Item one: What the Dominion filing tells us about Fox News |
Friday’s front pages are full of stories about the Dominion Voting Systems legal filing against Fox News (go to this New York Times story and click on the link). And even the quickest scan of the filing shows clearly why: While they were promoting the Big Lie, Fox News’ prime-time stars and executives were privately trashing it and its chief promoters, like Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani.
They knew very well that what Trump and his backers was promoting was false and dangerous. There’s quote after quote in the document of Tucker Carlson acknowledging that it was all crazy (even referring to Trump as a “demonic force”), Sean Hannity doing the same (Giuliani was “acting like an insane person”), and even Rupert Murdoch himself weighing in that it was “very hard” for Trump “to credibly claim foul anywhere.”
And yet, on air, they promoted Powell, Giuliani, Trump, his lies, the whole ball of wax. Why? Fox News was the first network to call the election for Biden. This rare act of reportorial honesty on Fox’s part had the audience seething in rage. At that point, Newsmax undertook a strategy to steal away the Fox viewers who were mad about the election call. Carlson warned that Newsmax “could be devastating to us,” the filing alleges. Murdoch told Fox CEO Suzanne Scott that Newsmax “should be watched, if skeptically,” and said that he had no wish “to antagonize Trump further.”
So that’s what they did. The hosts bottled their knowledge that it was all bullshit, and they conducted countless interviews promoting the conspiracy that Dominion’s machines were involved in widespread voter fraud. Executives put the squeeze on the noncelebrity talent, the “straight”-ish reporters, not to do honest reporting. One Fox reporter had the bad judgment to fact-check a tweet Trump posted about Dominion that contained false information. “If this gets picked up,” Scott fumed, “viewers are going to be further disgusted.”
There’s example after example after breathtaking example. There’s a partial quote from a text from Tommy Firth, Laura Ingraham’s producer, to Ron Mitchell, an exec who oversaw the show. Firth tells Mitchell: “This dominion shit is going to give me a fucking aneurysm—as many times as I’ve told Laura it’s bs, she sees shit posters and trump tweeting about it—[redacted phrase].” We don’t know that phrase, obviously, but it stands to reason that it expressed frustration that Ingraham was still promoting the Dominion fraud story, which we know many Fox News hosts did.
Some of the material is just … well, I’ll report, you decide. On November 8, Maria Bartiromo had Powell on to allow her to spread her wild charges about Dominion’s allegedly corrupt algorithms. In advance of the segment, Powell had sent Bartiromo an email from a “source” who claimed that Antonin Scalia was killed “in a human hunting expedition” and that she (the source) knew what she knew about Dominion and other matters because she time-travels “in a semi-conscious state” and can “see what others don’t see, hear what others don’t hear.” Bartiromo read the email at the time, the filing says, and sought to reassure Powell by telling her that she “shared this very imp[ortant] info” with Eric Trump.
Dominion has to prove actual malice. That’s never easy. But there’s a lot in here that Fox News executives and hosts knew very well what they were doing and used the cover of the First Amendment to peddle lies knowingly for the purpose of not losing viewers to an even more dishonest and extremist competitor. The First Amendment was written to protect robust debate, not this.
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Item two: Are the walls really closing in on Trump? What was released Thursday from the grand jury report in the Fulton County, Georgia, prosecutor’s office probe into the 2020 election does not, let’s face it, indicate that District Attorney Fani Willis is raring to indict Donald Trump. The released portions affirm that there was no fraud in the 2020 vote (okay, knew that) and that a couple of witnesses perjured themselves and could face indictment on those grounds. That would not include Trump, since he offered no testimony. The released portions named no names. The grand jury took testimony from 75 witnesses.
A federal judge ordered the release of the report’s introduction and conclusion but withheld the release of the full report until a later time. The unreleased parts do include, according to the judge, “a roster of who should (or should not) be indicted, and for what, in relation to the conduct (and aftermath) of the 2020 general election in Georgia.”
Does that include Trump, caught on tape pressing state officials to “find” him 11,780 votes? Thursday night on his show, Ari Melber, a lawyer who is the go-to person on MSNBC for this sort of thing, was guessing not. Man. Whatever happened to the old maxim that you could indict a ham sandwich?
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Item three: Hmmm, another jumping Russian Marina Yankina, a Russian military aide who was involved in funding the war on Ukraine, fell 16 stories to her death in St. Petersburg on Thursday. Reporting in The Independent has it that she committed suicide. A local news channel in St. Petersburg reported that she phoned her husband to say she was packing it in and was leaving documents in a certain location. Interestingly, she is the second Russian military officer to die this week of apparent suicide. Maj. Gen. Vladimir Makarov, who reportedly oversaw the monitoring of journalists and dissidents at the Main Directorate for Combating Extremism (a perfect 1984 name), is reported to have shot himself a month after being relieved of his duties by Putin. You may recall the circumstances under which Erwin Rommel committed “suicide” in 1944. He was told that if he shot himself, he’d be given a hero’s funeral, and the Fuhrer’s displeasure with him over his lack of loyalty to his obviously mad ruler would be kept private. So keep an eye on what kind of funerals Yankina and Makarov will be given. |
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Last week’s quiz: Hey, it’s just a game: The Super Bowl in history and culture.
