The head of Fox News admits the network was pushing “bullshit” about election fraud. Yeah, we know.

by Therese Odell, posted in watch this

I’m pretty sure I met this guy when I was at the Tower of London last June.

@christopherskaife

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Here’s A BUNCH OF TV News

What the hell is going on over at The Today Show? First, Hoda Kotb has been missing for a week, without any on-screen explanation, and her vague Instagram posts aren’t making fans feel any better.

And then today, Savannah Guthrie had to leave mid-show when she tested positive for COVID-19 after not feeling well this morning.

Well, this is huge: Rupert Murdoch, Fox Corp. executive chairman, admitted in a deposition in the Dominion Voting Machines lawsuit that Fox News hosts endorsed “bullsh*t and damaging” lies about election fraud in the 2020 election. Some points:

In his deposition, according to the Dominion filing, Murdoch said that he could have told Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott or the Fox News hosts to stop putting Giuliani and other guests on the air. “I could have. But I didn’t,” he said.

…

In his deposition, Murdoch was queried by Dominion’s attorneys on whether Fox “did more than simply host these guests and give them a platform.”

Asked whether Jeanine Pirro, another Fox host, also endorsed the fraud claims, Murdoch replied, “I think so.”

Dominion’s attorney then asked, “Fox Business host Lou Dobbs?”

“Oh, a lot.”

“Fox host Sean Hannity?”

“A bit,” Murdoch said.

…

The company claims that during the campaign, the elder Murdoch provided Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, “with confidential information about Biden’s ads, along with debate strategy.”

…

Murdoch, however, worried about antagonizing Trump, who already was urging viewers to turn to Newsmax and One America News Network. According to Dominion’s filing, Murdoch said in his deposition, “He had a very large following, and they were probably mostly viewers of Fox, so it would have been stupid.” He also said that the network was “trying to straddle the line between spewing conspiracy theories on one hand, yet calling out the fact that they are actually false on the other.”

On November 8, the day after Fox News called the race for Biden, Murdoch emailed Scott, writing that the network was getting “creamed” by CNN. The network’s Reliable Sources was covering how Fox was “enabling” Trump’s election denialism.

According to the Dominion filing, “Soon after Rupert’s email, Scott had a ‘long talk’ with both Rupert and Lachlan. They discussed the mounting viewer backlash to Fox, how to win back viewers (including by not booking Democratic guests), and ‘the direction that Fox should take.’ Rupert conceded that in that
conversation, they also spoke about ‘the future of Fox going forward.’”

“And Rupert confirmed that the decision was to allow these ‘wild claims’ on air, although he phrased it as his lawyers now do that it was only a matter of ‘reporting the news,’” Dominion’s filing states.

Fox News hosts continued to amplify the election claims in the weeks ahead, booking Giuliani and Powell and other guests.

…

On January 5, the day before the attack on the Capitol, Murdoch discussed with Scott whether “Hannity, Carlson, and [Laura] Ingraham should say some version of ‘The election is over and Joe Biden won,’” according to Dominion. “Murdoch hoped those words ‘would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election stolen.’”

As it turned out, according to the Dominion filing, Scott told Murdoch that “privately they are all there” but “we need to be careful about using the shows and pissing off the viewers.” “So nobody made a statement,” Dominion’s attorneys note.

The trial is set to go to in April, and Dominion is seeking $1.6 billion in damages. Fox News is claiming First Amendment protections and argue that they were merely reporting on the story that Former President Compulsive Liar was saying there was election fraud, not that they were claiming there was any election fraud. In the eloquent words of their boss: “bullshit.”

Even Former President Huckster knows how damaging this is, screaming over on his dumb platform that Murdoch is “throwing his anchors under the bus.” Indeed! He is!

Speaking of our four-year-national joke, Jimmy Kimmel had some thoughts about the report that Former President Karen called Disney to demand that Kimmel be nicer to him:

Meanwhile, Bryan Cranston is making the MAGA-ites cry:

If you want to ruin your day, search “cranston woke” on Twitter.

Jennifer Coolidge is unlikely to return to The White Lotus as Tanya’s twin and destroy Greg, but I wouldn’t be mad if she did.

