Dominion voting machines demands pro-Trump attorney Sidney P

[admin]

Blame Rupert Murdoch and Fox for Iraq, Trump, and The Big Lie
by Mehdi Hasan
MSNBC
Apr 20, 2023 #RupertMurdoch #FOXNews #TheBigLie

"Three of the most destructive events of my lifetime -- the Iraq war, the Brexit vote, and the rise of Trump and his Big Lie simply could not have happened without Rupert Murdoch." In this week's deep dive, Mehdi examines the influence that Rupert Murdoch and his media empire have had on decades of global events.



Transcript

[Mehdi Hasan] Back in 2005, or was it 2006, I was a young TV news producer working at Sky News in London, then part of the Rupert Murdoch media Empire. And one day, Rupert Murdoch himself, turns up in the Newsroom in West London for a visit. We're sitting at our desks, frozen in fear, as the big boss, the media Mogul himself, wanders the Newsroom floor, looking over our shoulders, as we work at our computers. Imagine my surprise, nearly two decades later, to see this scene in the critically acclaimed HBO drama, and my favorite TV show, Succession.

[Man 1] Hey hey hey hey hey, so, uh, so Logan said --

[Tom Wambsgans] Logan's in? Where? Upstairs? In a sales meeting?

[Man 1] He's on the floor, Tom.

[Tom Wambsgans] On the floor?

[Man 3] Wait. Explain exactly what he's doing with his body and his face?

[Man 1] I don't know. Just moseying, terrifyingly moseying. He's wearing sunglasses inside. It looks like if Santa Claus was a hitman.

[Mehdi Hasan] Yes, Logan Roy, the cynical ruthless media billionaire -- and spoiler alert -- until very recently, until his shocking on-screen death, the lead character on Succession, who bears a, shall we say, passing resemblance to the very real life, and very alive, cynical, ruthless media billionaire Rupert Murdoch.

Now the writers of Succession like to say the Roys are not based on the Murdochs, or only on the Murdochs. But it's hard not to see the similarities between Logan and family, and Rupert and family: an immigrant who comes to America, and builds a media empire. Check. In charge of a right-wing, scandal-plagued cable channel. Check. Bent on picking Presidents, and dominating politics. Check. Three super ambitious squabbling kids from a second marriage, all trying to succeed him. I mean, here's Logan Roy addressing the staff of his news organization, ATN, in a recent episode, standing on boxes of paper to do so. And here's Rupert Murdoch addressing the staff of one of his news organizations, The Wall Street Journal, back in 2007.

Or just compare and contrast, as many have, Murdoch testifying in front of a British parliamentary Committee in 2011 over a scandal involving his media empire, and Logan Roy and his son testifying in front of Congress over a scandal involving his fictitious media empire.

[Rupert Murdoch] This is the most humble day of my life.

[Logan Roy] When I read of the abuses of power alleged in my cruise division, well, that was the worst day of my life."

[Congressman] So none of your UK staff drew your attention to this serious wrongdoing, even though the case received widespread media attention?

[Rupert Murdoch] I think my son can perhaps answer that in more detail. He was a lot closer to it.

[Congressman] Mr. Logan Roy, what did you personally know about the operation of a system of obfuscation of wrongdoing in your cruise division by means of the keeping of shadow logs?

[Logan Roy] At that point I believe my son was across that operation.

[Mehdi Hasan] With Murdoch, as with Logan Roy, it's all about the ego, the power, the influence.

[Australian Broadcasting Corporation] You like the feeling of power you have as a newspaper proprietor, of being able to, sort of, formulate policies for a large number of newspapers in every state of Australia?

[Rupert Murdoch] Well, [inaudible] yes.

[Logan Roy] I'm 100 feet tall. These people are pygmies.

[Mehdi Hasan] It's the power of Rupert Murdoch, and the sheer power of Murdoch, to do damage to our politics, our media, our world which is what I want to discuss and examine today. Because as we've just seen this week, Rupert Murdoch narrowly escaped testifying publicly in the case brought against Fox by Dominion voting systems. In a major anti-climax, Dominion agreed to settle with Fox just moments before opening arguments were set to begin in court on Tuesday, leaving Fox with a $787.5 million dollar hole in their pocket -- a seemingly huge number -- but in the context of the $14 billion dollars in Revenue that they got last year, it's just 5.%.

And Fox, the quote unquote "news channel," is of course, just a sliver of the massive media Empire beneath Rupert Murdoch, an Empire with a footprint on three continents: hundreds of print TV and publishing outlets, and billions of dollars in profits, that all started when Rupert's father, Keith Murdoch, an Australian journalist and newspaper publisher, left him his company, "News Limited," after his death.

Taking over the business in his early 20s, the younger Murdoch spent the next decade buying up small papers across Australia before making the leap into the British and American markets. Today he's the man behind names like the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post in the U.S.; The Times and the Sun in the UK; The Herald Sun and the Daily Telegraph in Australia; International publishing giant Harper-Collins; and of course Fox.

The list goes on and on. It's staggering to see just how much influence Murdoch has in the U.S., let alone on a global scale. And if Succession has taught us anything, it's that rich and powerful people will put that influence to use. And Murdoch, for one, doesn't hide this. He's been meeting with, and lobbying presidents for decades, going as far back as JFK, who he met in the Oval Office in 1961; and Ronald Reagan, who invited him to dinner -- a dinner so enthralling, The Washington Post reports, that the President himself fell asleep.

And then there was Donald Trump, not really known as a hugger, who seemed to make an exception for Rupert Murdoch. But it wasn't just hugs and golf outings -- Trump is the one chauffeuring Murdoch around the golf course in this video -- but also frequent Oval Office phone calls, as the New Yorker reported in 2019.

And it's not just U.S. presidents he's met with. He's met with prime ministers around the world, too, like Margaret Thatcher in the UK, and John Howard in Australia. Murdoch's influence on politics is hard to overstate. But don't just take it from me. Take it from former Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, on this very show.

