Here's a thread about how the anti-Newsom talk show "Fox & Friends" is handling Newsom's victory this morning. Overall tone: California is in trouble, Dems are weak, but it's no surprise Newsom won since "Big Tech donated tens of millions of dollars to the anti-recall effort."
"Turns out he had a mountain of money behind him," co-host Steve Doocy said, as if the donations were a surprise that no one knew about yesterday. Ainsley Earhardt read aloud the same list of $ donors during all 3 hours of the show.
"Fox & Friends" didn't feature any pro-Newsom voices today, but it did host a panel of small business owners who said things like "I think small businesses are devastated" by the recall's failure and "I think we will see a lot of businesses leave the state now."
One wonders if Fox fans feel misled by the network's recall coverage: The California-in-the-dumps narrative, the recall cheerleading, the constant interviews with Larry Elder. It was similar with Trump last year: His reelection was portrayed as the most likely outcome, until 🤷♂️
This morning Doocy said things like "we should not be surprised that Gavin Newsom pulled it out in the last week or two," citing corporate donations, Biden's visit, and the Dems' inherent advantages in CA. As for Elder, "he did well, even though he finished short."
Notable: No "rigged" lies on "Fox & Friends" today. Doocy: "There was some suggestion, by Larry Elder and others, there could be some shenanigans, some fraud like that, but as we just heard him say, 'We do not finger-point, we do not blame.' NO claims of fraud in his speech."
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One America News Network's handling of the GOP defeat in California has been so, so weird that I have to tell you about it. (1/7)
OAN is low-rated and cheaply-produced, but it's on the channel lineup right next to legit news in millions of homes. It is a refuge for those who think Fox is too liberal. Its hosts pushed voter fraud propaganda before the polls closed in California. (2/7)
The polls closed more than 10 hours ago. The recall failed. It wasn't close. But OAN *has not reported the results of the recall a single time* that I can find. I have scoured the transcripts and watched the morning coverage – zero mentions. But it's weirder than that... (3/7)
Thread of @dleonhardt's points from Sunday's show. First: "I think a lot of vaccinated people have come to overestimate the odds that they're going to get a breakthrough infection, let alone that they are going to get very sick. If they DO get one, odds are it will be mild."
On the risk Covid posed to vaccinated people, and a new communication challenge relating to the Delta variant: "Delta has raised the risk while still leaving it VERY small. And that's really hard to talk about..."
While Delta is a problem, "vaccine hesitancy and skepticism and opposition is a bigger problem," @DLeonhardt says cnn.com/videos/busines…
5 distinct times today, I felt the lingering effects of the pandemic, more than 6 months after getting vaxxed. I wrote about 'em in the @ReliableSources digest: cnn.it/3n8GMup
At home: Discussions about how to teach 2-year-old Story to wear a mask for school. At work: New "welcome home" signs in the CNN lobby for employees who've worked from home
I walked to CVS with @JamieStelter, who's booster-eligible since she's immunocompromised. The store said Covid walk-in appointments were not available, but then offered to give me a flu shot right on the spot. That was weird.
Anyone know where I am based on this single picture?
.@adamsteinbaugh was right first: Grand Junction, Colorado! I was siked about my first "business trip" of the pandemic, to Aspen, but it wasn't meant to be... flight was diverted... there was no way to get there in time for my event... and suddenly I actually MISSED Zoom.
Front page of today's @DailySentinelGJ is about one of the other reasons why I couldn't make it to Aspen on time: Massive mudslides on I-70. "Canyon project manager amazed at size of debris flows, sees climate change role"
Mini-thread: In a typical newsroom, one team covers elections. A different team covers crime and justice, like 1/6 riot prosecutions. A wholly separate team covers health and science, like the pandemic and vaccines. Fact-checking? A separate unit too.
Structurally this makes sense: Different reporters bring expertise to bear on all sorts of subjects. But there are connections between these beats, and they need to be covered accordingly. The connections are part of the story...
The folks who are wrongly convinced that Trump actually won the election are also more likely to resist the Covid-19 vaccines that Trump fast-tracked. The folks who want to believe that the riot was "peaceful" are also susceptible to other types of misinfo cnn.com/2021/07/16/med…
Fox Weather was announced last year. I viewed it as part of a bigger story Fox is telling via the press – portraying CEO Suzanne Scott as an expansionist, leading Fox into new lines of businesses like lifestyle (they produced a Christmas movie) and weather and podcasts and books.
"But," I wrote in HoaxTheBook.com, "these experiments belied the fact that Fox was more dependent than ever on its propaganda players." Sure, Fox News Media has lots of arms, but its face is Tucker Carlson. The profits come from Carlson, Hannity, "The Five" – rage TV.