— Lachlan Murdoch
LOL.
The lying at Fox News was premeditated and deliberate. There is no doubt about that. The cause was an absence of integrity, values and grit. It was caused by greed and arrogance. In the end, the meltdown of Rupert Murdoch’s lie machine was caused by panic. The simple truth is that most individuals and businesses who drown don’t do so because they can’t swim. They drown because they panic, and thus it was so at Fox News, America and journalism’s version of pancreatic cancer.
Fox News is not a news organization, according to Fox News and its squadrons of attorneys, who have long argued in court that no reasonable person could ever be confused between fascist entertainment and hard news. Yet, CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS News continue to insist that Rupert and Murdoch’s misinformation business is news. Think about that. Fox News admits it isn’t news, while the other networks continue to insist it is. The result is the entirely predictable collapse of trust between the American people and the media. The American people don’t believe that the American media is on the level, and therefore have become immunized against reality and susceptible to propaganda. The results have been a predictable national disaster.
While flying to Vietnam I watched “She Said.” The movie is exceptional and documents the heroic nature of work that afflicts the powerful on behalf of the truth and public good. The movie charts the work of investigative reporters Jodi Kanter and Megan Twohey in bringing down super predator Harvey Weinstein. It demonstrates the exceptional quality of so much of The New York Times journalists and journalism, while simultaneously exposing the rot and ethical decay around so much of their political coverage in the Trump era. Some Times reporters do the work, while a few take dictation in the Trump information economy. They are not alone.
The restoration of CNN’s integrity and reputation is well under way under the leadership of Chris Licht, who understands that it was demolished by Jeff Zucker’s cynicism and disregard for basic journalistic ethics. He assembled a collection of paid liars and extremists and broadcast their idiocy and delusions around the world. I thought about that 11,000 miles from home watching Jim Acosta, one of the most exceptional broadcast journalists of the Trump era, over breakfast from Hanoi.
Mercifully, few people outside of America can see Fox News. MSNBC doesn’t have a global footprint, but CNN does. The decision to give people like Jeffrey Lord, Kayleigh McEnany and Corey Lewandowski air time wasn’t just irresponsible, it was the cause of national embarrassment. He turned American politics into a reality show for the entire world. In 2019, Zucker justified his actions and said this:
It is hard to find people who will come on and support the president’s point of view. We need these voices.
It made America look weak, decrepit and corrupt when in fact it only proved that Zucker was as empty, hollow and superficial as any Trump crony. He owns a piece of January 6 as well.
Puck News is the zippy and provocative new media company that devotes significant coverage to the media industry and its most powerful players. They have reported about the growing unease and awareness among broadcast journalists and news executives that the company they keep defines who THEY are. Apparently, there is a growing understanding and creeping recognition amongst them that their institutional integrity is defined by the Fox News bottom dwellers next to them, as opposed to the excellence among them. Journalists like Margaret Brennan, Jim Acosta, Erin Burnett, Clarissa Ward, Richard Engel and dozens more deserve better from their management because their exceptionalism should not be squandered by association with the most corrupt institution and family in America outside of Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers.
Here is the Puck News report detailing the growing unease that perfectly explains the working relationship and interplay between American news organizations in the coverage of American politics:
The Dominion voting lawsuit isn’t merely causing anguish in the executive suites at 1211 Sixth Avenue and in the Delaware courts. The drama is starting to bleed out into the equally aggrieved precincts of television news bureaus, where at least two networks, ABC and CBS, are having internal conversations about whether they should still be pooling their footage with Fox News in light of the network’s Dominion defamation lawsuit.
The pool, of course, is one of the D.C. traditions that exists, in part, because of our pledge to democratic freedoms and holding our leaders accountable. But there are “mandated pools” around White House coverage, where the content must be shared, but also TV “pools of convenience,” that result from an arrangement between the five networks—ABC, NBC, CNN, Fox News and CBS—that make it more financially convenient to cover big events, hearings and stakeouts. Pools of convenience allow networks to save costs by rotating coverage for each event, rather than having five separate cameras and crews fighting for the same footage. This extends to major state funerals, inaugurations, State Department events, and really anything three of the five networks vote on covering. (Other smaller networks, like NewsNation or C-SPAN, can subscribe to these convenience pools for a fee.)
It’s a rare, behind-the-scenes, collaborative process in which the five networks in Washington share resources, access, and take turns leading coverage and then distributing footage. But with clear indications that Fox knowingly promoted election conspiracies, executives at other networks are starting to question whether they should be sharing and providing resources with a “propaganda organization,” as one rival executive put it.
Much of it comes down to issues of reputation and credibility, naturally. Fox’s D.C. Bureau Chief Bryan Boughton, who turned up in discovery in the Dominion lawsuit for telling his correspondent Kristen Fisher to respect their audience after she reported that Rudy Giuliani’s news conference was “light on facts,” is on many of the coverage calls with the other networks. Networks also worry about their own potential hypocrisy: on the one hand, they are reporting critically on Fox News; on the other, they are airing that network’s footage to their viewers.
