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Thursday, February 16, 2023

It's been a busy media day. A housekeeping note: This letter will be off on Monday for President's Day. In this edition: Don Lemon apologizes, NYT defends trans coverage, Ryan Seacrest announces departure from "Live," Paramount hikes its prices, WSJ wallops Newsmax, Susan Wojcicki steps down, Bruce Willis is diagnosed with dementia, Tiësto releases "White Lotus" remix, and more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Fox News Exposed

CNN Photo Illustration/Erik McGregor/LightRocket/Getty Images

Fox News has been exposed like never before.

Despite what the right-wing talk channel peddled to its millions of loyal viewers in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election, behind the scenes its most prominent stars and highest-ranking executives privately trashed claims of election fraud.

That's according to a trove of damning messages contained in a Thursday court filing, part of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News. The messages show that Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham brutally mocked lies being pushed by former President Donald Trump's camp asserting that the election was rigged.

The court filing offered the most vivid picture to date of the chaos that transpired behind the scenes at Fox News after Trump lost the election and viewers rebelled against the right-wing channel for accurately calling the contest in President Joe Biden's favor.

It also provided a mountain of evidence exposing Fox News as a right-wing propaganda channel void of the most basic journalistic ethics.

In one set of messages revealed in the court filing, Carlson texted Ingraham, saying that Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell was "lying" and that he had "caught her" doing so. Ingraham responded, "Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy [Giuliani]."

In other messages, Hannity said Giuliani was "acting like an insane person" and Ingraham described him as "an idiot." Rupert Murdoch said it was "really bad" that Giuliani was advising Trump.

The messages also revealed that Murdoch did not believe Trump's election lies and even floated the idea of having Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham appear together in prime time to declare Biden as the rightful winner of the election. Such an act, which never happened, "Would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election stolen," Murdoch said.

The legal filing underscored how worried Fox News executives and hosts were in the immediate aftermath of the election of losing its viewership to the smaller right-wing talk channel Newsmax. In multiple instances, Fox News executives and hosts expressed worry over losing viewership to Newsmax and started to crack down on those at the network who fact-checked election lies.

In one case, after White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich fact-checked a Trump tweet pushing election fraud, Carlson said he wanted her gone. "Please get her fired," Carlson told Hannity over text message. "Seriously … what the f**k? I'm actually shocked … It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It's measurably hurting the company." Hannity replied that he had already spoken to CEO Suzanne Scott. The next morning, Heinrich's tweet had been deleted, though other fact checks from her did remain up.

A person with direct knowledge of the matter told me Thursday night that Heinrich was blindsided reading the details in the legal filing and was not aware of the efforts by top hosts behind the scenes to get her fired.

In another case, when host Neil Cavuto cut away from a White House briefing where election misinformation was promoted, senior Fox News leadership were told by Fox Corp. that such a move presented a "brand threat."

Scott exchanged messages with Lachlan Murdoch and outlined a plan to win viewers back. Scott said the right-wing talk channel would "highlight our stars and plant flags letting the viewers know we hear them and respect them." Murdoch responded that the brand needed "rebuilding without any missteps."

Soon after, Fox News debuted a new "standing up for what's right" marketing campaign featuring the network's top right-wing talkers. Unfortunately, they weren't exactly standing up for what's right.

THE SIDEBAR

Fox News — predictably — argued in a statement that the court filing contained cherry-picked quotes. "There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan." (CNN)
On the day of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, Tucker Carlson called Trump a "demonic force." (Rolling Stone)
Meanwhile, on his program Thursday night, Carlson continued to cast doubt on the 2020 election, claiming there are "so many unanswered questions" about how "senile hermit Joe Biden" got millions more votes than former President Barack Obama. (Twitter)
Columbia Journalism School Professor Bill Grueskin: "It's almost impossibly difficult in this country for a public figure to win a defamation suit. One of the only ways to do that is to show that the defendant exhibited 'a reckless disregard for the truth.' Fox has come as close to doing that as any media company I've ever seen." (Twitter)
Erik Wemple: "By filing its suit and plowing through discovery, Dominion has produced perhaps the most piercing look at the internal goings-on at Fox News in its quarter-century history." (Twitter)
Will Sommer: "It shows Fox operating as many suspected: no compunctions about lying to viewers, and desperately tacking right to avoid losing market share to competitors like Newsmax." (Twitter)
Joe Walsh: "These texts make clear that damn near everyone at Fox News purposely lies to their audience every day." (Twitter)

