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Category: Journalism

Finally, Democrats appear ready to go on the offensive against Fox News

Finally, Democrats appear ready to go on the offensive against Fox News

Greg Sargent writes: For years, Democrats have been deeply conflicted about Fox News. At times, they’ve shunned the network as an irredeemable source of disinformation, boycotting it or banning it from covering Democratic presidential primary debates. But such efforts have been temporary: They have tended to resume appearing on the network and have reverted to treating it as more or less a news channel, albeit a hostile one. Now, however, it’s becoming clear that interacting with Fox News as a…

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Rupert Murdoch, legally exposed

Rupert Murdoch, legally exposed

Judd Legum writes: It’s not a secret that Fox News is a political operation seeking to bolster the prospects of Republicans. Jeanne Pirro, co-host of Fox News’ The Five, regularly appears at Republican fundraisers. Mark Levin, who hosts a weekly Fox News program, appeared at a rally and fundraiser for a Republican candidate in Virginia. Sean Hannity, one of Fox News’ primetime stars, stumped for President Trump. Alternatively, just watch Fox News for a few minutes — the purpose is clear. At the same time, Fox…

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Murdoch acknowledges Fox News hosts endorsed election fraud falsehoods

Murdoch acknowledges Fox News hosts endorsed election fraud falsehoods

The New York Times reports: Rupert Murdoch, chairman of the conservative media empire that owns Fox News, acknowledged in a deposition that several hosts for his networks promoted the false narrative that the election in 2020 was stolen from former President Donald J. Trump, court documents released on Monday showed. “They endorsed,” Mr. Murdoch said under oath in response to direct questions about the hosts Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, a legal filing by Dominion Voting…

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Press freedom in the crosshairs as DeSantis widens his assault on an open society

Press freedom in the crosshairs as DeSantis widens his assault on an open society

Politico reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ broken relationship with the mainstream media could get even worse. At the governor’s urging, Florida’s Republican-dominated Legislature is pushing to weaken state laws that have long protected journalists against defamation suits and frivolous lawsuits. The proposal is part DeSantis’ ongoing feud with media outlets like The New York Times, Miami Herald, CNN and The Washington Post — media companies he claims are biased against Republicans — as he prepares for a likely 2024 presidential…

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New court filings reveal what Fox News leaders really think of its viewers

New court filings reveal what Fox News leaders really think of its viewers

Brian Stelter writes: The basic story of Fox News and the 2020 election is well understood. Fox’s relatively small news operation covered the vote count accurately; this coverage infuriated President Donald Trump, the MAGA base, and Fox’s opinion stars; some viewers temporarily flipped to further-right outlets, such as Newsmax; and Fox panicked. But thanks to Dominion Voting Systems, which is pursuing a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox, we now know that the network’s sense of crisis was even more…

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Trump leaked classified Russia papers to conservative journalist

Trump leaked classified Russia papers to conservative journalist

Murray Waas reports: In the closing days of his presidency— as President Donald J. Trump was preparing to declassify and make public almost a thousand pages of highly classified records pertaining to the FBI investigation into Russia’s covert interference in the 2016 presidential election to help elect him, and defeat Hillary Clinton — he turned to conservative columnist John Solomon for help. On Jan 14, 2021, less than a week before Trump was to leave office, Solomon excitedly declared on…

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Fox stars privately expressed disbelief about ‘crazy’ election fraud claims

Fox stars privately expressed disbelief about ‘crazy’ election fraud claims

The New York Times reports: Newly disclosed messages and testimony from some of the biggest stars and most senior executives at Fox News revealed that they privately expressed disbelief about President Donald J. Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, even though the network continued to promote many of those lies on the air. The hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, as well as others at the company, repeatedly insulted and mocked Trump advisers,…

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Ron DeSantis shouldn’t be covered like just another Republican

Ron DeSantis shouldn’t be covered like just another Republican

Molly Jong-Fast writes: Trumpism without Donald Trump has long been a fantasy of the GOP donor class. Plenty of things about the Trump presidency generally delighted Republicans, like the tax breaks for the wealthy, the desire to shrink the government and drown it in a bathtub. Hell, they may have even enjoyed the cruelty. But the sloppiness, the endless unforced errors—like attacking mail-in-voting and helping Republicans lose Georgia Senate seats in consecutive elections—well, no one likes that. So now Ron…