[Kevin Rudd] In the last 21 federal and state elections, over the last decade in Australia, in each and every one of them, Murdoch has acted as a relentless campaigning beast for the conservative side of politics, and increasingly drifting the agenda on the right to the far right. These two things together: monopoly, plus an overwhelming ideological bias to the far right, frankly is a big challenge, and a threat to the vibrancy of our own democracy.

[Mehdi Hasan] The fact of the matter here is that Murdoch doesn't just have the power to settle lawsuits. He has the power to move world events, almost always, in my view, in a negative and harmful way. I mean, as we'll demonstrate today, three of the most destructive events of my lifetime: Iraq war; the Brexit vote; and the rise of Trump and his Big Lie, simply could not have happened without Rupert Murdoch.

Let's go back 20 years. The US invasion of Iraq began with a campaign of bombings known as Shock and Awe, and as U.S. and Coalition troops prepared to enter harm's way on March the 20th, 2003, some of the people responsible for the war were watching from a safe distance, thousands of miles away. As David Kirkpatrick reported in the New York Times, "He watched the explosions over Baghdad on a panel of seven television screens mounted in the wall ... telling friends and colleagues over the phone of his satisfaction that after weeks of a hand-wringing the battle had finally begun."

"The battle had finally begun." Now you could be forgiven for thinking this was an account from the White House Situation Room where George Bush, and Dick Cheney, and Don Rumsfeld, spent plenty of time in those early days of the Iraq War. But according to the Times, the scene, with those seven monitors, was actually at Fox headquarters in LA. And the guy sharing his satisfaction with friends and colleagues was Rupert Murdoch.

You can understand why he was satisfied. He had used all his power and influence to make it happen. The New York Times even called it "Mr. Murdoch's War." For months his vast media organization agitated for Invasion. The Guardian newspaper examined 175 Murdoch owned papers in the run-up to war. Coincidentally -- completely coincidentally -- all of them supported the invasion. There was one hold out in Tasmania, but It ultimately fell into line with its corporate cousins, too. But sure, there was no pressure from the top there!

"I think that all our papers are certainly supportive of the Armed Forces," Murdoch told the New York Times in the spring of 2003. "But that is not me calling the editors." No! Just coincidence!

"How lucky can Murdoch get!" the Guardian observed. "He hires 175 editors and, by remarkable coincidence, they all seem to love the nation which their boss has chosen as his own."

But there was no pretense of separation between Murdoch and his cable channel, Fox. "When Mr. Murdoch is in New York during major news events, as he was during the first full week of the war, he attends the 8 A.M. meetings of the producers of Fox News, sometimes two or three times a week, a Fox executive told the Times."

And this is what Murdoch's Network looked like back then.

[Fox News] Coalition forces are cutting to Iraqi defenses quickly.

[Fox News] Today they are tasting freedom.

[Fox News] Well it may be too early to say, "we told you so," but if the tests are accurate, the U.S. may have just found its smoking gun.

[Fox News] Our president, the man they call their liberator.

[Sean Hannity] By golly, he has done a pretty great job here.

[Fox News] OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM

[Mehdi Hasan] Yes, they really had theme music, and an animation where a fighter jet turns into a bald eagle. There was also the American flag constantly waving on the screen, there were the repeated descriptions of American forces as liberators, and the constant fear-mongering about fictitious WMDs. There were attacks on other reporters who dared to report on setbacks in the war effort.

But it wasn't just Murdoch's media Empire that was turned towards the push for war. Sometimes it takes a personal touch. In the final days before the invasion, British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, had still not publicly committed to taking part in the invasion -- at least, not on the timeline that the U.S. wanted. On the night of March the 11th, 2003, according to the diary of a top Blair aid, he got a call from Rupert Murdoch. As the Independent Newspaper notes, "A later inquiry says that Downing Street has no record of this call, implying that the Tycoon did not need to go through the Downing Street switchboard. According to the diary, kept by Blair spin doctor, Alistair Campbell, Murdoch was pressing on timing, saying how News International would support us, etc. "Both Tony Blair and I felt it was prompted by Washington, and another example of their over-crude diplomacy."

Murdoch later called it rubbish to suggest he was lobbying for war on behalf of U.S. Republicans. But still this account suggests that Murdoch had a direct line to the British prime minister -- no need to go through the switchboard.

But you don't even have to take the word of Tony Blair's aid. Because Murdoch was also making the case for war himself, in public. "We can't back down now, where you hand over the whole of the Middle East to Saddam. I think Bush is acting very morally, very correctly," he said ahead of the invasion.

And he continued to defend the war, even as casualties mounted, and WMDs were nowhere to be found. In the fall of 2006, he told reporters, "The death toll, certainly of Americans there, by the terms of any previous war, are quite minute." Maybe not surprising that Murdoch's longtime rival, CNN founder Ted Turner, talking about Iraq, once called Murdoch a "warmonger."

But why was Rupert Murdoch so big on the Iraq war effort to begin with? Was it his love for democracy in the Middle East, his Devotion to the neo-conservative political project, or was it just good for business?

Fox's Prime Time ratings were up 45% the year of the invasion: the unseated cable news longtime rival CNN. That translated into revenue which more than doubled during peak war coverage.

There was real money to be made from the illegal Invasion, for everyone. Murdoch told an Australian magazine in 2003, "The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $20 dollars a barrel for oil. That's bigger than any tax cut in any country."

Yeah, cheaper oil! Talk about quiet part out loud.

Whatever his motivations, Rupert Murdoch helped make that war happen. As even the right-wing editor of the Daily Mail once said, "I'm not sure that the Blair government, or Tony Blair, would have been able to take the British people to war if it hadn't been for the implacable support provided by the Murdoch papers. There's no doubt that came from Mr. Murdoch himself."

But you don't have to take a Murdoch rival's word for it. You could listen to Murdoch.

[Davos, Switzerland, WEF] Have you shaped that agenda at all, in terms of perceptions of the war, in terms of how the war is viewed?

