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.”
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.”
“Indian tax authorities raided the BBC’s offices and seized its journalists’ phones in a stunning — and apparently retaliatory — move Tuesday against the British broadcaster weeks after it aired a polarizing documentary examining Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rise and his handling of a deadly 2002 riot,” the Washington Post reports.
“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.”
“When Super Bowl LVII arrives on Sunday, Fox is prepared to broadcast hours and hours of the event, with all of the usual trappings — except, perhaps, one,” Variety reports.
“With just three days to go before the Kansas City Chiefs square off against the Philadelphia Eagles at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, the White House has yet to commit to the traditional interview between the President of the United States and the news division of the media company broadcasting the gridiron classic, potentially shunning a conversation that would be seen by one of TV’s biggest audiences.”
“Fox News attached no conditions to the exchange according to a person familiar with the matter, which has been a staple of the event (more or less) since President Barack Obama started doing it in 2009.”
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.
Washington Post: “On any given day now, the new GOP majority posts a half-dozen or more members on CNN and MSNBC — two networks that increasingly became no-go zones for conservative lawmakers in the Trumpian era of ‘fake news’ attacks. Republicans have appeared on streaming network news shows online and done interviews on those nightly news shows for cable.”
“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?”
“After relentlessly crying for Congress to intervene because DirecTV dumped it, pro-Trump channel Newsmax has received a promise from a top Republican to hold congressional hearings on the matter,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Newsmax, which had been with DirecTV since the channel’s launch in 2014, was dropped by the pay-TV carrier this week after demanding license fees in a new deal. DirecTV balked at the request, noting that the network provided it on-air content for free on several different platforms and its own app.”
“Negotiations hit a standstill on Tuesday between DirecTV and conservative cable channel Newsmax, prompting the pay-TV provider to cut loose the pro-Trump network from its lineup,” the Daily Beast reports.
“On the surface, this should have been a typical cable package negotiation in an era of cord-cutting, shrinking subscription numbers, and reduced television revenues. Instead, it looks like it will become yet another salvo in the ongoing culture wars and partisan gripes fueling American politics and cable news.”
“Pence, seriously, we have this great thing going with Joe. C’mon man! And then he confessed to it. He couldn’t just destroyed it, we never would’ve known.”
— Jesse Waters, on Fox News, suggesting that Mike Pence commit crimes to keep the heat on President Biden.
“The Justice Department and a group of states sued Google on Tuesday, accusing it of illegally abusing a monopoly over the technology that powers online advertising,” the New York Times reports.
It’s the agency’s “first antitrust lawsuit against a tech giant under President Biden and an escalation in legal pressure on one of the world’s biggest internet companies.”
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.