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Monday, February 27, 2023

What a busy media news day! Ron DeSantis takes on Disney, Scott Adams sees his "Dilbert" empire crumble, Elon Musk's Twitter executes more layoffs, Vice appoints new co-CEOs, Snapchat says it will work with OpenAI, and so much more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

The Faux News Channel

CNN Photo Illustration/Kevin Hagen/Getty Images

Fox News continues to be exposed for the dishonest organization that it is — this time, with the help of its billionaire owner.

A Monday filing in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion lawsuit against the right-wing talk channel offered additional revelations — including the fact that Fox Corporation chair Rupert Murdoch admitted in a deposition that some of his top hosts were pushing election lies to his audience.

Murdoch rejected that Fox News, as an entity, endorsed former President Donald Trump's election lies. But Murdoch conceded that Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, and former host Lou Dobbs promoted falsehoods about the 2020 presidential contest being stolen.

"Yes. They endorsed," Murdoch said, according to the filing, when asked about the hosts' promotion of false claims about the election.

"I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight," the media mogul added at another point in the deposition.

That's just one of the several revelations included in Monday's filing. Here are some additional highlights:

► In the wake of the election, Murdoch wrote in an email to the New York Post's Col Allan, describing election lies that Trump was pushing as "bulls**t and damaging."

► Murdoch said it was "wrong" for Tucker Carlson to host conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell after the election. When asked why he continued to allow the MyPillow CEO to continue appearing on Fox News, Murdoch signaled it was a business decision. "It is not red or blue, it is green," he said. That's a shocking admission from Murdoch about what actually guides coverage at Fox News.

► Behind the scenes, Paul Ryan repeatedly warned the Murdochs to stop allowing the spread of election lies. The former House speaker said that Fox News should "move on from Donald Trump" and "stop spouting election lies." Ryan told the Murdochs that many of those who thought the election had been stolen did so "because they got a diet of information telling them the election was stolen from what they believe were credible sources." He was not wrong.

► Murdoch responded to one email from Ryan by telling him that Sean Hannity had "been privately disgusted by Trump for weeks, but was scared to lose viewers." In other words, Hannity, who always claims to say the same things on camera as when he's off camera, was not being up front with his loyal audience for fear they'd rebel against him.

► Murdoch gave Jared Kushner "confidential information" about then-candidate Joe Biden's ads "along with debate strategy" in 2020, the filing said, offering Trump's son-in-law "a preview of Biden's ads before they were public." At most news organizations, this type of action would result in an investigation and disciplinary measures.

► Murdoch asked Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to have Hannity say "something supportive" about Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham ahead of the 2020 election. Murdoch explained, "We cannot lose the Senate if at all possible." In other words, Murdoch was directing the head of his talk network to help the GOP. Again, this type of directive from an executive would be a major scandal at an actual news network.

► When Shepard Smith attacked the "Trump administration's 'lies'" on air, Rupert emailed Scott and Fox News president Jay Wallace calling it "Over the top!" and telling them, "Need to chat to him." In another instance, Lachlan Murdoch told Scott that then-correspondent Leland Vittert was "smug and obnoxious" when reporting from a Nov. 14 pro-Trump rally. Murdoch said the tone should be a "celebration of the president."

► Despite Fox accurately calling the race in Arizona for Biden, Murdoch suggested firing Bill Sammon, then the head of the network's Washington bureau. "Maybe best to let Bill go right away," which would "be a big message with Trump people" the filing said. Sammon was later "told the inevitable" that day on Nov. 20, 2020.

► Murdoch said he "suggested or urged" the firing of host Lou Dobbs because he "was an extremist," but allowed him to continue hosting a program at the network until after the election. Dominion argues that's because Dobbs was popular with Trump and his supporters and the network was fending off viewer defections to Newsmax.

In totality, the documents continue to underscore that at its core, Fox News is not a news network. News networks work hard to deliver the truth to their viewers. These documents reveal that Fox News executives and hosts knew the truth and yet they peddled election lies to the audience. And when the handful of hosts and correspondents who have integrity at the channel tried to be honest with viewers, the highest levels of Fox News worked against them.