[Rupert Murdoch] No, I don't think so. I mean, we've tried. [Laughter]

[Davos, Switzerland, WEF] "Tried" in what way?

[Rupert Murdoch] Well, we basically supported -- our papers and television, I would say supported the Bush policy in the Middle East.

[Mehdi Hasan] I've said it before on this show, the original Big Lie was the WMD lie. And almost two decades before Murdoch's Fox was pushing Trump's big election lie -- which I'll get to in a moment -- it was pushing George Bush's big Iraq lie about weapons of mass destruction. And as with the election lie, their viewers, back then, believed it!

A 2003 survey found that 80% of regular Fox viewers believe something demonstrably false about the WMD-based war effort. And the facts never actually did catch up with them. Even in 2015, 12 years after the invasion, a survey found that more than half of Fox viewers thought the WMDs were discovered in Iraq! They weren't! But that's the sheer power of Murdoch's propaganda.

So let's turn now to Brexit, the UK's decision to leave the European Union. Since that pivotal vote in 2016, the UK has seen no less than four prime ministers resign, and utter havoc unleashed on the British economy, and the undermining of the European Union at a time when domestic far-right populists are on the rise, and Vladimir Putin's expansionist Russia is at the doorstep.

And yet Brexit almost didn't happen. The "leave" side, the pro-Brexit side, won the 2016 referendum by less than four percentage points, with 51.9% of citizens voting to leave, and 48.1% voting to remain.

So how is it that the British public could make such a self-sabotaging decision by such a narrow margin? As we saw with the Iraq War, Murdoch played a crucial role, beginning with that personal touch. Again, don't just take it from me, take it from a former conservative prime minister of the UK in the 1990s, John Major. Here he is recounting, years later, a conversation with Murdoch that he had at a dinner during his 1997 election campaign.

[John Major] Mr. Murdoch said that he really didn't like our European policies. If we couldn't change our European policies, his papers could not, and would not, support the conservative government. My feeling -- and he did not say this -- my feeling was that what he was edging towards was a referendum on leaving the European Union.

[Mehdi Hasan] Of Murdoch's four British papers at the time, only one ended up supporting John Major in 1997.

Fast forward to 2016, and Murdoch wasn't just "edging" towards Brexit, he was bolting for it, bolting with the help of his hard right tabloid the Sun newspaper, the most widely read print newspaper in all of the UK. And the Sun did far more than throw out some cheeky pro-Brexit headlines. Their parent company, News Group Newspapers, actually registered themselves with the UK's electoral commission as an official "Leave EU" campaign Group, after spending more than 96,000 pounds on the Sun's "Believe in Britain" posters. That's right. Murdoch's news organization doubled down as a pro-Brexit lobbying group, as one does when they are pursuing the most basic standards of "journalistic integrity."

It didn't stop there. There were also the false claims. The Sun published a story about migrants from Europe found in the back of a truck, a supposed instance of Europeans flooding the UK under the EU's "Freedom of Movement" laws, except the Sun had to issue a correction after social media users pointed out that those migrants weren't from Europe, they were from Iraq and Kuwait. The Sun ran this headline claiming "Queen Backs Brexit," a claim disputed by the Queen. And an independent press watchdog later condemned the headline as "significantly misleading."

Now, you could say that the Sun is just a newspaper, a tabloid, a couple of sheets of paper with words stamped onto them. How much impact could it really have on public opinion? Well, let me take you to the city of Liverpool. You see, by chance, a lot of the people in Liverpool don't read the Sun. That's because the paper wrongly blamed local football fans, soccer fans, for an incident at a match in 1989. So many residents since have basically boycotted the Sun because of that awful coverage of the Hillsborough tragedy.

So, in Liverpool, researchers found that residents were 10% less Eurosceptic than the rest of the UK. It also found that Liverpool residents' views of the EU improved significantly as a result of the newspaper, the Sun, boycott.

Of course, correlation does not mean causation. The Sun was not the only tabloid to be overwhelmingly pro-Brexit at the time. But it's impossible to deny that the Sun has had a clear impact on British opinion.

Now, question: why did Murdoch care so much about Brexit, getting Brexit done, to begin with? Perhaps he was bothered by the alleged lack of democracy in the EU, or the supposed attack on UK National sovereignty -- though he's not even a British citizen. Well, Evening Standard reporter, Anthony Hilton, says he once asked Murdoch why he was so anti-Europe? And he says Murdoch replied, "When I go into Downing Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels they take no notice."

Wow!

Now, Murdoch denies ever having said that, but we do know that he's long been critical of EU regulations -- in fact, most regulations. And we do know that Brexit made him, and his media empire, stronger, while making his opponents, his critics, weaker. Just another coincidence!

But if you think Murdoch's role in Iraq, or Brexit, was bad, now it's time to talk Trump, Trumpism, and the Big Lie. Rupert Murdoch was deeply involved in the biggest political event of our lifetimes: the rise of Donald J Trump. All roads lead back to him, and to Fox. Again.

Now I know what you're thinking: Maybe the Fox News quote unquote "stood up" to Trump back in 2016. Former Fox star, Megyn Kelly, was famously clashing with the Donald back then. And Rupert Murdoch went so far as to refer to Trump as "an idiot." But these are Minor Details, because the fact is Fox, for many years, in advance of 2016, laid the groundwork for Trump's presidential victory. Fox built a conservative audience enraged and agitated by "birther" conspiracies, and anti-immigrant sentiment. They primed millions of viewers to care about ridiculous non-issues that Donald Trump would successfully exploit during his first primary campaign, and then general election campaign.

Not to mention the fact that starting in 2011, Fox literally gave then-private-citizen, then-businessman Donald Trump, free air time every week with his own recurring segment, "Mondays with Trump."

[Fox Mondays With Trump] Bold, brash, and never bashful. The Donald now makes his voice loud and clear every Monday on Fox.

