Brian Stelter here at 10:15pm ET Sunday with the latest on President Biden, USA Today, Jon Karl, Facebook, Defector, Daniel Dale, PolitiFact, "Nomadland," and more...
The Big Lie lives
USA Today and Suffolk U conducted a survey of 1,000 Trump voters, identified via 2020 polls, in the past week. The results reaffirm that Donald Trump's big lies are now part of the bedrock of the Republican Party. Riot denialism, for example:
"Most Trump voters embrace a version of events on Jan. 6 that has been debunked by independent fact checkers and law enforcement agencies," USA Today's Susan Page wrote Sunday. "Asked to describe what happened during the assault on the Capitol, 58% of Trump voters call it 'mostly an antifa-inspired attack that only involved a few Trump supporters.' That's more than double the 28% who call it 'a rally of Trump supporters, some of whom attacked the Capitol.' Four percent call it 'an attempted coup inspired by President Trump.'"
Trump sometimes told the public not to believe their eyes and ears — and some of his fans evidently agreed. The day of MAGA terror at the Capitol has been flushed down the memory hole by Trump's base. "Only 4% say the impeachment trial made them less supportive of Trump; 42% say it made them more supportive," Page wrote. "Fifty-four percent say it didn't affect their support."
Rinse and repeat
The Big Lie about Trump winning the election, and Biden "stealing" it, largely lives on because some people want to believe it and because a constellation of Trump propaganda sources pump out a diet of dishonest info that props it up. But it is also important to see how the Big Lie is still being rinsed and repeated on respectable TV shows.
Matt Negrin, a longtime critic of public affairs shows, called out ABC's booking of Rep. Steve Scalise on Sunday: "He was rewarded with 10 minutes of airtime and pushed the lie again," Negrin wrote. "The networks are actively helping Republicans spread this lie."
Negrin also pointed out that election-denying lawmakers have been welcomed on other network TV shows in recent weeks, and said that "the only Sunday show that doesn't book these Big Liars is 'SOTU'" on CNN.
ABC reps would say Scalise was challenged, again and again, by host Jon Karl. They'd say viewers saw how Scalise evaded the questions and saw how Karl held him accountable. They'd say that Monday's "GMA" is airing an exclusive interview with a police officer who defended the Capitol on 1/6. They'd say that all of this is part of a news outlet's mission. But are those defenses persuasive to you when democracy is on the line?
The new "Lost Cause"
>> Garry Kasparov wrote in reaction to Negrin: "This is like giving air time to people selling bleach as a miracle cure, except even more dangerous." He said that "denying the integrity of the 2020 election is the new Lost Cause" and "the media will be partly responsible if it takes root."
>> "Somehow," CNN's Jim Sciutto observed, "acknowledging the truth today -- on Jan 6 and the election -- has become an outlier position in GOP and beyond."
>> Agree or disagree? "The greatest threat of misinformation and disinformation is domestic, currently spearheaded by the leaders of a political party and platformed daily by a media outlets pressured into 'both sides-ism' via decades of bad-faith pressure," Jared Holt of Right Wing Watch wrote...
A "classic disinfo campaign"
Researcher Kate Starbird wrote Sunday: "The 'big lie' (claiming massive voter fraud in 2020 election) has multiple features of a classic disinfo campaign, including: designed to sow doubt (rather than convince of a single explanation), pushes multiple (even conflicting) narratives, functions to undermine democracy."
"This isn't about finding a coherent narrative," Starbird wrote. "It's about creating doubt via throwing voter fraud spaghetti at the wall. And quite unsurprisingly, the next move is to use these same false and misleading narratives for future voter suppression, making it harder for people to vote next time." CNN's Zach Wolf recently wrote about that...
Tale of two GOPs
Saturday night on "Judge Jeanine," Lara Trump said her father in law "is the head of the Republican Party. He is really the person that everyone will continue to turn to in order to help them get across the line – whether we are talking about 2022 or beyond."
Sunday morning on "Meet the Press" Chuck Todd asked Rep. Will Hurd, "What role should former President Trump have in the future of the Republican party? Or should he not have a role?" Hurd said “I think very little, if none at all."
Another takeaway from the new poll...
"In a USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll in October 2016, 58% of Trump voters said Fox was their most trusted source of news. In the new poll, that drops to 34%," the aforementioned Susan Page reported. "Trust has risen in two relatively new outlets that have made their reputations by championing Trump. Newsmax is the most trusted among 17% of Trump voters, followed by 9% for" One America News.