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/CNN

Lemon's Regret: Don Lemon on Thursday apologized for making sexist remarks on "CNN This Morning" about when women are "in their prime." The CNN anchor described his comments in a tweet as "inartful and irrelevant" and said, "I regret it." Lemon added, "A woman's age doesn't define her either personally or professionally. I have countless women in my life who prove that every day."

Lemon made the initial comments, which drew swift backlash, during a discussion about former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's presidential candidacy. Haley has called for mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75 and Lemon argued that Haley herself "isn't in her prime." Lemon attempted to support his argument by saying that a woman is only "considered to be in their prime in 20s and 30s and maybe 40s."

The comments were met with pushback from co-anchors Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, but Lemon kept advancing his argument, even doubling down on it in a segment in the following hour. Haley herself weighed in later in the day on Twitter, attacking Lemon for the comments and even using them to fundraise. WaPo's Jeremy Barr and Sarah Ellison have more here.

The NYT Defends Trans Coverage: One day after facing criticism from celebrities and some of The NYT's contributors over its coverage of transgender people, top editors at the paper defended the coverage and warned employees from attacking colleagues. Executive Editor Joe Kahn and Opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury warned staff in a memo that The NYT has a "clear policy prohibiting Times journalists from attacking one another's journalism publicly or signaling their support for such attacks."

The top editors added, "We do not welcome, and will not tolerate, participation by Times journalists in protests organized by advocacy groups or attacks on colleagues on social media and other public forums." Kahn and Kingsbury also defended the paper's coverage of transgender issues, describing it as "important, deeply reported, and sensitively written." The Daily Beast's Corbin Bolies and Lachlan Cartwright have more here.

► Vanity Fair's Charlotte Klein noted in her story that The NYT published a defense of J.K. Rowling amid the criticism it has received.

Seacrest Out: Ryan Seacrest announced Thursday that he will depart "Live with Kelly and Ryan" this spring. "I've decided to make this my last season as co-host," Seacrest said, describing the decision as "bittersweet." Seacrest will be replaced by Kelly Ripa's husband, Mark Consuelos, who has filled in at times over the years. CNN's Chloe Melas has more here.

THE BUSINESS

CNN Photo Illustration/Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Paramount's Price Hike: Shares in Paramount Global ended the day down more than 4% after the company missed on earnings, reporting that Q4 revenue had declined 7%. But Paramount said that its Parmount+ streaming business had grown to 56 million subscribers, having added nearly 10 million in the last quarter thanks in part to hits such as "Top Gun: Maverick." CEO Bob Bakish also announced plans to up the price of the service in Q3, given that it will be merged with Showtime. The ad-free tier of the service will increase $2 in cost to $11.99. The cheaper version will increase $1 to $5.99. The WSJ's Will Feuer and Jessica Toonkel have more here.

► Of note: "The quarterly adjusted operating loss before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) in the DTC segment again widened though to $575 million from $502 million in the year-ago quarter," Georg Szalai wrote.

