Oliver Darcy here at midnight on Friday morning. Is the worst over? Will President Trump be impeached again? Will more cabinet members resign? Will those who have resigned speak out on TV? What will the next 12 days bring?
Distributing disinfo
"Fox and Newsmax, both delivered to my home by your company, are complicit," NJ state Assemblyman Paul Moriarty texted a Comcast executive on Thursday. "What are you going to do???"
"You feed this garbage, lies and all," Moriarty added to the executive, according to a screen grab of the texts he provided me. Moriarty was referring to the fact that Comcast's cable brand, Xfinity, provides a platform to right-wing cable networks that have for weeks been disseminating disinformation about the November election results to audiences of millions.
Moriarty has a point. We regularly discuss what the Big Tech companies have done to poison the public conversation by providing large platforms to bad-faith actors who lie, mislead, and promote conspiracy theories. But what about TV companies that provide platforms to networks such as Newsmax, One America News -- and, yes, Fox News?
Somehow, these companies have escaped scrutiny and entirely dodged this conversation. That should not be the case anymore. After Wednesday's incident of domestic terrorism on Capitol Hill, it is time TV carriers face questions for lending their platforms to dishonest companies that profit off of disinformation and conspiracy theories. After all, it was the very lies that Fox, Newsmax, and OAN spread that helped prime President Trump's supporters into not believing the truth: that he lost an honest and fair election.
Yes, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson and Mark Levin and others are responsible for the lies they peddle to their audiences. But the TV companies that beam them into millions of homes around the country also bear some responsibility. And yet we rarely, if ever, talk about them.
Are there any rules?
Tech companies have community guidelines governing the content posted on their platforms. Do cable carriers? If so, what are they? Surely, these companies — many of which boast about their social and civic responsibilities — have limits to the content they disseminate. It's hard, for instance, to imagine they'd carry a fringe and conspiratorial network like InfoWars.
So why do AT&T (which I should note is CNN's parent company), CenturyLink, and Verizon carry OAN? Why do AT&T, CenturyLink, Verizon, Comcast, Charter, and Dish carry Newsmax? And why do they all carry Fox — which is, frankly, at times just as irresponsible and dangerous with its platform as its smaller competitor networks?
Dodging questions
I asked all of these companies for comment on Thursday. I asked them if they have any guidelines governing the content that they carry on their platforms. I asked them if they have any regret over carrying right-wing channels that were in many ways partly responsible for what took place in our nation's capital this week.
Only CenturyLink provided a comment, saying it was committed to providing "a variety of broadcast channels covering thousands of topics" and that as a company it does not "endorse specific media or outlets." CenturyLink didn't respond to a follow up email, but at least it responded in some way. AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Charter, and Dish did not. They chose to simply ignore the questions.
At least Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others have acknowledged they have some responsibility for the content they host and they have very clearly posted community guidelines on their websites for all to see. Why do we expect any less of TV companies?
SPEAKING OF MEDIA COMPANIES DODGING Qs...
Premiere silent after Limbaugh seemingly endorses violence
It's not a TV carrier, but its one of the biggest distributors of right-wing talk radio in the country — and yet you rarely hear about Premiere Networks. That's despite hosts like Rush Limbaugh regularly misusing the platform to spread outright falsehoods or make grossly irresponsible comments.
Limbaugh did just that on Thursday when he appeared to endorse political violence one day after the Capitol Hill riot. “There's a lot of people calling for the end of violence," he said on his radio show. "There's a lot of conservatives on social media who say that any violence or aggression at all is unacceptable — regardless of the circumstances. I am glad Sam Adams, Thomas Paine, the actual Tea Party guys, the men at Lexington and Concord didn't feel that way.”
So I asked a spokesperson for Premiere Networks, the company that distributes Limbaugh's show, if the company had any comment. Is it OK with its top host appearing to endorse political violence, especially in the wake of at least four dying in our nation's capital as a result of it? The spokesperson did not reply...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Lester Holt called what happened "unAmerican" and "cruel," adding that "to think that it was all fanned by a campaign of lies and phony conspiracies from guardians of democracy, simply rips your heart out..." (NBC News)
-- “What happened on Capitol Hill ... was a direct result of his poisoning the minds of people with the lies and the fraud," John Kelly told Jake Tapper in a stunning interview Thursday. Kelly said the cabinet should discuss the 25th Amendment and that he'd vote to remove Trump from office if he were still there... (CNN)
-- Read Tim Alberta who gets out how "right-wing propaganda outlets like The Federalist and One America News churned out deceptive content framing the election as inherently and obviously corrupt." Alberta says January 6 was "9 weeks — and 4 years — in the making..." (Politico)
-- Margaret Sullivan also has a must-read indictment of right-wing media: "The pro-Trump media world peddled the lies that fueled the Capitol mob. Fox News led the way..." (WaPo)
Friday's banner headlines on NYT and WaPo A1s
Right-wing media digests Trump's loss
After Trump conceded on Thursday in a (falsehood-filled) Twitter video that a new administration will enter office in two week's time, some of his chief propagandists started to deliver the news in their own ways to viewers...
