For more than a year now, we’ve heard some in conservative circles question the authenticity of the 2020 presidential election. In November 2020, Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump to become president. That’s a fact. But with Trump leading the way — and many along for the ride — the disproven Big Lie that the presidency was stolen and that our election system is rigged continues to erode the country’s trust in democracy. It already stained one of the hallmarks of our country: the peaceful transition of power.
Sure, it’s easy to dismiss the likes of a pillow guy and Rudy Giuliani as crackpots pushing goofball conspiracy theories about faulty voting machines and stuffed ballot boxes and dead people voting. But when legitimate news outlets question or amplify the baseless possibilities of unfair elections, the damage is incalculable.
That’s why it’s a tad frustrating to now hear Rupert Murdoch — the executive chairman of News Corp. who oversees outlets such as Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post — saying it’s time for Trump to let go of the past.
It’s not that Murdoch is wrong. In fact, he’s right. It just would have been nice if Murdoch made a big deal about this in November 2020 instead of November 2021.
Speaking at News Corp.’s annual meeting Wednesday, Murdoch said, “The current American political debate is profound, whether about education or welfare or economic opportunity. It is crucial that conservatives play an active, forceful role in that debate, but that will not happen if President Trump stays focused on the past. The past is the past, and the country is now in a contest to define the future.”
Wait, wasn’t it less than a month ago when The Wall Street Journal’s opinion section published a letter from Trump once again claiming the election was “rigged?”
And didn’t Trump often turn to Fox News anchor and willing accomplice Maria Bartiromo to complain about how the election might have been stolen?
And isn’t Fox News being sued by Dominion Voting Systems for things said on the air? (Fox News has defended its election coverage and vowed to defend itself against what it called a “baseless lawsuit.”)
Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson, who is probably Fox News’ biggest personality, recently had a three-part documentary on Fox Nation (Fox News’ streaming service) about the Jan. 6 insurrection. PolitiFact’s Bill McCarthy wrote a story with the headline, “Tucker Carlson’s ‘Patriot Purge’ film on Jan. 6 is full of falsehoods, conspiracy theories.”
Jared Holt, who monitors extremism on social media for the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, told NPR’s David Folkenflik, “These kinds of conspiracy theories about Jan. 6 used to be relegated to weird blogs and known conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones. In a way, you don’t need conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones to even exist if Tucker Carlson is going to do the job of conspiracy theorists for them.”
MSNBC opinion columnist Zeeshan Aleem called Carlson’s documentary “slick propaganda.”
To be fair, Trump was furious with Fox News because it was one of the first news outlets to call Arizona for Biden. The responsible journalists at Fox News have stayed away from peddling lies about the 2020 election. And there have always been rumors that, deep down, Murdoch really isn’t a fan of Trump. Then again, Murdoch is a fan of his business, which is why Fox News still needs to court Trump and, especially, Trump’s supporters.
So in the end, yes, it’s good to see Murdoch publicly pushing Trump — and, in essence, others — to move on from the silly conspiracies about the 2020 election. Perhaps those who work for Murdoch, especially on television, can strongly echo that message.
Speaking of Bartiromo …
In his new book about Trump called “Betrayal,” ABC News’ Jonathan Karl writes that Bartiromo called then-Attorney General Bill Barr to complain that he wasn’t doing anything to stop the election from being stolen from Trump.
In the book, Karl quotes Barr as saying, “She called me up and she was screaming. I yelled back at her. She’s lost it.”
Bartiromo is denying that ever happened, according to a story by The Associated Press’ David Bauder. Bartiromo, through a spokesperson, told Bauder, “At no point did I lobby or make any demands of Bill Barr … nor did I call him screaming. The insinuation is absurd.”
Jackson speaks out on debut of show
In an interview with InStyle, NBC News’ Hallie Jackson opens up to Rainesford Stauffer about mental health and burnout in her new show.
“Hallie Jackson NOW” on the streaming service NBC News NOW is finally up and running. The daily show was supposed to debut Monday but was pushed back to Wednesday because Jackson was out sick. (She called it “the most spectacularly-ill-timed sick day of my career.”)
Stauffer wrote about Jackson’s show and how it hit home for Jackson: “In the segment on mental health and burnout, parts of the sessions Jackson participated in were too personal for the show to air.”
Jackson told Stauffer, “I come out of one of these sessions and my face is streaked with tears and my producer is like, ‘Oh my god, are you OK?’”
Stauffer wrote, “In that moment, she reevaluated her role, telling herself ‘OK, let me not be a journalist for this hour. I’m going to be like a participant here.’ She reiterates that it’s uncomfortable, despite a retreat leader’s private reassurance that if she can bring her authentic self to the space, her journalism would be better as it related to the topic. ‘I thought that was really powerful because I am not somebody who ever really feels OK connecting my personal life to my journalistic life,’ Jackson adds.”
Jackson went on to tell Stauffer, “My own sort of mental health issues predated the pandemic.” She said the network was supportive, but “I felt really ashamed of talking about it. I still do.”
Check out Stauffer’s story for more.
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