>> Here's what Suffolk's David Paleologos said: The findings could reflect a "a seismic shift in the landscape of trusted news sources for conservatives..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Jay Rosen reacted to the new poll by repeating his argument that the GOP's "conflict with honest journalism is structural." He said "the party stands for freedom from fact..." (Twitter)
-- "By coddling Trump on his election fakery, the Republicans gave it so much oxygen, it led to tragedy," Maureen Dowd wrote over the weekend... (NYT)
-- The NYT newsroom is out with a new story about the "lost hours" of 1/6... (NYT)
-- Suspects charged the riot "are not trying to shift blame to Trump alone, but also 'the right-wing media,'" Josh Gerstein noted... (Twitter)
-- The longtime GOP operative Stuart Stevens tweeted: "Not since 1860's has a large part of the country refused to accept election. The Republican Party is an anti-democratic force. Acknowledge that reality. Fight it." (Twitter)
One month of President Biden
The AP's Jonathan Lemire and Calvin Woodward write: "Gone are the predawn tweets that rattled Washington. Gone are the combative exchanges with the 'enemy of the people' mainstream press. Gone are rosy projections about the virus, with ill-fated promises that the nation is 'rounding the corner' on the pandemic..."
500,000
In the words of Michael Beschloss, "What would we have said a year ago if told then that there would be more than half a million Covid-19 deaths in our country?"
Would we, collectively, have done things differently?
In the coming hours the official total will surpass 500,000. "No other country has counted so many deaths in the pandemic," the NYT's Julie Bosman wrote. "More Americans have perished from Covid-19 than on the battlefields of World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined."
In the past year some Americans have sacrificed mightily; others, not nearly so much. The pain, the grief, the fallout is unevenly distributed. So is the emotion. And now that we're seeing the pace of vaccinations pick up, and the number of new cases fall, we're holding heartache and hope hand in hand, side by side. Bosman wrote that the huge round number "still has the power to shock," and I think she's right, even though the public is mostly shocked-out...
>> The president will mark the moment with "a candle lighting ceremony at the White House around sundown as soon as Monday, if the threshold is crossed..."
>> CNN's Jake Tapper will lead a special televised tribute, "WE REMEMBER: 500,000," Monday at 11pm ET...
Karl presses Psaki on Cuomo
Oliver Darcy writes: "As NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo comes under increased scrutiny, pressure continues to grow on the WH to comment. That was evidenced Sunday when Jon Karl pressed Jen Psaki on whether Biden still considers Cuomo to be the 'gold standard when it comes to leadership on the pandemic.' Psaki dodged when asked the first time, saying there will be investigations and she'll 'leave that to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.' But Karl pressed on, asking, 'Does President Biden still believe that Andrew Cuomo represents the gold standard on leadership during this pandemic? Just a yes or no.' Psaki replied saying that 'it doesn't always have to be a yes or no' and that Biden will 'continue to work' with Cuomo and other governors..."
Coming up on Monday...
Impending news from Spotify? The company is hosting a live-streamed event called Stream On at 11am ET...
Rush Limbaugh's widow Kathryn is going to take calls from listeners on Monday's edition of his show...
Katie Pavlich is this week's host of the 7pm hour on Fox News as on-air tryouts for the time slot continue...
"Jeopardy!" exec producer Mike Richards is guest-hosting the show this week...
At 8pm Met Council is presenting "Purim: Funny Story," a virtual live read of the Purim story, with Bob Saget, Howie Mandel, Bari Weiss, Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, and others...
Media week ahead calendar
Thursday: Jill Biden will be on Kelly Clarkson's show...
Friday: "Cherry," starring Tom Holland, and the first directing effort from the Russo brothers since “Avengers: Endgame,” hits theaters, in advance of Apple TV+...
Next Sunday: The Golden Globes!
Also next Sunday: "The Walking Dead" returns. "Insert your own joke here," Brian Lowry quips...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Far-right TV just keeps getting weirder: "Newsmax host Greg Kelly took aim at President Biden's dog Champ on Friday, mocking his appearance..." (The Hill)
-- LAT's Stephen Battaglio and Meg James asked the other day: "Fox News tries to keep Trump fans satisfied, but at what cost?" One of the costs is less news... (LAT)
A new "Hoax"
Over the weekend I turned in the final page of an updated, expanded edition of my book "Hoax," about Fox and Trump and the future of partisan media. And I revealed the new cover:
So much has happened since the hardcover edition of "Hoax" came out last August. With Trump out of office and Fox out of its usual first place spot in the ratings, the story now seems complete. So I wrote a brand new beginning; updated the text throughout; and added twelve (!!!) new chapters toward the end of the book. The finished product will come out in paperback on June 1. Let me say two things: First, thank you to my editors for giving me the space and time to write 20,000 new words. Second, preorder the paperback edition via Amazon, B&N, Bookshop, or your preferred site...
>> Further reading: I spoke with The AP's David Bauder about the reasons for the sweeping updates to the book... Here's his story...
