Opinion: Fox News cleans up another Trump mess; The Washington Post, September 13, 2024

 Dana Milbank, The Washington Post;  Opinion: Fox News cleans up another Trump mess

"It was a case study in how the dominant “news” organ of the right cleans up Trump’s messes. When President Joe Biden had his disastrous debate, liberal outlets and commentators panned the performance and ultimately helped to force him out of the race. But when Trump had what was, objectively, a bad night, Fox News led a movement to claim it didn’t happen.

Sixty-seven million viewers saw an out-of-control Trump claim he won the 2020 election, complain that those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were “treated so badly,” argue about his crowd size, assert that he had read that Harris “was not Black” and that Biden “hates her,” admit that he still only has “concepts of a plan” on health care, make odd statements such as “I got involved with the Taliban” and “she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison,” and utter this ludicrous slander about Haitian migrants: “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

Fox News then told its viewers (14 million people watched the simulcaston the network) that they had not seen what they just saw. Unless I missed it, viewers also weren’t told the other news of the night, that Taylor Swift had endorsed Harris after the debate.

Often, after my weekly cataloguing of Trump’s madness and mayhem, readers ask why his followers don’t see that he is off his rocker. This is why. Fox News sane-washes him — and it sets the tone for the entire MAGA social media ecosystem."

News Anchors Reciting Sinclair Propaganda Is Even More Terrifying in Unison; New York Magazine, April 1, 2018

New York Magazine; News Anchors Reciting Sinclair Propaganda Is Even More Terrifying in Unison

"The anchors were forced to read the so-called journalistic responsibility messages word for word by their employer, the conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest owner of television stations in the country. The features were one of Sinclair’s now infamous “must-run” segments, consisting of conservative commentary that every Sinclair-owned station is required to air.

Think Progress rounded up many of the “fake stories” segments for a chilling video on Friday, but Deadspin’s Timothy Burke published a much more terrifying version on Saturday, which at one point shows 30 of the segments synced up in unison..."

More advertisers drop Laura Ingraham's Fox News show despite apology to David Hogg; Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2018

Stephen Battaglio, Los Angeles Times; More advertisers drop Laura Ingraham's Fox News show despite apology to David Hogg

"Ingraham is often the fourth most-watched program in all of cable news with about 2.6 million viewers nightly.

Ingraham's apology came quickly, considering that Fox News commentators have typically resisted backing down when under attack for their controversial statements. But the support and sympathy for Hogg and other Parkland students has prompted advertisers to continue to bail from her program.

Hogg did not accept Ingraham's apology. He told the New York Daily News on Friday that Ingraham will have to admit she slandered his classmates in her coverage of their gun protests....

Ingraham said at the end of her Friday program that she will be on vacation with her children next week. Fill-in hosts will appear on "The Ingraham Angle" in her absence."

Ethics event focuses on fictional portrayals of legal issues; Western Michigan University News, February 26, 2018

Cheryl P. Rowland, Western Michigan University News; Ethics event focuses on fictional portrayals of legal issues

"A panel discussion on how fictional portrayals of legal issues can shape public perception of the law will be the Wednesday, Feb. 28, offering in the spring speaker series presented by Western Michigan University's Center for the Study of Ethics in Society.

The discussion of "Legal Ethics in the Media: How Does Fiction Influence Reality?" is set for 4 p.m., in the Brown and Gold Room—Room 242—of the Bernhard Center. The free, public presentation, which is co-sponsored by the WMU Cooley Law School and the School of Communication, will include the insights of three attorneys: 

• Dr. Norman Hawker, professor of finance and commercial law in WMU's Haworth College of Business.
• Dr. Tonya Krause-Phelan, auxiliary dean at WMU Cooley Law School.
• Dr. Victoria Vuletich, professor at WMU Cooley Law School.

The trio will consider how television and movies present countless and often subtle depictions of legal ethics issues, perhaps without viewers even recognizing them as ethical issues. They will explore the extent to which fictional characters and situations shape the public's perception of the law as well as lawyers and their ethics. The presentation is designed to be interactive and allow for lively audience participation."

PBS used some stock footage for its fireworks show, and people were not happy; Washington Post, 7/4/16

Emily Yahr, Washington Post; PBS used some stock footage for its fireworks show, and people were not happy:

"As soon as the show ended, producers from Capital Concerts owned up to the fact that not all of its footage was from the live fireworks show. (In the first segment of the display, while singer Cassadee Pope was singing, some scenes did show a cloudy sky.) “We showed a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years. It was the patriotic thing to do,” the “Capitol Fourth” account tweeted...

A “Capitol Fourth” spokeswoman confirmed to us that because the weather was so overcast, the producers pulled together a combination of clips “to make the best television show.” She added this is the first time the producers have had to take such measures.

Still, some viewers were not happy that PBS wasn’t upfront about the pre-recorded nature of the fireworks..."