[Donald Trump] My message is a better message than anybody else.

[Fox Mondays With Trump] Monday Mornings With Trump, on Fox and Friends.

[Fox News Reporter] If you were in charge of this super committee, what would happen?

[Donald Trump] Well, first of all, there would have been no "Super Committee." This should have been a deal made between the President -- if he was a proper leader, which he's not.

[Fox News Reporter to young boy] Do you know who this guy is, right here?

[Boy] Donald Trump?

[Fox News Reporter to young boy] Yeah, that's right. [Laughter]

[Donald Trump] I called Steve. And I said, you know, I just saw the nicest guy on television, and his bike was stolen -- and you knew about the report -- and I said, "Let's get him a new bike, get him a beauty."

[Mehdi Hasan] Fox contributed to the myth of Donald Trump way before he became candidate Trump. And after he took the Republican nomination, they basically became his propaganda arm. And once he took the White House, they morphed into State TV.

[Lou Dobbs, Fox News] America has always been a country that seems to get lucky. And we are lucky to have Donald Trump step up for the most important job in this country.

[Judge Jeanine Pirro] The whole idea to say that women who support Trump are numbor dead inside! How dare you trash the women in this country!

[Fox News] A majority of veterans and service members, giving high marks to President Trump.

[Fox News] The most extraordinary, wonderful thing today, was nominating President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Sean Hannity] Joe Biden just got steamrolled by President Trump.

[Mehdi Hasan] Then comes 2020, when Trump lost his re-election bid, and Fox and Murdoch had a moment of opportunity to break with Trump, the man Murdoch once called "an idiot." They had the chance to say, "You lost. We're done with you, now let's move on." And yet, even while bashing Trump in private, Fox hosts and guests still pushed the Big Lie on their shows, which is why Fox was in court this week with Dominion voting systems.

And not just Fox hosts. Rupert Murdoch himself, in private, was calling out Trump lies. In an email to Fox CEO Suzanne Scott, revealed in the Dominion filings, Murdoch suggested Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham, together, say something like, "the election is over, and Joe Biden won." Going so far as to call Trump's election narrative "a myth."

After January the 6th, Murdoch wrote in this email, to Suzanne Scott, "Trump insisting on the election being stolen, and convincing 25% of Americans, was a huge disservice to the country. Pretty much a crime. Inevitable it blew up on January 6th."

But when asked in his Dominion deposition whether he could have told a host -- his own hosts -- "stop putting Giuliani, Rudy Giuliani, on the air," he answered, quote, "I could have, but I didn't."

So if Murdoch thought his hosts were going too far with their support for the Big Lie, if he had the power to stop them, why did Murdoch's Network continue to push pro-Trump, Pro Big-Lie content to its audience? Not because Murdoch respects Trump. Not because Murdoch believed in the Big Lie. He didn't. But he does believe in ratings.

"A big message with Trump people" -- that's the reason he gave when demanding the firing of the Fox journalists who had accurately -- accurately -- called the key State of Arizona for Joe Biden on Election night. Murdoch emailed Scott, Suzanne Scott, to voice concern about losing viewers to far-right cable channel Newsmax. And the Fox chairman also admitted to former house Speaker Paul Ryan, a Fox Board member, that his star primetime host, Sean Hannity, had been privately disgusted by Trump for weeks, but was scared to lose viewers.

Once again, the number one priority for Rupert Murdoch, and his media empire, was not telling the truth about Trump, or the election -- it was their bottom line. And don't just take my word for it. Take his! In his Dominion deposition, Murdoch told lawyers, "Nobody wants Trump as an enemy," because, as Murdoch said, "if Trump says don't watch Fox News, maybe some don't." Yeah "Profile-In-Courage" there, Rupert!

Look. On TV Succession, Logan Roy may now be dead, but in the real world, Rupert Murdoch is very much alive, having beaten COVID in his 90s, beaten a broken back in his 80s, and even beaten cancer in his 60s, after which he famously declared, "I'm now convinced of my own immortality."

This week Murdoch beat Dominion. He did. Don't think paying $787 million is a defeat for Murdoch. No, he dodged accountability. Again. He dodged having to take the witness box, and testify under oath. Again.

As media critic Jack Shafer writes in a piece this week for Politico, headlined, "Rupert Wins Again," quote, "ever since Rupert Murdoch busted out of Adelaide, Australia, ever since he conquered the newspaper market in England, ever since he came to dominate cable news with Fox, he's paid his way out of jams. It's all a part of Murdoch's way of doing business."

Shafer calls Murdoch "indestructible." Which is both true, and ironic. Because he may be indestructible, but he's helped cause so much destruction. From the killing fields of Iraq, to the chaos of Brexit Britain, to the Big Lie and the insurrection here in the United States. All in the service not of principle, or even ideology. But for the sake of power and money.

Once again, you don't have to take my word for it. When asked in his Dominion deposition why Fox continued to give a platform to the pillow guy and conspiracy theorist, Mike Lindell, even after January the 6th, Rupert Murdock agreed with the Dominion lawyers that his approach is not red or blue, it's green.

[admin]

Tucker Carlson was abruptly fired from Fox News on Monday morning in direct order from Rupert Murdoch: Tucker Carlson’s primetime show axed by Fox Corporation chairman as lawsuits continue to swirl around network after after $787.5m Dominion defamation settlement.
by Bevan Hurley
Independent
4/24/23

Fox News’ abrupt decision to fire its top-rating host Tucker Carlson came directly from Rupert Murdoch, according to reports.

The right-wing network told The Independent in a statement that it had “agreed to part ways” with Carlson days after it agreed to pay $787.5m to settle a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems.

“We thank him for his service as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” the statement said.

Carlson was informed his show was being axed on Monday morning, the New York Times reported.

The decision came directly from Mr Murdoch, the Fox Corporation chairman, sources told the Los Angeles Times.

Fox News had been severely embarrassed by revelations in pre-trial court filings about its coverage in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential elections.

