WTF Just Happened Today

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

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1/ Rupert Murdoch testified that several Fox News hosts “endorsed” Trump’s false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Murdoch, chairman of Fox News’s parent company, conceded in a deposition taken by Dominion Voting Systems that Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, and Lou Dobbs promoted false claims that the election was stolen and that he could have stopped them but didn’t. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight,” Murdoch said. The Executive Chairman also said that it was “wrong” for Tucker Carlson to allow MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to make baseless election fraud claims on Fox News, but argued that it was a business decision, saying “it is not red or blue, it is green.” A recently unsealed court filing revealed text messages and emails that many of the most prominent executives, hosts, and producers had privately said claims of election fraud in the 2020 election were bogus. Dominion sued Fox News in March 2021 and is seeking $1.6 billion for alleged lies that “deeply damaged Dominion’s once-thriving business.” (New York Times / Washington Post / NBC News / CNN / Bloomberg)

2/ Democratic leaders called on Rupert Murdoch “to stop spreading false election narratives and admit on the air that they were wrong to engage in such negligent behavior.” In a letter to Murdoch and the leadership of Fox News, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries wrote: “Though you have acknowledged your regret in allowing this grave propaganda to take place, your network hosts continue to promote, spew, and perpetuate election conspiracy theories to this day.” Kevin McCarthy, meanwhile, defended his decision to give Fox News’ Tucker Carlson “exclusive” access to to 41,000 hours of Jan. 6 security footage of the Capitol attack. McCarthy and House republicans are also moving to provide defendants in Jan. 6-related cases access to the footage. (Washington Post / CNBC / ABC News / Associated Press / The Hill / Wall Street Journal)

3/ FBI Director Christopher Wray told Fox News that COVID-19 pandemic “most likely” started after a lab incident in Wuhan, China. The FBI’s assessment, however, is not the consensus among intelligence and scientific communities, though the Energy Department