>> Greg Kelly compared Biden to a "bank robber" who got away with stealing the election. He later told viewers, "I can imagine a scenario where Donald Trump could be even more powerful out of office than when he was in. Let's see what happens folks. I am deeply, deeply disappointed in the results, as I know you are...
>> Tucker Carlson: "Two weeks from tonight, Donald Trump will no longer be in control of the nuclear arsenal or have command of the federal agencies or even most likely his own Twitter account. As much as all of that may upset you, is nevertheless true, we cannot change it..."
>> Sean Hannity: Trump "fought as hard as he possibly could. After the actions of Congress ... pretty much any remedy he had and what he had been fighting for had been exhausted. The President's right to do it..."
OTHERS IN CONSERVATIVE MEDIA WERE LESS KIND...
WSJ to Trump: It's best for you to resign
In a scathing piece published Thursday evening, Rupert Murdoch's WSJ absolutely torched Trump. The editorial board wrote that Trump crossed "a constitutional line" and had engaged in "impeachable" conduct. "If Mr. Trump wants to avoid a second impeachment, his best path would be to take personal responsibility and resign," the WSJ editorial board wrote. "This would be the cleanest solution since it would immediately turn presidential duties over to Mr. Pence. And it would give Mr. Trump agency, a la Richard Nixon, over his own fate." WSJ's editorial board acknowledged that such "an act of grace" from Trump "isn't likely." But it concluded, "It is best for everyone, himself included, if he goes away quietly."
>> Maggie Haberman's POV on the editorial: "This is best seen as an effort to keep Trump from returning post-White House, after an election that while decisive and record-setting for Biden, was not the repudiation of Trump and Trumpism that Democrats and some Republicans hoped for..."
>> Related: USA Today's editorial board says the 25th Amendment must be invoked as Trump has "forfeited his moral authority to stay in office..."
Drudge: "CERTIFIABLE"
Too many reporters still don't understand this
This has been driving me up the wall lately. Too many people — particularly political journalists — simply do not seem to understand that beyond Trump, the main power center of the Republican Party is not in the halls of Congress. No, the true power lies in the entertainment wing of the GOP. The people who really control the party are media personalities like Hannity and Limbaugh. A big reason GOP lawmakers cave to Trump and do his bidding is because the entire political universe in which they operate in is governed by people who have willingly decided to serve as his propagandists. If you play along, you're rewarded. If you don't, you're attacked. And yet, if you turn on most of the news or sat down with the major newspapers, you'd think Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley hold the strongest hands...
>> Trey Gowdy made a similar point on Fox Thursday: "Most of the voices in the conservative movement have never held political office before...Fox has much more influence over Republican primary voters than anyone who's elected..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- This Daily Beast headline captured it all: "Kayleigh McEnany runs from podium after denying responsibility for Capitol riot..." (Daily Beast)
-- Speaking of briefings, Chris Hayes points out: "There should really be some official briefing from someone about what happened yesterday, who was shot, and who died under what circumstances. How has this not happened yet?" (Twitter)
-- Kate Knibbs on the "race to preserve the DC mob's digital traces..." (Wired)
-- Allison Gordon talked with CNN's Alex Marquardt, Jeremy Moorhead, Kristin Wilson, Lauren Fox, Nikki Carvajal, and Brian Todd about what it was like to report on the riot... (CNN)
-- The AP's Andrew Taylor, who has covered Capitol Hill for 14 years, wrote about how his "second home" was "overtaken by the mob..." (AP)
-- NYT's reconstruct of Wednesday's attack: "Inside the Capitol, the sound of the mob came first..." (NYT)
Simon & Schuster cancels Hawley book
In a very rare move, Simon & Schuster announced Thursday that it will no longer publish a planned book by Josh Hawley. "We did not come to this decision lightly," the publishing house said. "As a publisher it will always be our mission to amplify a variety of voices and viewpoints: at the same time we take seriously our larger public responsibility as citizens, and cannot support Senator Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom."
C'mon...
Hawley responded in a statement by calling the move "Orwellian" and a "direct assault on the First Amendment." But Hawley, a graduate of Yale Law School, is either totally ignorant when it comes to the law and doesn't understand that the First Amendment can't compel a private company to publish something it does not want to, or is lying to his supporters for attention. Hmm, I wonder which it might be. 🤔
Hawley said "we'll see you in court," and S&S responded, "We are confident that we are acting fully within our contractual rights..."