Carlson and fellow hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham privately mocked regular guests including Donald Trump’s attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, while continuing to promote their lies and conspiracy theories to their audience.

Carlson called Mr Trump a “demonic force”, and said that hated the former president “passionately” in text messages to an unknown Fox employee two days before the 6 January riots, court documents showed.

“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” he added. “I truly can’t wait.”

The hosts were spared having to testify at trial when Dominion and Fox News reached a last-gasp $787.5 settlement on Tuesday, after a jury had already been sworn in.

Carlson, 57, began hosting his nightly Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight in November 2016 in the 7pm slot.

After Megyn Kelly departed from Fox in January 2017 he shifted to the 9pm hour, quickly becoming a ratings juggernaut for the network.

When Fox host Bill O’Reilly was forced out over a string of sexual harassment allegations a few months later, he shifted to the 8pm slot where he had remained until Friday.

By June 2020 [his] was the most-watched show on cable news attracting an average of four million viewers.

The show was heavily criticised for amplifying racist, anti-immigrant, homophobic and transphobic themes.

In 2018, Carlson told viewers that immigration had made the United States “poorer, dirtier and more divided”.

Advertisers began fleeing the show, but Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch resisted calls to reign him in.

After the invasion of Ukraine last February, Carlson took a stridently pro-Putin position and regularly parroted Kremlin talking points.

He also drew the ire of Democrats and law enforcement for repeatedly claiming that the January 6 insurrection had been a largely peaceful protest.

According to the Washington Post, it was Carlson’s comments about Fox management revealed during the Dominion lawsuit that sealed his fate.

Minutes after news of Carlson’s departure broke, Fox Corporation’s stock price plunged by 4 per cent.

Host Harris Faulkner appeared stunned as she announced the news to Fox viewers in the 11am hour, repeating the company’s statement and thanking him for his service.

In their statement, Fox News confirmed that he was taken off air with immediate effect.

The network plans to install “an interim show helmed by rotating Fox News personalities until a new host is named”, it said.

The fallout from the Dominion settlement saw Fox contributor Dan Bongino last week abruptly leave the network.

Further damning revelations about the network could yet be revealed in a series of pending lawsuits.

The network is facing a $2.7bn defamation lawsuit brought by the Smartmatic voting software company for allegedly spreading election lies.

Former Tucker Carlson Tonight producer Abby Grossberg is also suing the network, alleging it was a “big corporate machine that destroys people”.

Sources told the LA Times that Carlson’s firing was connected to Ms Grossberg’s lawsuit.

[admin]

O’Reilly: ‘Nothing good’ about Carlson’s Fox News departure
by Chris Cuomo
NewsNation
Apr 24, 2023 #FoxNews #TuckerCarlson #media

Former Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly provides exclusive details on what sources tell him led Fox News executives to part with their No. 1 anchor Tucker Carlson, including a series of lawsuits filed against the company. At the end of the day, O’Reilly says Carlson’s departure will be “bad” for the network. "There's nothing good about this," he said.



