Some filings made public yesterday in the Fox News/Smartmatic case include some internal criticisms from Fox employees about coverage (I BELIEVE from an internal 2020 company survey)

One said: "The content we produce has made the world, and especially our country, a worse place.”
There's also some new internal messages.

According to the filing, on Nov. 6, 2020, three days after the election, Lachlan Murdoch texted: "Problem is Trump is going to blame everyone for not winning, especially Fox"

Today, 468 pages of filings from Smartmatic's lawsuit against Fox News were unredacted. I went through them to try to highlight new internal text messages, emails & depositions

In one message, for example, Jeanine Pirro called Sean Hannity an "egomaniac"

washingtonpost.com/business/2025/… Here is the full October 2020 text message from Jeanine Pirro to a friend about Sean Hannity, which mentions him using Trump's presidential bathroom:

Lachlan Murdoch, on Fox earnings call, about decision to settle with Dominion: "We made the business decision to resolve the dispute to avoid the acrimony of this trial and a multi-year appeal process." The first analyst question asks about future potential Fox settlements and departure of Tucker Carlson.

As far as I know, Maria Bartiromo is still considered to be a member of the News division at Fox, which makes her sharing her Trump questions with Mark Meadows ahead of time particularly noteworthy. From CNN's new report: cnn.com/2022/04/29/pol… This was the headline on my Nov. 29 story about that Bartiromo/Trump interview: "With Fox’s Maria Bartiromo as his first post-election interviewer, Trump found a sympathetic ear and few questions." washingtonpost.com/media/2020/11/…

Here's the full text message exchange between Sean Hannity and Mark Meadows on election day 2020, care of CNN: cnn.com/2022/04/25/pol… I've asked Fox News for comment. In texts, Hannity refers to the Trump campaign/pro-Trump team as "we" and asks which states he can help with in terms of messaging.

Hannity made his support for Trump 2020 quite clear, but this speaks to a slightly higher degree of involvement.

Some context on the Mick Mulvaney hiring:

According to an audio recording I obtained, CBS News co-prez Neeraj Khemlani told staff earlier this month that CBS needed to hire more Republicans for "access" reasons because the GOP would likely win midterms.

washingtonpost.com/media/2022/03/… CBS News' decision to hire Mick Mulvaney as a contributor has NOT been popular with many rank-and-file employees.

"I know everyone I talked to today was embarrassed about the hiring,” one said.

"Everyone is baffled," said another.

washingtonpost.com/media/2022/03/…

NEW - Internal memo for Fox staff: "All workers in NYC who perform in-person work at an office location, including Fox employees, must show proof of receiving at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine" by Dec. 27.

Testing will no longer be alternative to getting vaccine in NYC. Fox blames de Blasio for vaccine mandate — "The timing and ramifications of this mandate are very unfortunate, but we must take timely actions to be compliant by 12/27."

"This mandate by the Mayor prohibits unvaccinated employees from working at Fox New York offices as of 12/27"

!!! — Liz Cheney, re: urging Trump Jan. 6 action: "According to the records, multiple Fox News hosts knew the president needed to act immediately. They texted Mark Meadows, and he has turned over those texts."

She reads texts from Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and Brian Kilmeade Text from Laura Ingraham to Mark Meadows: "Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy."

From Brian Kilmeade to Mark Meadows: "Please, get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished."

On Fox News, Jonathan Turley criticizes "recklessness" in media coverage of Rittenhouse trial.

Turley: "That's a dangerous disconnect from society. That's what causes rage, and it comes from the media. ... It's like there's different trials occurring in Kenosha." Fox News anchor John Roberts: "There were a lot of inaccuracies that were put forward by the media, before this trial and during this trial."

Episode 1 of Tucker Carlson's Jan. 6th series is live.

Elijah Schaffer says: "January 6th was a honey pot. They're going to use this event for every bit of political persecution they can milk out of it."