Mike Flanagan wants to do Nightmare on Elm Street. 10/10 would watch if only for the deeply emotional monologue that Freddy Krueger will deliver.

The A.V. Club has some suggestions for an Aubrey Plaza/Jenna Ortega project, and not one of them is a dark Charmed movie. (Bring on Mia Goth for the third sister.)

Ken Jennings will return to host Jeopardy! on March 10, and Mayim Bialik will return to host in May.

Yes, there is a showmance on Survivor this season; a series first in 44 seasons.

Whoops:

19 Kids and Counting star Jessa Duggar had an abortion. She’s trying to call it a miscarriage, but she had to receive a dilatation and curettage to be able to pass the fetus that had miscarried. That, friends, is an abortion. An abortion is any treatment, medical or surgical, that ends a pregnancy, and an abortion is how miscarriage is treated. An abortion in this circumstance is performed to make sure the uterus is completely evacuated to avoid further complications like sepsis and death. I only say this because there are plenty on the right who are going out of their way to claim that Duggar only had a miscarriage and that any woman in any state can receive the same treatment under the same circumstances. However, in many states that have made abortion illegal, doctors are reluctant to downright unwilling to perform such procedures, lest they be charged with a crime. As Jezebel says, “Duggar Seewald’s story is proof that abortion treatment is needed and wanted by even the most anti-abortion among us.”

Our thoughts are with Tom Sizemore’s family as they navigate a terrible situation.

#MeToo

R. Kelly has been sentenced to 20 years for child pornography and enticement of minors for sex. GOOD. He will serve all but one of those years concurrently with his 30 years sentence for racketeering and sex trafficking. NOT GOOD.

Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 16 years in his sexual assault case in Los Angeles. GOOD. “The judge sentenced him to 8 years for the oral copulation charge, 6 years for the forcible penetration charge and 2 years for the rape charge” and they will be served consecutively. ALSO GOOD.

Paris Hilton claims that Harvey Weinstein propositioned her and followed her into a bathroom at the Cannes Film Festival when she was 19. Hilton has also recalled being groomed and raped at 15 in a new memoir. 

PLEASE DO NOT GROPE THE ACTORS, THEY DO NOT BELONG TO YOU JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE SEEN THEM ON YOUR TEEVEE.

Teen Mom “star” Nathan Griffith has been arrested for domestic abuse.

Renewals

  • The Tourist has been renewed for a second season at BBC.

In Development

  • Played, a comedy starring DeVon Franklin, and Closure, a family drama, have been set at BET+.

Casting News

Mark Your Calendars

  • The Traitors Reunion premieres on Peacock today.
  • Celebrity Game Face returns on E! on April 6.
  • All the Beauty and the Bloodshed will premiere on HBO on March 19.
  • Mute will premiere on Netflix in May.
  • Dom returns on Prime Video on March 17.

R.I.P.

Burny Mattinson, Disney animator, director, producer and story artist, and longest-serving cast member

WATCH THIS

La Brea: Eve and her family are threatened, AGAIN, in the two-hour season finale. Wow, what a twist. 8 p.m., NBC

Perfect Match: I am ashamed of how much I enjoyed the first few episodes of this Bachelor in Paradise knock-off. Anyway, here are the final episodes which I will devour like the cheap sugar rush that they are. Netflix

Black Broadway: A Proud History, a Limitless Future: A celebration of the rich history of Black roles and stories on Broadway. 7 p.m., PBS 

Late Night:

  • Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Willem Dafoe, Marlon Wayans, Macklemore, Kelsey Cook
  • Late Night with Seth Meyers: Rachel Brosnahan, Matthew Rhys, Francia Raisa, Atom Willard
  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Prince Harry, Martin McDonagh, Big Thief
  • The Late Late Show with James Corden: Jamie Lee Curtis, Nate Bargatze, the Scarlet Opera
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live: Courteney Cox, Ike Barinholtz
  • The Daily Show: Guest host Hasan Minhaj
  • Watch What Happens Live: Jennifer Aydin, Cirie Fields

TUES. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
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(repeat)		 Local
FOX 9-1-1: Lone Star
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NBC Night Court
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