Transcript

GOOD REASON. JOINING ME NOW,
BILL O'REILLY, THE BIGGEST
STAR IN THE HISTORY OF FOX
NEWS HAD THE NUMBER ONE SHOW
THEIR CARLSON WAS WRITING THAT
WAKE UNTIL TODAY. WHAT DO YOU
MAKE OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT
BROTHER BILL?
>> WELL, I YOU DON'T REFER TO
ME AS A DOG TO WITH DONNA
JOHNSON. QUOTE, I ACTUALLY DID
REPORTING TODAY. IT WAS
REFRESHING BECAUSE USUALLY I'M
ANALYZING, BUT I HAD A REPORT.
FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TELLING
NEWSNATION AUDIENCE NOT TO
BELIEVE 90% OF WHAT THEY'RE
HEARING. AS YOU POINTED OUT.
SO AS EVERY DAY AND THE TV
NEWS BUSINESS, THE PRODUCERS
OF THE TALKER CAUSING PROGRAM
AND ALL OTHER NEW SHOWS WERE
HAVING THEIR MORNING MEETING
LAYING OUT WHAT WAS GOING TO
BE ON THIS EVENING. ALL RIGHT.
IN THE MIDDLE OF THAT MEETING,
THEY GOT WORD THAT THEIR HOST
WAS NOT COMING TO WORK. EVER
AGAIN. ALL RIGHT. ALL OF THIS
BS ABOUT, WELL, THE DECISION
WAS MADE LAST WEEK OR WAS MADE
DURING THE DOMINION. THAT'S
ALL NOT TRUE. THE DECISION WAS
MADE SUNDAY EVENING. OKAY. AND
WITH 2 REASONS WHY? BUT I'LL
GET TO THAT IN A MOMENT. SO
FOX NEWS DID NOT WANT. TO
REMOVE TALKER COST BECAUSE AS
YOU POINTED OUT, HE WAS THE
SECOND HIGHEST RATED PROGRAM
ON THE NETWORK NEXT TO THE 5.
AND HE WAS THE MOST WELL-KNOWN
INDIVIDUAL HOST. SO THEY
DIDN'T WANT TO MOVE HIM OUT.
BUT THERE ARE LAWSUITS COMING.
ON THE WAKE OF DOMINION. THEY
LOST 800 MILLION PLUS ON
DOMINION. AND NOW YOU HAVE
SMART MATIC COMING UP AND YOU
HAVE TO INDIVIDUAL LAWSUITS.
ACTUALLY ONE FILED AND ONE
THAT MAY BE FILED. AND THAT
WAS THE KEY. SO ONE TUCKER
CAUSES PRODUCERS APPARENTLY
TAPED A WHOLE BUNCH OF STUFF.
HER LAWYER WENT INTO THE FOX
ATTORNEYS AND SAID UNLESS YOU
PAY SO AND SO SOME MONEY.
WE'RE GOING TO SUE YOU. AND
FOX. SO WE'RE NOT PAYING. SO
THEY FILED SUIT IN NEW YORK
CITY AND THEY HAVE THE TAPES
AND THOSE TAPES MAY BE
RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC. ALL
RIGHT. AND THEY'RE NOT. GOOD
TAPES FOR THE CAUSE AND
PROGRAM. THE SECOND THING WAS
LAST NIGHT ON 60 MINUTES. RE
YOU MAY REMEMBER THAT NAME
SAID TO THE AUDIENCE. TUCKER
CAUSING RUINED MY LIFE AND D MY
FAMILY'S LIFE BY ACCUSING ME
OF HAVING SOME KIND OF
PROVOCATIVE ROLE IN THE
JANUARY 6TH RIOTS AT THE
CAPITOL. THAT WAS SETTING APPS
UP FOR A MASSIVE LAWSUIT
AGAINST FOX NEWS AND TALKER.
CAUTION. SO THAT'S 3 LAWSUITS
WE KNOW ABOUT. AND THEY'LL BE
MORE BY SHAREHOLDERS. WE'RE
ANGRY ABOUT THE 800 MILLION
DOLLARS SETTLEMENT. THEY'RE
GOING TO GO AFTER THE
MURDOCH'S AND THE BOARD OF
DIRECTORS FACED WITH THAT. THE
BOARD OF DIRECTORS SAID WE'VE
GOT TO START CLEANING THIS UP.
SO DAN, BON GINO WAS THE FIRST
DOMINO TO FALL EVEN THOUGH HE
WASN'T INVOLVED WITH THE
DOMINION THING, THEY COULDN'T
GET TO A CONTRACT SETTLEMENT
WITH HIM. HE'S GONE AND THEN
CARLSON BECAUSE OF THE
IMPENDING LITIGATION WAS.
HARPOON THIS MORNING. CARSON
DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS LIKE IT WAS
A DISCUSSION. SAME THING WITH
LEMON AT CNN. IT ENOUGH. THEY
JUST HAPPEN. AND THAT'S THE
NATURE OF TELEVISION NEWS. THE
MOST WICKED INDUSTRY. IN THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
>> I BELIEVE THAT THE TIMING
OF THE CNN MOVE IN THE FOX
MOVE FOR PURELY COINCIDENTAL.
I DO. I DON'T THINK THEY HAVE
ANYTHING TO DO WITH ONE
ANOTHER BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK
THIS MEANS FOR FOX? YOU THINK
THEY'RE MOVING AWAY FROM THE
ACIDIC AND MORE TOWARDS KIND
OF ANALYTICAL BY GETTING RID
OF A BOND. GINO, WHO'S A FIRE
THROWER CARLSON, WHO'S A FLAME
THROWER. I DON'T KNOW. I OUBT
IT. IT'S ALL ABOUT MONEY AND
FOX NEWS AS IT IS FOR EVERY
OTHER.
>> CORPORATE MEDIA
ORGANIZATION WHICH IS TO PURGE
AN ABC NEWS. YOU AND I BOTH
WORK THERE. THEY WALKED ABOUT
5 OF THEIR EXECUTIVES. THERE
WILL BE A PURGE CBS NEWS SOON.
I'M TOLD IT'S ALL ABOUT MONEY.
AT FOX NEWS ARE GOING TO CUT
SALARIES ACROSS THE BOARD.
THAT'S WHY BY COME TO A DEAL.
THE LAY OFF ABOUT 30% OF THEIR
PERSONAL NEXT 6 MONTHS. YOU'LL
SEE THAT BECAUSE THIS IS AN
ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY THAT
THE COMPANY HAS TO PAY TO
DOMINION. YOU KNOW, I DON'T I
SAID, I DON'T KNOW THE BUNGEE
KNOW HE'S SOMEBODY WHO'S RODE
THE WAVE OF THIS FRIENDS STUFF
IN AND WORKS WELL CERTAINLY ON
THE DIGITAL SIDE IN TERMS OF
PUT MONEY IN HIS POCKET.
>> BUT I WONDER WHAT ROLE
MONEY PLAYED WITH CARLSON. YOU
KNOW, HE WAS UNUSUAL IN THAT
HE HAD VERY HIGH RATINGS AND
VERY LOW AD REVENUE BECAUSE A
LOT OF PEOPLE ON MAKING THAT
MUCH MONEY, RIGHT? SO I WONDER
HOW WAS A GOOD DEAL? WASN'T?
IT WASN'T IT WASN'T A FACTOR
FOR HIM. IT WAS GET OUT AHEAD
OF THESE LAWSUITS.
>> BECAUSE WE'RE GOING TO LOSE
THEM AND WE'RE GOING TO GEG TTO

[admin]

See Tucker Carlson fired: Fox News finally forced to 'pay for it'
by Ari Melber
MSNBC
Apr 24, 2023 #msnbc #foxnews #tuckercarlson

Fox News abruptly fired Tucker Carlson after the network’s record-breaking $787 million defamation penalty. The LA Times reporting Rupert Murdoch made the call to fire Carlson after concerns about January 6th coverage. MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber breaks down how the defamation case draws a new line for falsehoods at Fox, reports on accountability and how legal experts see the “system working” in Carlson’s firing.



Transcript

[ARI MELBER] WELCOME TO THE BEAT. THIS IS A TOP STORY TONIGHT. FOX NEWS FIRING CONTROVERSIAL HOST TUCKER CARLSON TODAY. A TOTAL EARTHQUAKE THAT COMES AMIDST THE ROCKIEST PERIOD IN THE HISTORY OF THE CONTROVERSIAL FOX NEWS CHANNEL, WHICH OF COURSE RECENTLY FOLDED IN THAT RECORD-BREAKING $787 MILLION PENALTY IN THE CASE ABOUT DEFAMING A VOTING COMPANY MACHINE AND LYING ABOUT THE 2020 ELECTION AS WELL AS HEAT ON THE COMPANY'S WIDER REPORTING AND ERRORS IN WORKPLACE PRACTICES. NOW, CARLSON IS ONE OF FOX'S MOST WATCHED AND -- UNTIL NOW -- HIGHEST PAID STARS. SO BY ALL ACCOUNTS, TODAY'S FIRING SURPRISED HIM, HIS OWN TEAM, AND MOST OF HIS COLLEAGUES. FOX DID NOT ALLOW HIM A FINAL SHOW. THE DECISION AND FIRING CLEARLY CAME FAST. THIS WAS HIS SIGN-OFF ON FRIDAY.