Washington Times deletes false Antifa story
The conservative Washington Times on Thursday deleted a story claiming that a facial recognition company had identified members of Antifa at the Capitol Hill riot. The removal of the story — which was not explained in an editor's note — came after the company, XRVision, told news orgs it had demanded a retraction via its attorney. I asked the Washington Times if it had any comment, but never heard back. It's important to note that figures like Matt Gaetz had shared the article, stoking baseless claims Antifa was responsible for some of the mayhem on Capitol Hill...
>> Related: Per a report from Zignal Labs, mentions of Antifa on social media spiked to more than 1.5 million...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- "The temporary deplatforming of Donald Trump is the perfect distillation of Big Tech’s attempt to pantomime principles," Sam Biddle writes... (Intercept)
-- Michelle Obama called for Big Tech to "stop enabling" Trump's "monstrous behavior" and ban him "from their platforms..." (TechCrunch)
-- Charlie Warzel says the de-platforming of Trump reminds him of the de-platforming of Alex Jones, with the tech companies having just refused "to see where this was going" and then "once it becomes too bad" reversing their positions... (Twitter)
-- Nick Baumann: "Hard to escape the conclusion that revoking the president's posting privileges had a (likely temporary) impact on his behavior. Some uncomfortable implications for the social networks in that..." (Twitter)
-- Alex Kantrowitz points out: "Gab's had 2.2 million visits over the past 24 hours. Hardly Facebook size, but not small either..." (Twitter)
Reporters had better intel than intel agencies?!
"There was no intelligence that suggested there would be a breach of the U.S. Capitol," DC police chief Robert Contee said at a presser on Thursday. NBC's Ben Collins was gobsmacked to hear that. "How? I knew they were planning exactly this thing. I wasn't even looking particularly hard," he wrote on Twitter. "I just had eyes, an internet connection, and I took extremists seriously when they kept saying on public forums they were going to storm the Capitol on January 6th for weeks."
Most-watched day in the history of CNN
Brian Stelter writes: "In the words of Mediaite's Marisa Sarnoff, CNN drew 'truly staggering numbers' on Wednesday, a day that began with the Georgia runoff results, continued with the riot on Capitol Hill, and ended with a curfew and the restoration of order in DC. It was the most-watched day in the history of CNN, surpassing previous record highs on 9/11, Election Day 2008, and Election Day 2016. Several days of Election Week 2020 were also among CNN's highest-rated days in history, but the insurrection coverage topped them all."
>> More: CNN was No. 1 overall, but "MSNBC also had the highest-rated day in its history, and Fox News had its highest total day and prime time average since the 2020 presidential election," Sarnoff wrote...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- The Economist's new cover is titled "Trump's legacy" with a photo of a trespasser sitting on the dais of the Senate chamber... (Twitter)
-- Next week's cover of The New Yorker is an Edel Rodriguez illustration of a flag flying over the Capitol... (Twitter)
-- Something fun: Our very own Donie O'Sullivan has become a "social media sensation in Ireland" after his on-the-ground reporting in DC. Watch this RTE News package about him which features his family... (RTE News)
In other news...
Stelter compiled a quick roundup of the other media biz and culture headlines:
-- We should have noted this yesterday: Reuters EIC Stephen J. Adler is retiring in April "after ten years at the head of the award-winning global newsroom." A search for his successor is now underway... (Reuters)
-- The measurement firm Comscore "is nearing a deal with Charter, Qurate Retail, and private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management" aimed at bolstering its finances... (WSJ)
-- Michael Eisner is backing Struum, a streaming service that "will aim to give customers à-la-carte access to all content from hundreds of niche streaming services..." (WSJ)
-- "Reanimating Pixar:" THR's Rebecca Keegan is out with a profile of Pete Docter and how he "steered the studio out of scandal..."
Remembering Neil Sheehan
The NYT's Janny Scott writes: "Neil Sheehan, the Vietnam War correspondent and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who obtained the Pentagon Papers for The New York Times, leading the government for the first time in American history to get a judge to block publication of an article on grounds of national security, died on Thursday at his home in Washington. He was 84."
Sheehan lived with a secret: His account of how he had obtained the Pentagon Papers. "In 2015, however, at a reporter's request, he agreed to tell his story on the condition that it not be published while he was alive," Scott wrote in this separate story. "Beset by scoliosis and Parkinson’s disease, he recounted, in a four-hour interview at his home in Washington, a tale as suspenseful and cinematic as anyone in Hollywood might concoct." Now it can be told...
LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
Dog of the day!
Reader Aileen Moffatt emails: "Mason is blind so just listened to yesterday’s breaking news coverage. Still, he got the drift of what was going on and was very sad..."
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