Fox News seems to be hoping that the fact-check clip that ran on Lou Dobbs last night and will run on Judge Jeanine tonight and Maria Bartiromo tomorrow will satisfy @smartmatic's demand for a retraction of misinfo. No response from Smartmatic yet, though: washingtonpost.com/media/2020/12/…
UPDATE: OSET's co-founder says his group had no idea what the segment would be used for. “In fact, it was a bit sketchy in terms of Fox disclosures about purpose,” he said. "We were all surprised when it ran, how it was framed, and what it ended up being.” washingtonpost.com/media/2020/12/…
The identical segment featuring Eddie Perez aired as scheduled during the last segment of Jeanine Pirro's show, which was hosted by Lisa Boothe.
Boothe said: "We asked him what he knew about Smartmatic and the claims some have made about that company.”
Maria Bartiromo, who has cast doubt about the election and featured Sidney Powell on multiple occasions, read the script verbatim introducing the segment debunking claims about Smartmatic: washingtonpost.com/media/2020/12/…
ACTUALLY, Maria Bartiromo just added this after airing the Smartmatic debunking segment: "So that is where we stand right now. We will keep investigating." washingtonpost.com/media/2020/12/…
Maria Bartiromo not pushing back at all as Sidney Powell alleges (without proof) that "they were flipping votes in the computer system or adding votes that did not exist. ... They had this all planned, Maria. They had the paper ballots waiting to be inserted, if and when needed."
"Sidney, these are incredible charges that you are making this morning," Bartiromo says. "We of course will be following this, and we thank you for joining me today. Please come back soon."
Can't stress how big this is - Jedediah Billa on Fox: "To come out and say that there is voter fraud ... to make a statement about an election being stolen or an election being rigged, that can be a dangerous statement. That can really rile people up. I haven't seen any evidence"
.@margarettalev reports on CNN that Trump campaign is concerned that Fox News might be the first network to call the election for Biden -- "the feeling is: if it were Fox to call it, it would be tremendously bad for optics, which as we know is really important to the president."
Fox and Friends opens with the Ellie Goulding song "Anything Can Happen."
("This was definitely not a referendum on Trump," Ainsley Earhardt says.)
The Fox and Friends hosts are focusing on Democratic Senate and House losses.
At a Hollywood Radio & TV Society luncheon, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell says of media coverage of Trump: "In some sense, it's been the easiest administration theyve ever had to cover, because the outrages have been so extraordinary and endless and multiplying on top of each other"
Lawrence O'Donnell says that journalists who cover Trump haven't had to have a mastery of policy or anything like that because they can just ask Trump "who are you going to pardon today?" or "why aren't you taking hyroxychloroquine?"
After four years of covering the Trump admin, Lawrence O'Donnell says that "the Washington press is deeply out of shape. It's like a baseball player who hasn't played in 4 years."