The documents lay bare that the channel's business model is not based on informing its audience, but rather on feeding them content — even dangerous conspiracy theories — that keeps viewers happy and watching.

In response, Fox News said in a statement that Dominion's lawsuit "has always been more about what will generate headlines than what can withstand legal and factual scrutiny." The network added, "Their summary judgment motion took an extreme, unsupported view of defamation law that would prevent journalists from basic reporting and their efforts to publicly smear Fox for covering and commenting on allegations by a sitting President of the United States should be recognized for what it is: a blatant violation of the First Amendment."

Top legal experts I've spoken to disagree with Fox News' assessment of Dominion's legal filings. But even if Dominion does not prevail in court, it has left a permanent stain on the channel and revealed its true motives.

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Thomas Peter/Reuters

The Covid Conundrum: The WSJ's scoop that the U.S. Energy Department has assessed the Covid-19 pandemic may have resulted from a lab leak in China is one of the top stories in the country. CNN on Monday night even devoted a big chunk of a 9pm special report to the new development, putting the new information in context for viewers. And context is certainly needed — arguably more now than ever.

While some outlets on the right are pointing to fresh news reports as definitive proof the virus escaped from a lab (you can guess which ones are doing that), there are at least two important details that should be stressed to viewers. First, the Energy Department made the conclusion with low confidence. Second, the assessment adds to a years-long divide within the U.S. government. While the Energy Department is uniquely equipped to make an assessment on the origins, several other agencies have assessed it jumped from animals to humans and others have drawn no conclusion. Those details, particularly the latter one, are crucial to the story and it's important to underscore them for audiences. I thought this headline from CNN, for instance, did a good job of getting at it in the headline: "US Energy Department assesses Covid-19 likely resulted from lab leak, furthering US intel divide over virus origin."

THE BUSINESS

CNN Photo Illustration/Joe Raedle/Getty Images

DeSantis Dings Disney: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has — officially — punished Disney for having the audacity to criticize the state's so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill. The likely 2024 presidential contender signed a bill Monday that effectively gives the state power over the district that Disney had uniquely self-governed for decades. "Today, the corporate kingdom finally comes to an end," DeSantis said. "There's a new sheriff in town and accountability will be the order of the day." In a statement, Walt Disney World Resort President Jeff Vahle said the entertainment giant is "ready to work within this new framework." CNN's Steve Contorno and Kit Maher have details.

🔎 Zooming in: DeSantis wielding the power of government to punish a private company for speaking out on a political matter is already prompting debate within the stable of likely presidential candidates. Former Vice President Mike Pence said that as a conservative who believes in limited government that he disagreed with the approach — and it is only a matter of time before other candidates are asked to weigh in.

IN THE INDUSTRY

Charlotte Klein reports on the behind-the-scenes uproar taking place at The NYT over its transgender coverage. (Vanity Fair)
Brian Steinberg reports that CNN will start filling its 9pm hour "with a range of different special reports" focused on the top news stories. The hour, which will be called "CNN Primetime," will be anchored this week by Laura Coates, Sara Sidner, and Jake Tapper. One special will feature correspondent Arlene Saenz interviewing Jill Biden. (Variety)
CNN on Monday debuted a new "state-of-the-art broadcasting facility" in Abu Dhabi "touted as a new chapter in the network's commitment to the Middle East," Nick Vivarelli reports. (Variety)
Max Tani examines Nexstar's goal of becoming a "major new player in the American news landscape." (Semafor)
Three Alabama newspapers – The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times, and the Press-Register in Mobile – have stopped printing newspapers after more than 100 years (AL.com)
News Corp. says hackers were inside its company network for nearly two years and stole private documents. (ArsTechnica)
Books out Tuesday: "Luck of the Draw," a memoir written by Frank Murphy, the grandfather of CNN's Chloe Melas, who wrote the foreword with her mother Elizabeth Melas; and Mehdi Hasan's "Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking." (Macmillan/Macmillan)