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1. The first Super Bowl, in January 1967, was considered such a curiosity that (a) it wasn’t even called the Super Bowl and (b) it didn’t even sell out. How many fans filled the then-94,000-seat L.A. Coliseum to watch the Green Bay Packers rout the Kansas City Chiefs? |
A. 83,443 B. 78,112 C. 70,005 D. 61,946 |
Answer: D, 61,946. Yep, 32,000 empty seats. Scroll down this page to look at the wide-angle photo showing all the personless rows in the Coliseum. It’s the only Super Bowl not to sell out. |
2. It’s probably the most famous prediction in not just the history of the Super Bowl, but of American sports. |
A. Joe Namath’s “guarantee” before Super Bowl III that his New York Jets, 19-point underdogs, would beat the mighty Baltimore Colts B. Richard Nixon’s prediction prior to Super Bowl VII that the Washington Redskins (now the Commanders) would “scalp” the Miami Dolphins C. Tim Russert’s four consecutive predictions that his beloved Buffalo Bills would win the four straight Super Bowls they lost D. Tom Brady’s mother’s prediction before Super Bowl LI that “I sense Tommy may have an off day; a mother knows these things.” (This was the Patriots’ big comeback win over the Falcons.) |
Answer: A, Broadway Joe, obviously. The Jets were all supremely confident, and the game wasn’t close. |
3. This famous ad that aired during Super Bowl XVIII in January 1984 is generally credited with being the ad that turned Super Bowl advertising into such an overhyped, high-priced competition. |
A. The first Bud Bowl ad B. Apple’s 1984-themed ad introducing the Macintosh C. The first “I’m going to Disney World!” ad D. A Dorito’s ad that featured Jerry Falwell and Jesse Jackson arguing the merits of Nacho Cheese vs. Cool Ranch |
Answer: B, the famous Apple ad. Brilliantly parodied in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary by an outside consultant on behalf of Barack Obama. D would have been an awesome ad, though. |
4. Everybody knows that at the end of the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004, Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson’s breast. Another performer in that show wore a split American flag as a poncho, prompting one U.S. senator to call out this performer’s supposed desecration of the flag. Who was that performer? |
A. Nelly B. Kid Rock C. Jessica Simpson D. P. Diddy |
Answer: B, Kid Rock, somewhat surprisingly. The senator in question was Georgia’s Zell Miller. The VFW and others got into the act as well. |
5. In 2022, Rolling Stone ranked every Super Bowl halftime performance from best to worst (well, nearly every: Finishing second-to-last was “everything from 1967 to 1989,” before which there were marching bands and schmaltzy family fare, and after which the Supe started to feature rock, pop, and rap megastars). Rank these four acts according to how they placed in the RS survey from best position to worst. |
A. Paul McCartney B. The Black-Eyed Peas C. Michael Jackson D. Prince |
Answer: Prince, Sir Paul, MJ, the Peas. RS ranked Prince number one, which no one I know disputes. They put Macca 13th, the Prince of Pop 14th, and the Black-Eyed Peas dead last, behind even the hokey pre-1990 shows; watching their show was “like seeing a unicorn cough up blood.” |
6. The Super Bowl has become known for exotic “prop” bets on everything from who’ll win the coin toss to whether there will be a safety, in addition to non–game related matter. Which of the following is not an exotic prop bet for Sunday’s game? |
A. The color of Gatorade that will be poured on the winning coach (shortest odds: yellow/green) B. Which chip company commercial will air first (Doritos/Pringles) C. How many commercials the Williams sisters will appear in (over/under: three) D. Who the MVP will thank first—team, family, fans, or God |
Answer: C, the Williams over/under. Serena did appear in two ads during the game, but there was no betting line on it, as far as I could see, while the other three were actual bets. |
I would be remiss to leave this topic without noting that my prediction (KC 31, Phil 27) was pretty darn close. The Chiefs won 38–35. |
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This week’s quiz: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier … On the history of spycraft, for obvious reasons. |
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1. What Chinese writer and strategist said: “The end and aim of spying in all its five varieties is knowledge of the enemy; and this knowledge can only be derived, in the first instance, from the converted spy. Hence it is essential that the converted spy be treated with the utmost liberality.”? |
A. Mao Zedong B. Chiang Kai-shek C. Sun Tzu D. Confucius |
2. The most famous spy of the Revolutionary War was Nathan Hale, whom we know for saying at the gallows where he was hanged by the British that “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” But what did he actually do as a spy? |
A. Infiltrated British lines on Long Island to report on their troop movements B. Sold information to the British that turned out to be false, which he knew C. Went undercover as a top aide to Cornwallis, all the while reporting back to Washington D. Stole sensitive British papers from HMS Leopard |
3. Which of these abolitionist leaders was also a Union spy during the Civil War, slipping behind Confederate lines in South Carolina to learn the position of CSA torpedoes so that Union ships could avoid them as they mounted an operation to free 100 enslaved people? |
A. William Lloyd Garrison B. John Brown C. Sojourner Truth D. Harriet Tubman |
4. Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, better known as Mata Hari, was the most famous spy of World War I. In the correct order, what were: her country of birth; the country for which she allegedly spied; and the country that executed her for espionage? |
A. Switzerland, France, Germany B. Denmark, Germany, England C. Belgium, Austria-Hungary, Russia D. The Netherlands, Germany, France |
5. For each of the six following names, say whether the person was a real Cold War spy or a fictional one. |
James Bond Kim Philby Klaus Fuchs Alec Leamas Guy Burgess George Smiley |
6. Which of the following was not a method the CIA at least drew up in an attempt to kill Fidel Castro? |
A. The exploding cigar B. The anthrax-laced condom C. The painted underwater seashell that the diving-enthusiast dictator would be lured to pick up only to find a bomb underneath D. The poison-filled hypodermic needle inside a fountain pen |
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I was once hanging out at my witty friend David’s house. He had these dining chairs called Cesca chairs, with aluminum frames and those modernish S-shaped frames that have no legs in back, just in front. I sat in one, and the frame buckled, and I slowly sank down to the floor. “Oh,” he quipped. “The CIA designed that chair for Castro.” Feedback to fightingwords@tnr.com. —Michael Tomasky, editor |
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