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Snowden and Hersh: Useful idiots, posing as political dissidents, promote disinformation for Russia

Snowden and Hersh: Useful idiots, posing as political dissidents, promote disinformation for Russia

TASS, the Russian state-owned news agency, reports: The situation around three unidentified flying objects that were shot down over North America is designed to distract reporters’ attention from the investigation into the sabotage on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, former NSA (National Security Agency) employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden said on Monday. “I wish it were aliens, but it’s not aliens,” Snowden wrote on Twitter on Monday, commenting on the downing of balloons and UFOs in the United States and…

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An investigation into The Nation that CJR commissioned but refused to publish

An investigation into The Nation that CJR commissioned but refused to publish

In 2018, Duncan Campbell was commissioned by the “voice of journalism” and “watchdog of the press”, Columbia Journalism Review, to write an investigation into the venerable New York magazine The Nation, and its apparent support for Russia’s territorial ambitions. In 2020, after a full fact check, legal review and edit, the article was cancelled two days before the scheduled publication. In 2022, months after Putin’s full invasion of Ukraine, the CJR again refused to publish the article. Duncan Campbell wrote:…

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How Bellingcat uncovered the truth behind Russian missile strikes in Ukraine

How Bellingcat uncovered the truth behind Russian missile strikes in Ukraine

International Center for Journalists reports: When Christo Grozev, executive director of Bellingcat, saw that Russia was claiming its missiles were striking only military targets in Ukraine, he knew he had to go beyond just proving that was not true. Grozev wanted to also reveal the individuals who were behind the strikes hitting schools, hospitals and other civilian targets, and to show whether those targets were accidental or intentional. Grozev and Bellingcat, winners of ICFJ’s 2022 Innovation in International Reporting Award, have demonstrated a…

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When Americans lost faith in the news

When Americans lost faith in the news

Louis Menand writes: When the Washington Post unveiled the slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” on February 17, 2017, people in the news business made fun of it. “Sounds like the next Batman movie,” the New York Times’ executive editor, Dean Baquet, said. But it was already clear, less than a month into the Trump Administration, that destroying the credibility of the mainstream press was a White House priority, and that this would include an unabashed, and almost gleeful, policy of lying and denying. The Post kept…

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Mike Pompeo dismisses murder of Jamal Khashoggi by saying such crimes are ‘routine’ in Middle East

Mike Pompeo dismisses murder of Jamal Khashoggi by saying such crimes are ‘routine’ in Middle East

In response to comments reportedly made by Mike Pompeo in his new memoir, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) issued the following statement: “Pompeo’s crass and craven comments appearing to justify Jamal Khashoggi’s murder by disparaging his political views and falsely associating them with terrorism mirror the same justifications Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and other tyrants use to excuse their crimes,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of DAWN. “It is despicable that a senior American official is suggesting…

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UK government helped sanctioned Putin ally sue British journalist

UK government helped sanctioned Putin ally sue British journalist

Open Democracy reports: The UK government helped the boss of Russia’s murderous mercenary army to circumvent its own sanctions and launch a targeted legal attack on a British journalist, openDemocracy can reveal. Yevgeny Prigozhin is the founder of Wagner, a private army that the US government last week announced it would designate a “transnational criminal organisation”, allowing it to impose even tougher sanctions on the group. For years it has been accused of human rights abuses and war crimes in…

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These lies about climate change just wouldn’t die in 2022

These lies about climate change just wouldn’t die in 2022

USA Today reports: There was a time – a recent time – when concern about the environment was relatively bipartisan, not a cultural flashpoint. A Republican, President Richard Nixon, established the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. In the 1980s and 1990s, bipartisan majorities voted to strengthen the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, led by a Republican – Rhode Island’s Sen. John Chafee. Those days are gone, and today a wide range of misleading statements and outright lies…

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A local paper suggested Santos was a ‘fabulist’ before the election, but no one paid attention

A local paper suggested Santos was a ‘fabulist’ before the election, but no one paid attention

The Washington Post reports: Months before the New York Times published a December article suggesting Rep.-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.) had fabricated much of his résumé and biography, a tiny publication on Long Island was ringing alarm bells about its local candidate. The North Shore Leader wrote in September, when few others were covering Santos, about his “inexplicable rise” in reported net worth — from essentially nothing in 2020 to as much as $11 million two years later. The story noted…

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