Rush remembered as a hero, hate-monger, harbinger
I searched Google News for Rush Limbaugh's name on Sunday and saw the following headlines: "Limbaugh will be missed." "The life and death of a woman-hater." "Rush Limbaugh was an inspiration." "Are you glad that Rush Limbaugh is dead?" The fight about his legacy continue to rage...
-- Regarding the Florida governor's plan to lower flags to half-staff for Limbaugh, CNN's story notes that "the move doesn't seem to fit the state's flag protocol..."
-- Mediaite's Ken Meyer writes: "Bill Carter took issue with the push from conservatives for American flags to be lowered in recognition" of Rush's death. Here's what Carter told me on Sunday's show...
-- Watch Michael Smerconish's take: "What's been missing in all the analysis from the left and the right is an accurate understanding of what made Limbaugh so effective, so impactful whether you agreed or disagreed. I would argue it wasn't politics, it wasn't ideology. It was his mastery of entertainment skills."
No "Donald Trump Show" in the works?
Meantime, the Limbaugh show's syndicator Premiere Networks has a real challenge. Note what the NYT's Michael Grynbaum reported Saturday: "Michael Harrison, publisher of the industry magazine Talkers, said that many affiliates had signed contracts specific to Mr. Limbaugh's role as host. So some stations could choose to stop airing the Limbaugh program entirely, regardless of who sits in the chair."
A succession scramble is underway. Premiere seems to be trying to squash talk about Trump taking over: "On Friday, a spokeswoman for iHeartMedia said Premiere Networks was not considering Mr. Trump as a replacement for Mr. Limbaugh..."
BF: Kaplan and Zuckerberg bend rules for right-wing voices
Oliver Darcy writes: "Over at BuzzFeed News, Ryan Mac and Craig Silverman published a must-read Sunday about how Facebook has gone 'easy' on right-wing media figures and allowed its rules on misinfo and hate speech to be 'subject to the whims and political considerations' of Mark Zuckerberg and Joel Kaplan. Relying on internal documents and interviews with 14 current and former staffers, the duo reported that Kaplan's policy team, guided by Zuckerberg's 'whims,' has 'exerted outsize influence while obstructing content moderation decisions, stymieing product rollouts, and intervening on behalf of popular conservative figures who have violated Facebook’s rules.' Per the story, that included Alex Jones, who the company was initially quite hesitant to take action on..."
>> FB spox Andy Stone's response to the reporting about Kaplan: “Recycling the same warmed over conspiracy theories about the influence of one person at Facebook doesn't make them true. The reality is big decisions at Facebook are made with input from people across different teams who have different perspectives and expertise in different areas. To suggest otherwise is absurd..."
Fact-checking in the Biden age
Alexis Benveniste recapped my Sunday segment with two of the country's top fact-checkers, Daniel Dale of CNN and Angie Holan of PolitiFact.
"While Biden isn't perfect, his claims are 'more like a smattering' of false statements compared to 'the daily avalanche' that came from" Trump, Dale said. Scrutinizing Biden is his top priority, but since Biden speaks less often than Trump, and isn't as fact-free, "Dale has been able to focus on other fact-checking endeavors, too." He reassured viewers: "I'm not going on vacation. There's a lot to do." Watch...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Listen to this NPR report from Dalia Mortada and Rachel Martin about how disinfo "fuels a white evangelical movement..." (NPR)
-- The Defector experiment "is going surprisingly well," Margaret Sullivan reports: "At less than six months old, Defector.com is financially self-sustaining and entirely owned by its staff." Details here... (WaPo)
-- Why are Fox News hosts so scared of the "green new deal" concept? On "Reliable Sources," I said the Texas crisis shows how the problem of parallel news universes extends far beyond politics, even to weather... (CNN)
Widespread water disruptions in Texas
Life is slowly returning to normal across the Lone Star State but "water service remains disrupted for more than 8.8 million people in Texas," per CNN's Keith Allen.
Emily Ramshaw, CEO of The 19th News, joined me from Austin on Sunday morning and said the past week "has been apocalyptic" for some Texans. "If local media weren't doing their jobs here we would have next to no information," she said. Watch...
Crowdsourcing and crowdshaming
Twenty years ago, Ted Cruz could have gotten away with a stealth trip to Cancun. But in 2021 digitally savvy amateur sleuths were able to track his every move. To me, the episode was an illustration of inequality -- Cruz could afford to flee to Mexico while most of his constituents could not...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Alison Maxwell, managing editor of the Life department at USA Today, is becoming executive editor at SurvivorNet, a news startup that focuses on coverage of cancer. Her husband Jeff Zillgitt an NBA reporter at USAT, is a stage 4 colon cancer survivor...