“When Rupert Murdoch says it’s not red or blue, it’s green, it’s the same for the other networks on the pool—it’s financially beneficial for us to split the pool five ways with Fox,” said a top network executive. (Technically speaking, Murdoch did not offer that comment, but rather offered an affirmative answer to an attorney who phrased his question in those terms. But you get the point…) “Management at [Fox News] is pursuing something, but it’s not journalism. They are putting stuff on the air that they know is not true. We’ve crossed a Rubicon,” the executive said.
The networks just had a meeting last week to talk about saving money while pooling as they are under pressure from their finance departments to scale back, so losing 20 percent of the resources could be a material issue. At this point, though, it’s mainly venting-type conversations at ABC and CBS, with no clarity on what they can do, if anything. There really isn’t a precedent. Any attempts by the White House to oust Fox from the mandated White House pool have only prompted other networks to rally around them, such as when Obama questioned the network’s legitimacy and wanted to hold a pooled interview without Fox. But those issues with Fox were over differences of opinion. The current situation is of a whole other magnitude.
What’s more, it’s unclear if there’s any established mechanism to actually remove a member of the pool. There’s also the concern that if you start questioning Fox’s integrity, then it can be applied to editorial decisions by ideologically driven decisions on MSNBC, or even possibly CNN. (Though, to his credit, Chris Licht has moved CNN back from its Zuckeresque #resistance heyday.)
And it’s not like Fox can be swapped out with another network. To get into the pool, you have to show some level of technical proficiency, including camera people, technical people, lighting, sound, and the ability to manage the complex logistics. It’s part of the reason, besides its lack of journalistic standards, that a network like RT could never be a part of the pool.
At the same time, it’s sticky for news organizations to wade into these partisan waters. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee currently has a petition out with 16,000 signatures calling on the White House Correspondents’ Association to remove Fox from the White House press pool. Last night, Stephen Colbert seemed to be saying the same on CBS: “Fox News doesn’t believe a word they say, and neither should you—and neither should the White House Correspondents’ Association,” he said.
But the network “pools of convenience” are not mandated pools like the White House press pool, and even if Fox tried to sue the other networks for kicking them out, it might be futile. The association was formed as a sort of a gentleman’s agreement, but there’s been an effort in the past 10 years to solidify the rules. It takes three out of five votes from the five assignment desks at the networks to decide what gets staked out or covered. But there are ways to change Fox News’ status as a fifth equal member.
“Fox News joined the television pool in 1997 after proving we had the superb resources, skilled production personnel, and the staying power to be an equal partner in covering the daily schedule and events emanating from Washington,” said a Fox News spokesperson. “Fox has covered some of the most important events in our 27-year history in a clear non-partisan way much to the praise of our pool colleagues and our journalism is exemplary—we have never had a complaint about our work or the editorial notes we have shared with our partners in performing our duties, nor will we tolerate hearing from anyone now.
Surprised?
The White House Correspondents’ Association annual bacchanalia and celebration of access journalism is nearly upon us. Is it possible that America’s media elite will garner together and celebrate truth, while sitting next to tables full of Fox News executives and reporters? It is.
Every American should be in awe of the brave journalists who go into harm’s way to report and share the TRUTH about what is happening around the globe. Similarly, every American should be aghast, disgusted and angry about the cowardice and corruption of people like Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, who were afraid to tell the truth to millions of people. The intellectual cowardice is exceptional and the weakness is repugnant. Any institution that lowers itself into a peer status with Fox News while simultaneously promoting its values, and at the same time ignoring what Fox News is, is no better.
The Washington Post determined that Trump had lied 30,573 times by the end of his term. The newspaper has famously declared “democracy dies in darkness.” It’s not dying in darkness though, but rather in the plain light of day where it is being poisoned by the darkness of epic and unrestrained lying. There is no freedom in societies where the truth is whatever the powerful declare it to be.
There is no cause more honorable than reporting the truth to free people. Similarly, there is no cause more terrible than gaslighting for profit.
Every journalist in America has a stake in the Fox News debacle. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Fox News is part of the chain because NBC, CBS, ABC and CNN demand it be so. If only they could understand how bad that is for both them, and us.
I want to make it really clear: I am not defending Fox News. But to describe Chris Licht as restoring CNN's integrity defies all logic.
When reading I wasn’t thinking about news but Johnson and Johnson’s reaction to the 1980’s Tylenol poisoning by outside parties. They went back to their basics - First do no harm. J&J recalled every package.
We have six major news organizations ( need to add PBS in that mix) and yes there are shared resources ( setups are expensive) However, the five need to go back to their core principles-do they report the truth or they support lies They have a choice to make.