>> [TUCKER CARLSON] WE'LL BE BACK ON MONDAY. IN THE MEANTIME, HAVE THE BEST WEEKEND WITH THE ONES THAT YOU LOVE, AND WE'LL SEE YOU THEN.

>> [ARI MELBER] TODAY IS MONDAY, AND TUCKER CARLSON IS NOT BACK. SO WHAT IS HAPPENING TONIGHT? WELL, WE'RE GOING TO WALK THROUGH THIS WITH YOU BECAUSE IT IS A HUGE STORY, AN IMPORTANT STORY, ONE THAT SO MANY PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT FOR SO MANY REASONS, WELL OUTSIDE OF THOSE OF US, YOU AND I WHO PERHAPS TAKE AN INTEREST IN THE NEWS AND WHO'S ON THE NEWS. THIS GOES WAY BEYOND THAT. THIS IS NOT PRIMARILY A MEDIA STORY, AND IT'S CERTAINLY NOT A JOURNALISM STORY BECAUSE THE DEFAMATION LIES AND FALSEHOODS THAT WERE BOTH ALLEGED AND DOCUMENTED IN THAT RECENT LAWSUIT ARE PRECISELY ABOUT PEOPLE GETTING CAUGHT DOING THE OPPOSITE OF JOURNALISM, OF MASQUERADING AS OR PRETENDING TO BE DOING JOURNALISM WHILE ABSOLUTELY UNDERMINING IT AND TRUTH AS WE KNOW IT, WHICH IS WHY THEY SETTLED FOR A REPORT-BREAKING SUM. SO IF IT'S NOT ABOUT THAT, WHAT IS IT ABOUT? IT'S ABOUT POWER AND CRIME AND SEDITION AND PROPAGANDA ALIGNED WITH AND SOMETIMES DIRECTLY KNOWINGLY SUPPORTING SOME OF THOSE THINGS. LET'S BE CLEAR, BECAUSE WHILE THIS IS HUGE NEWS AND IT'S ALL ABOUT TUCKER CARLSON, AND WE'RE GOING TO GET INTO THAT TONIGHT, WE'VE ALSO COVERED THAT CASE VERY CLOSELY, AND I CAN REMIND YOU WHAT WE REPORTED, WHICH IS THAT TUCKER CARLSON WAS NOT FIRST, SECOND, OR EVEN THE THIRD MAIN TARGET OR DEFENDANT IN THAT DEFAMATION CASE WHICH COST FOX SO MUCH. NOW, HE WAS A PART OF IT, AND WHILE THIS IS MORE THAN A MEDIA STORY, OF COURSE, THE RECENT RATINGS ARE A PART OF IT. AS OF FRIDAY, CARLSON LED THE MOST-WATCHED SHOW IN PRIME-TIME CABLE NEWS. HE AVERAGED MORE THAN 3 MILLION VIEWERS A NIGHT, WHICH IN THE MATH OF TV MEANS THAT CARLSON COULD BE REACHING TENS OF MILLIONS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES EVERY MONTH. HE WAS ONE OF THE TOP ANCHORS ON THE TOP CHANNEL ACROSS ALL OF BASIC CABLE. AGAIN, YOU AND I MAY BE INTERESTED IN THE NEWS, BUT AFTER FOX COMES ESPN. SO WE'RE JUST TALKING ABOUT THE MOST-WATCHED STUFF ON CABLE, PERIOD. THAT'S WHY HE WAS NAMED AS ONE OF TIME'S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE. THAT'S HOW HE TURNED THOSE RELENTLESS ATTACKS ON THE REPUBLICAN SPEAKER. HE WAS ATTACHING MCCARTHY AT ONE POINT AS A DEMOCRAT, AS A CYPHER, AS SOMEONE WHO SHOULD BE OUSTED, AND THEN HE USED THAT LEVERAGE TO GET THAT JANUARY 6th FOOTAGE I TOLD YOU ABOUT. SO NOW YOU HAVE CARLSON AS A KIND OF DETHRONED CONSERVATIVE AND PARTY LEADER PAYING TODAY FOR THE COST OF HIS APPROACH TO POWER, THE ATTACKS, THE LIES, THE TRANSACTIONAL WARFARE. CARLSON INTERVIEWED DONALD TRUMP AFTER HE WAS BUSTED SAYING THAT HE HATES TRUMP AND HE WANTS HIM TO GO AWAY. FOX MAY ALSO HAVE BEEN CALCULATING HOW LONG THAT WAS GOING TO HOLD. $787 MILLION WAS THE BILL, PLUS THE FUTURE INSURANCE PREMIUM PAYMENTS THAT WILL RISE, PLUS THE OTHER CASES I MENTIONED, PLUS A LARGER QUESTION ABOUT WHAT THESE PEOPLE ARE DOING, PLATFORMING LIARS. WHEN YOU TAKE IT ALL IN TONIGHT, YOU MIGHT SEE THE BEGINNING OF A STORY, WHAT THEY SOMETIMES CALL A NARRATIVE, THAT MAKES IT SOUND LIKE THEY'RE GOING AWAY, AT FOX, FROM THE LIES, THAT THEY MIGHT BE GOING AWAY FROM THAT TERRIBLE BAD DIRECTION. SO THEN YOU SAY, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? HAVE ALL OF THESE PEOPLE CHANGED THEIR MINDS? ARE THEY GOING IN A GOOD DIRECTION? IS THAT WHAT THEY WANTED? THEY CAN SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. I'M NOT HERE TO PARAPHRASE. BU,T THIS IS STILL A COUNTRY WITH COURTS. IT WAS COURTS THAT HAVE CONVICTED THE SEDITION. THAT'S WHY WHEN WE SAY TO YOU THAT THERE WAS A SEDITION, WE'RE REFERRING TO SOMETHING THAT WAS TESTED IN COURT AND CONVICTED. THE COURT PROCESS IS WHAT LED TO THAT RECORD-BREAKING PENALTY, FOX TRYING TO FORESTALL WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN A WORSE OR EVEN AHIGHER PENALTY AT TRIAL, BUT RECORD-BREAKING IS MORE THAN ANYBODY THOUGHT THEY WOULD HAVE GOTTEN AT THAT TRIAL AT THE BEGINNING OF ALL OF THIS. THAT'S THE SYSTEM WORKING. AND THE WAY THE YSTEM WORKS IS NOT TO BRAINWASH OR CONVINCE EVERYONE OF EVERYTHING. IT IS TO SET SOME RULES, SOME GUIDELINES THAT EXIST. THEY FRACTURED THOSE GUIDELINES OVER AND OVER, AND NOW ARE PAYING A PRICE SO HIGH THAT THEY ARE PERHAPS MOVING THE LINE OVER AT FOX. THE PROVERBIAL ICING ON THIS LIAR CAKE INSTEAD OF LAYER CAKE, IS THAT MR. CARLSON WAS BUSTED FULLY AND COMPLETELY BEING A LIAR. WHICH MEANS, MANY OF THOSE THINGS THAT WERE DESIGNED TO HELP TRUMP, OR MISLEAD ABOUT THE INSURRECTION, OR PLANT CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND FALSE FLAGS, THEY WEREN'T EVEN HIS REAL BELIEFS. AGAIN, ABOVE MY PAY GRADE IN ETHICS TO DECIDE WHETHER THAT MAKES IT WORSE OR NOT. BUT THERE ARE PLENTY OF PEOPLE WHO SAY THAT WHEN YOU KNOWINGLY DO SOMETHING WRONG, LEGALLY IT'S WORSE. THAT'S WHY WE TALK ABOUT THE MENTAL STATE. THAT'S WHY ACCIDENTS IN A CAR ARE VERY DIFFERENT IN LAW, WHICH HAPPEN OF COURSE, THAN TRYING TO KILL SOMEONE WITH A CAR. HE KNOWINGLY DID MUCH OF THIS DECEITFULLY, FALSELY, INDEED, THERE ARE MANY TEXTS AND RECORDS THAT FOX HAD THAT HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN RELEASED YET ABOUT WHAT ELSE HE WAS SAYING PRIVATELY. BUT WE KNOW HE HATED TRUMP PRIVATELY. HE ADMITTED THAT. HE WANTED HIM TO GO AWAY. HE CAN'T WAIT TO MOVE OFF THIS. AND THEN RECENTLY HYPED UP TRUMP. SO THAT'S WHY WHEN YOU ACTUALLY STUDY HIS CAREER, THIS DEFENESTRATION, AND THE WEIRD RANTS HE WOULD SOMETIMES GIVE THAT SEEMED SO EMOTIONAL, YOU WONDERED IS THIS A BIT, IS THIS PROJECTION, OR ARE YOU, MR. CARLSON, DESCRIBING YOURSELF?