MEDIA MOVES

Vice tapped Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala as co-CEOs. (THR)
Sky News named former CBS News boss David Rhodes as executive chairman. (THR)
The National Journal hired USA Today veteran Ledyard King as its managing editor. (National Journal)
The NYT brought on Adam Sternbergh as an opinion columnist. (NYT)
The Ankler hired Elaine Low. (Ankler)
Variety promoted Dawn Allen to senior VP of film. (Variety)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images

Dilbert's Demise: After making a series of racist remarks, Scott Adams has watched his business empire crumble over the last 72 hours. On Monday, after hundreds of newspapers had already severed ties with the "Dilbert" cartoonist, Adams' longtime syndicator dropped him, effectively meaning the comic strip will no longer be distributed to anyone. And Portfolio, a Penguin Random House imprint, said that it will no longer release Adams' book "Reframe Your Brain," which was due out in September. Adams also tweeted that his book agent had cut ties with him. More in our story here.

► Of note: Adams is not backing down from his initial comments. In subsequent livestreams, he has characterized the remarks as hyperbolic, said he wanted to start a broader conversation on race, and portrayed himself as a free speech martyr. It goes without saying, however, that calling Black Americans a "hate group" based on flimsy data from a right-wing polling company is not the best way to do that.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

MAGA Media bomb thrower Dan Bongino, who was banned from YouTube, has announced he will launch his show on the right-wing video platform Rumble. (GlobalNewsWire)
Bobby Lewis reports on how OAN is not exactly on board with Ron DeSantis' campaign. (MMFA)
Tom Kludt details "how Newsmax's cable-fee fight spiraled into the right's latest 'censorship' crusade." (Vanity Fair)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Twitter in Turmoil: The Elon Musk-owned Twitter executed another round of layoffs over the weekend, axing at least 200 employees, The NYT's Kate Conger, Ryan Mac, and Mike Isaac reported. "The cuts hit product managers, data scientists and engineers who worked on machine learning and site reliability, which helps keep Twitter's various features online," the trio reported Monday. One prominent employee laid off was Esther Crawford, an executive who tweeted months ago about sleeping in the office to meet Musk's deadlines. "The worst take you could have from watching me go all-in on Twitter 2.0 is that my optimism or hard work was a mistake," Crawford tweeted after she was cut. "Those who jeer & mock are necessarily on the sidelines and not in the arena. I'm deeply proud of the team for building through so much noise & chaos." Read The NYT's full report here.

TOO MANY TABS

The White House has given federal agencies 30 days to purge devices of TikTok, David Shepardson reports. (Reuters)
Meanwhile, Canada has banned TikTok on government devices. (CNN)
Snapchat is working with OpenAI on its own chatbot: "The big idea is that in addition to talking to our friends and family every day, we're going to talk to AI every day," CEO Evan Spiegel told Alex Heath. (The Verge)
Meta is working to more quickly integrate AI into its products. (Axios)
Meta has launched a new tool to help crack down on the spread of "revenge porn." (CNN)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Marvel Studios

Marvel's Misfortune?: "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" debuted with a strong $105 million opening weekend — but ticket sales were down 69% this past weekend, leading some analysts to question whether it could represent a turning point for Marvel. "Is the film's performance a blip or an inflection point in Hollywood's biggest property?" Variety's Rebecca Rubin asked in a story published Monday. "As second weekend drops go, anything in the 70% realm is pretty significant," Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Rubin. "But movies that open with over $100 million are generally front-loaded. In some cases, 'the bigger they are, the harder they fall' comes into play." Read Rubin's full story here.

OFF STAGE

Three crew members have sued Alec Baldwin and the "Rust" producers over the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins. (LAT)
Netflix's first hosting of the SAG Awards, which occurred this year via livestream, clocked in 1.5 million overall views across YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. (Variety)
Apple TV+ has dropped the official season three trailer for "Ted Lasso." (YouTube)
"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" will release in China two days before its domestic release on April 7. (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 tomorrow.