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Off the air, Fox News stars blasted the election fraud claims they peddled
NPR ^ | February 16, 2023 | David Folkenflik

Posted on 02/17/2023 5:07:16 PM PST by karpov

In the days and weeks after the 2020 elections, the Fox News Channel repeatedly broadcast false claims that then-President Donald Trump had been cheated of victory.

Off the air, the network's stars, producers and executives expressed contempt for those same conspiracies, calling them "mind-blowingly nuts," "totally off the rails" and "completely bs" - often in far earthier terms.

The network's top primetime stars - Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity - texted contemptuously of the claims in group chats, but also denounced colleagues pointing that out publicly or on television.

Ingraham called Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell "a bit nuts." Carlson, who famously demanded evidence from Powell on the air, privately used a vulgar epithet for women to describe her. A top network programming executive wrote privately that he did not believe the shows of Carlson, Hannity and Jeanine Pirro were credible sources of news.

Even so, top executives strategized about how to make it up to their viewers - among Trump's strongest supporters - after Fox News' election-night team correctly called the pivotal state of Arizona for Democratic nominee Joe Biden before other networks. A sense of desperation pervades the private notes from Fox's top stars, reflecting an obsession with collapsing ratings.

"It's remarkable how weak ratings make... good journalists do bad things," Bill Sammon, at the time the network's Washington managing editor, privately wrote on Dec. 2, 2020. Network executives above him stewed over the hit to Fox News' brand among its viewers. Yet there was little apparent concern, other than some inquiries from Fox Corp founder Rupert Murdoch, over the journalistic values of fairness and accuracy.

The audience started to erode severely that fall, starting on Election Night itself. Fox executives and stars equally obsessed over the threat posed by the smaller right-wing network Newsmax.

(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: davidfolkenflik; fox; foxnews; partisandogsqueeze
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1 posted on 02/17/2023 5:07:16 PM PST by karpov
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To: karpov

David Folkenflik, one of the most vile piles of partisan dogsqueeze you’ll ever run into...


2 posted on 02/17/2023 5:08:32 PM PST by kiryandil (China Joe and Paycheck Hunter - the Chink in America's defenses)
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To: karpov

And today’s release of pretrial discovery proves that the voting machines were hacked and buggy and the developers knew it.


3 posted on 02/17/2023 5:09:58 PM PST by MattMusson (Sometimes the wind bweek.lows too much)
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To: karpov

I am sure they will not be talking about the voting machines issues per Fox News filings.


4 posted on 02/17/2023 5:10:18 PM PST by Moorings
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To: karpov

Almost everyone in the so-called “conservative media” is really just a cynical grifter that degrades and mocks God-fearing Americans. It’s almost impossible to tell who is sincere now. These people are only in it for the money. They have no ideology.

At least Trump says what he thinks in public. I don’t recall any reports of him going back on his public statements in private conversations.


5 posted on 02/17/2023 5:11:39 PM PST by GulliverSwift
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To: MattMusson

Which pretrial discovery are you talking about?


6 posted on 02/17/2023 5:11:51 PM PST by Robert DeLong
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To: karpov

I sure don’t care that I don’t watch Fox News anymore. The only thing I do is Gutfeld on YouTube.


7 posted on 02/17/2023 5:12:22 PM PST by vpintheak (Live free, or die!)
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To: All

If it was possible I’d put money on the election being stolen and I still think Powell and Lin Wood were both a bit goofy.


8 posted on 02/17/2023 5:12:41 PM PST by escapefromboston (Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.)
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To: karpov

NPR=National Progressive Radio


9 posted on 02/17/2023 5:13:44 PM PST by Zuriel (Acts 2:38,39....Do you believe it?)
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To: karpov

With the whacked out Sidney Powell and Rudy pushing the special forces battle and the kraken nonsense immediately after the steal, its no wonder people got turned off by the shenanigans. Although, just because there were shenanigans, it doesn’t mean there wasn’t a steal.


10 posted on 02/17/2023 5:15:49 PM PST by jpp113
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To: Zuriel

I thought the “P” stood for “Perdition.”


11 posted on 02/17/2023 5:16:54 PM PST by Cincinnatus.45-70 (What do DemocRats enjoy more than a truckload of dead babies? Unloading them with a pitchfork!)
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To: Zuriel

Our tax dollars are paying for the leftist garbage put out by NPR. Reagan wanted to “O” budget them years ago, but the RINOs stopped it; there is no need we should be paying the high salaries for these leftists. Let them get, and pay for their own radio stations.


12 posted on 02/17/2023 5:17:28 PM PST by laconic
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To: jpp113

Exactly. The election was stolen by good old-fashioned ballot box stuffing in five key cities. All the ‘kraken’ nonsense was probably a purposeful red herring... it worked.


13 posted on 02/17/2023 5:18:08 PM PST by shadowlands1960 (We live in a world of intolerance masked as tolerance. RUSH LIMBAUGH)
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No way Joseph Stolen got 81 million legit votes. The election was indeed stolen. So go folk your flik, David Folkenflik


14 posted on 02/17/2023 5:18:25 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: kiryandil

“David Folkenflik”

Yes, something to scrape off the bottom of your shoe.


15 posted on 02/17/2023 5:20:10 PM PST by SharpRightTurn (“Giving money & power to government is like giving whiskey & car keys to teenage boys” P.J. O’Rourke)
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To: karpov

Horsefeathers. For one thing, the FNN did not trumpet that the election was a fraud. They reported, and did not take a side. Some gave their opinion on the facts.

NPR built a story on sand, like always faithful to their government pimps.


16 posted on 02/17/2023 5:21:00 PM PST by Glad2bnuts ("People who didn't take take the Jab have -0- regrets, those who did may be SADS.)
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To: MattMusson

Oh, you must be talking about the Gsteway Pundit article. I see it now


17 posted on 02/17/2023 5:21:25 PM PST by Robert DeLong
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To: karpov

I never could listen to clothspin Laura. Her voice has always sounded like she has one on her nose.

And Sean ‘unbelieveable’ Hannity. Way back (15 yrs ago?) when he filled in for Rush, I thought, “How did this guy get this high in talk radio? Unbelieveable”.


18 posted on 02/17/2023 5:21:59 PM PST by Zuriel (Acts 2:38,39....Do you believe it?)
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To: MattMusson
And today’s release of pretrial discovery proves that the voting machines were hacked and buggy and the developers knew it.

Real complicated programming task, there.      

Try writing a program dealing with university financial aid systems.

I can proudly say that I never got one completely correct in all the years I wrote them.

This Dominion software stuff stinks to high heavens. You're just writing software to fill buckets.

Or was there something else going on?

19 posted on 02/17/2023 5:22:19 PM PST by kiryandil (China Joe and Paycheck Hunter - the Chink in America's defenses)
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To: karpov

They didn’t “peddle”. They reported it. Are court’s really supposed to determine what is news or not? Would you really want that to be the case? Nuts.


20 posted on 02/17/2023 5:23:04 PM PST by jpp113
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