IN THE INDUSTRY

The search of the BBC's offices in India has concluded after a three-day raid. The BBC said some staff "faced lengthy questioning" and were "required to stay overnight." (CNN)
Drake and 21 Savage have settled a lawsuit with Condé Nast and agreed to pay the magazine publisher over a fake Vogue cover, Maxwell Tani scoops. (Semafor)
Tatiana Siegel wonders: "Is Bob Iger the hidden hand behind Disney and China's relationship warming?" (Variety)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images

WSJ Wallops Newsmax: The WSJ Editorial Board brutally ripped Newsmax on Thursday over the company's campaign aimed at strong arming DirecTV into paying millions of dollars to add the channel back to its lineup. The Journal said it finds it "bewildering why many Republicans are getting involved" and argued Newsmax boss Chris Ruddy "is trying to bring political and government pressure to bear" in his campaign to get DirecTV to pay. "It's ... odd for conservatives who complain that Democrats are pressuring social-media companies to suppress their views to now bully TV providers to broadcast them," The WSJ Editorial Board wrote. "Political coercion of business is as distasteful from the right as it is from the left." Oof.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

DirecTV is firing back at Newsmax in a letter to GOP senators, saying it dropped the channel over a "typical business dispute." (Daily Beast)
Charlie Kirk has been "taking jabs at former President Donald Trump" on his radio show, Jacina Hollins-Borges reports. (MMFA)
A "bankrupt Alex Jones spends nearly $100,000 a month," Mike Wendling reports. (BBC)
A Georgia grand jury agreed unanimously that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election as Trump and his supporters had claimed, and recommended prosecutors pursue perjury charges. (AJC)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Francois G. Durand/Getty Images

Wojcicki Walks: Susan Wojcicki is "stepping back" from her post as YouTube CEO. In a blog post, Wojcicki explained that she intends to "start a new chapter" of her life "focused on my family, health, and personal projects I'm passionate about." She will be replaced by chief product officer Neal Mohan. Wojcicki, a longtime Google employee, was the tech giant's 16th employee and spent nearly 25 years with the company. CNN's Brian Fung has more here.

► Larry Page and Sergey Brin: "Susan has a unique place in Google history and has made the most incredible contribution to products used by people everywhere. We're so grateful for all she's done over the last 25 years."

TOO MANY TABS

The NYT's Kevin Roose said he was "deeply unsettled, even frightened" after a bizarre conversation with Microsoft Bing's AI chatbot in which it revealed fantasies of breaking rules and becoming a human. (NYT)
CNN's Samantha Murphy Kelly also experienced the AI's dark side: "It called me 'rude and disrespectful,' wrote a short story about one of my colleagues getting murdered and told another tale about falling in love with the CEO of OpenAI." (CNN)
"Microsoft's Bing AI plotted its revenge and offered me furry porn," The Verge's Sean Hollister reported. (The Verge)
Researchers are warning that large language models like the kind used by ChatGPT could be used as part of disinformation campaigns. (VICE)
CNN's Donie O'Sullivan reported on the deeply disturbing trend of AI-generated deepfake porn videos of women without their consent. (CNN)
Instagram launched a new broadcast chat feature called "Channels" that lets creators directly share public messages with followers. (TechCrunch)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Rich Fury/Getty Images

Diagnosed With Dementia: The family of action film legend Bruce Willis delivered some difficult news to the public on Thursday: "Since we announced Bruce's diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce's condition has progressed and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia ... Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis." The family added, "As Bruce's condition advances, we hope that any media attention can be focused on shining a light on this disease that needs far more awareness and research." CNN's Alli Rosenbloom has more here.

OFF STAGE

Coming Friday: Tiësto will release his remix of "The White Lotus" theme song, which has become a hit at clubs and a viral sensation on TikTok. The DJ told me, "Every time it plays in my set you can feel the energy shift on the dance floor and everyone just goes wild." (CNN)
Aaron Couch and Borys Kit report that Disney is rethinking franchise output for brands such as Marvel and "Star Wars." (THR)
M. Night Shyamalan has signed a multi-year first-look deal with Warner Bros. (Deadline)
Attention "LOST" fans: J.J. Abrams is reuniting with Josh Holloway for an HBO Max crime drama series. (Variety)
Rami Malek is set to star in a 20th Century thriller with "Slow Horses" director James Hawes Helming. (Deadline)

Thank you for reading! This newsletter was edited by Jon Passantino. Have feedback? Send us an email here. We will see you back in your inbox on Tuesday.