>> [TUCKER CARLSON] IMAGINE FORCING YOURSELF TO TELL LIES ALL DAY ABOUT EVERYTHING IN WAYS THAT WERE SO TRANSPARENT AND SO OUTLANDISH THAT THERE IS NO WAY THE PEOPLE LISTENING TO YOU COULD POSSIBLY BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU SAID. THEN IMAGINE DOING THAT AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN EVERY DAY OF YOUR PROFESSIONAL LIFE FOR YOUR ENTIRE LIFE. COULD YOU DO THAT?

>> [ARI MELBER] COULD YOU? IMAGINE THAT. THAT'S PART OF THE RECORD. THE PRODUCER I MENTIONED IS ONE OF THE MANY PEOPLE WHO WOULD BE INVOLVED IN RESEARCHING OR WORKING OVER THOSE LINES. I MENTIONED WE HAD HER LAWYER ON, MS. GROSSBERG. SHE ALLEGES THIS RAMPANT SEXISM AT THE NETWORK, WHICH INCLUDES QUITE DIRECTLY AT CARLSON'S SHOW. SHE SAID THE WORKPLACE WAS DECORATED WITH THE PICTURES OF FORMER SPEAKER PELOSI WITH A PLUNGING SWIMSUIT. STAFF DEPLOYING A VULGAR TERM FOR WOMEN. HER LAWSUIT COMES AS AN OUTGROWTH OF THIS SAME DOMINION CASE I MENTIONED BECAUSE SHE BASICALLY FELT HER LINE WAS CROSSED WHEN SHE FELT THAT FOX LAWYERS WERE TRYING TO RESPOND TO A CASE ABOUT ALLEGED FALSEHOODS AND LIES BY GETTING HER TO COERCE, INTIMIDATE, OR BE MISINFORMED, BASICALLY. MORE LIES, BROADLY SPEAKING. SO TUCKER'S OUT. THERE IS ANOTHER CASE ON THE HORIZON ASKING FOR BILLIONS IN PUNISHMENT. AND THE POINT TONIGHT, IF WE TAKE THIS ALL IN, IS NOT TO OVERIMAGINE WHAT EVERYONE'S THINKING, OR WHETHER PEOPLE ARE DOING EVERYTHING FOR THE RIGHT REASON. I THINK ONE FACTUAL POINT, IF WE CAN FOCUS ON FACTS AT THIS TIME, IS THAT THE SYSTEM HAS PENALTIES DESIGNED TO DETER OR PUNISH EXACTLY CRAP LIKE THIS.