the company during 2020 presidential election coverage,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
NBC News is currently mulling what to do with Meet the Press host Chuck Todd amid struggling ratings, the Daily Beast reports.
“Fuck you, Dr. Fauci. You don’t get to say whether you go. You get a congressional subpoena, you show up, or you get the Steve Bannon treatment…”
— Megyn Kelly, on her radio show.
“Some of the biggest names at Fox News have been questioned, or are scheduled to be questioned in the coming days, by lawyers representing Dominion Voting Systems in its $1.6 billion defamation suit against the network, as the election technology company presses ahead with a case that First Amendment scholars say is extraordinary in its scope and significance,” the New York Times reports.
“It’s not partisan to stand up to demagogues. It’s required. It’s patriotic. We must make sure we don’t give platforms to those who are lying to our faces. But we also must make sure we are representing the total spectrum of debate and representing what’s going on in the country and the world.”
— Brian Stelter, quoted by the AP, on his last CNN show as a media critic.
CNN is canceling its Sunday media affairs show Reliable Sources, and host Brian Stelter is departing the network, NPR reports.
“Streaming has officially topped cable as the most popular method by which Americans consume television content, according to new data from Nielsen,” Axios reports.
New York Times: “Jezebel, a feminist website started by Gawker Media in 2007, saw an 18 percent increase in traffic after a leaked draft of the decision was published by Politico in May. The 19th, which covers gender and politics and takes its name from the 19th Amendment, reported a 63 percent jump in readership for its abortion-related stories.”
“And The Cut, New York magazine’s women’s site, said traffic to its abortion rights coverage increased nearly threefold in June compared with the previous month.”
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) guest hosted Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight on Friday night, The Week reports.
This video montage from the Daily Show is priceless.
Oliver Darcy: “In private this year … 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.”
“It’s been over a week since former President Donald Trump pledged that he would be filing a lawsuit against CNN,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Yet, instead of court documents being filed, Trump appears to be more preoccupied with begging followers to send in money to ‘support’ the so far non-existent legal action.”
Nicholas Kristof is returning to the New York Times after a failed Oregon gubernatorial bid, the newspaper announced.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ media company filed for bankruptcy on Friday, the AP reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.