-- At a Saturday hearing in Moscow, Alexei Navalny "referenced the Bible as well as 'Harry Potter' and the animated sitcom 'Rick and Morty' as he urged Russians to resist pressure from authorities..." (AP)
-- "Facebook on Sunday deleted the main page of the Myanmar military" under standards "prohibiting the incitement of violence, the company said, a day after two protesters were killed..." (Reuters)
Will countries link arms and make Facebook pay for news?
All signs point to yes. While Australian officials hold talks with Facebook execs, Aussie news is still blacked out on the platform. Lawmakers in other countries, like Steven Guilbeault, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, are watching: Speaking from Montreal, he told me that they want to "ensure that Google and Facebook compensate fairly the media for their use of their content."
>> Right after the interview with Guilbeault, Jeff Jarvis argued another POV: He said the Australian proposal is "blackmail by Rupert Murdoch..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- "The NFL is asking for a 100% increase in TV rights payments, but Disney is pushing back," Alex Sherman reports... (CNBC)
-- "With NY PopsUp, Jon Batiste strikes up a band to restart the arts on New York’s streets..." (WaPo)
-- Lucas Shaw reports: "Splice has raised $55M at a valuation of around $500M. That makes it one of the clear leaders in the booming market for music tools..." (Bloomberg)
US box office is still feeble
"Need a reminder of just how imperiled moviegoing, at least in the U.S., remains due to the pandemic? Look no further than domestic box office charts. 'The Croods: A New Age,' which debuted theatrically in November, was the No. 1 movie in North America," Variety's Rebecca Rubin wrote Sunday. The film "nabbed $1.7 million from 1,913 venues" over the weekend, and has topped $50 million overall -- it "could eventually pass 'Tenet' ($58 million) as the highest-grossing movie domestically in the coronavirus era."
In China, meanwhile, "ticket sales this year have soared to record levels." More here...
More buzz for "Nomadland"
This weekend "one of the only new releases was director Chloe Zhao's 'Nomadland,' a sweeping drama starring Frances McDormand," Rubin noted. It "played on 1,200 screens and brought in an estimated $500,000." Anecdotally I heard and read lots of chatter about the film due to its simultaneous release on Hulu. Though filmed in 2018, "it's so true to America in 2021," Rainn Wilson tweeted Sunday. "Moving, unsettling, magnificent."
"'Nomadland' is important for many reasons, not least the triumph of a female filmmaker and star," film and culture writer Sara Stewart wrote for CNN.com. "As cultural commentary, the film is both an invitation to see America through the eyes of its nomads, and a haunting tale about the many reasons one might end up living that life."
The book that inspired the film, by Jessica Bruder, is back on Amazon's top 100 best selling books list this weekend... Another sign of the film's connection...
"Oops" on "SNL"
"'SNL' felt like a lot of people needed to apologize this week, so on Saturday's episode that's what happened," Frank Pallotta wrote. "The NBC variety show opened with Britney Spears, played by Chloe Fineman, hosting a show called 'Oops... You Did It Again,' which provided people a platform to apologize for things they did wrong." Ted Cruz, played by Aidy Bryant, and Andrew Cuomo, played by Pete Davidson, were up first...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- "Time's Up has condemned Brett Ratner, the director behind the 'Rush Hour' film series and 'X-Men: The Last Stand' who was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017, for his planned return to filmmaking..." (Variety)
-- Netflix announced Sunday that Zack Snyder's "Army of the Dead" film will come out May 21... (Deadline)
-- "Amanda Gorman's inauguration appearance... has resulted in an 'avalanche of offers,' per an industry source familiar with such deals. The opportunities are said to cover a range of categories from fashion and beauty to digital and high-profile magazine covers..." (THR)
"Members accuse Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. of self-dealing, ethical lapses"
Brian Lowry writes: "The history of periodic journalistic attempts to pull back the curtain on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has a new chapter thanks to the LA Times, which finds a fresh impetus behind shady dealings involving the group that presents the Golden Globe awards – namely, the collective blow dealt journalists during the pandemic. According to the report, that has seemingly paved the way for the HFPA to funnel more money from its lucrative broadcast deal with NBC into the pockets of its members, beyond whatever they already reap in junkets and freebies from the studios. It’s worth noting that NBC has been instrumental in fueling the Globes’ significance with its TV contract, and that while publicists privately gripe about the group, they continue to treat its small membership quite well because promotionally speaking, the awards remain useful. Will this latest reporting change that? My guess is only if NBC demands that the HFPA cleans up its act."
LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
Pet of the day!
Record producer Ron Fair writes: "Please accept my nomination of MR. BIG for Dog of the Day. He's a Bichon Frisee-Miniature Poodle mix – the greatest dog in the history of the world. Here's his stunning pin up..."
Thank you for reading! Send us your feedback anytime. Back tomorrow with more...
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