(A honey pot is law enforcement trap to trick & catch potential suspects.) Ali Alexander, who organized the Stop the Steal protest on Jan 6th, is identified as a "political strategist"

"My life has been torn apart," Alexander says.

He claims that Stop the Steal was "the most law-abiding movement that this country has seen in modern times."

So far, Tucker Carlson's Jan 6 series airing next week has drawn protests from:
- 4 members of the Jan 6th committee (2 GOP, 2 Dems)
- Fox colleague Geraldo Rivera
- and now Jonathan Greenblatt of the @ADL has sent a letter to Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch

washingtonpost.com/media/2021/10/… @ADL Here is the text of @JGreenblattADL's letter to Murdoch: adl.org/media/16992/do…

Murdoch responded to a letter Greenblatt sent about the Great Replacement Theory back in April: cnn.com/2021/04/12/med…

The Wall Street Journal is declining to comment on their rationale for publishing this letter-to-the-editor from Donald Trump, which claims that "the election was rigged." wsj.com/articles/presi… Our story on Trump's letter-to-the-editor and the backlash the Wall Street Journal opinion section is getting for it: washingtonpost.com/media/2021/10/…

Bongino Off The Air This Week — "Several affiliates have told Radio Ink that Westwood One has put The Dan Bongino Show into “best of” mode for the remainder of the week. His program was not on the radio yesterday." radioink.com/2021/10/27/bon… Cumulus Media/Westwood One still has not commented on Bongino's fight over the company's vaccine mandate.

Fox News C.E.O. Suzanne Scott says she is vaccinated. Just like the company's founder Rupert Murdoch. And the opinion hosts of "Fox and Friends" and "The Five." And news anchors like Bret Baier and Bill Hemmer... hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features… Fox News C.E.O. Suzanne Scott referred to the network's primetime block, which includes its most high-profile and influential shows (Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham) as "one little piece of real estate." hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features…

"The Herrings were keen to leverage their existing production facilities in San Diego to launch a second network, either a boxing channel or news outlet."

this is the best sentence in the One America story For-profit media companies obviously exist to make money, but hearing Robert Herring say that he founded One America explicitly to do so is an important reminder and really puts things into the proper perspective.

Link: reuters.com/investigates/s…

hmm Here’s my recent story on this: washingtonpost.com/media/2021/09/…

A car is turned sideways and blocking the entire Manhattan bridge So this has been a while now

https://twitter.com/sydneytroi/status/1401385518710104065?s=21

During a town hall meeting today, several managers at the Associated Press acknowledged that they made mistakes in how they handled the firing of Emily Wilder.

"We failed to initially see this as more than an HR issue,” an assistant managing editor said

washingtonpost.com/media/2021/05/… But, they defended the decision to fire Wilder over her pro-Palestinian tweets, and one manager said that the mistakes made were “mistakes of process, and not of outcome.” washingtonpost.com/media/2021/05/…

Emily Wilder spent only 16 days as a news associate before the AP terminated her for violating the company's social media policy. "It was really devastating," she said.

"They told me I showed clear bias," she said, but the AP wouldn't specify the tweets.

washingtonpost.com/media/2021/05/… The AP reviewed Wilder's social media after the Stanford College Republicans and several right-leaning publications called her out.

Wilder: "To me, it feels like AP folded to the ridiculous demands and cheap bullying of organizations and individuals."

washingtonpost.com/media/2021/05/…

I wrote about the journalists who say they have received harassment, up to death threats, after being mocked & criticized on Tucker Carlson's show.

In Brandy Zadrozny's case, the threats were so bad that she needed armed security for two weeks afterwards

washingtonpost.com/media/2021/04/… After a Feb. segment, Los Angeles Times columnist Virginia Heffernan called local police after receiving a text message indicating knowledge of her address. She also filed a report with the FBI over the harassment, mentioning Carlson by name, she told me: washingtonpost.com/media/2021/04/…

Maria Bartiromo incorrectly says that the Post corrected the story about Trump's call with the Secretary of State (Brad Raffensberger). It was the call with the investigator. Link here: washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…