Tucker Carlson: Last News

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor A producer for Fox News who has worked for Maria Batirormo and Tucker Carlson alleged in court filings Monday that she was coerced by executives into providing misleading testimony in the $1.6 billion defamation suit that Dominion Voting Systems has levied against the Fox Corp.-backed outlet. In filings made Monday Delaware Superior Court and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Abby Grossberg, who had worked as a senior booking producer for Bartiromo and head of booking for Tucker Carlson, alleged that Fox attorneys worked to “coach, manipulate, and coerce Ms. Grossberg to deliver shaded and/or incomplete answers during her sworn deposition testimony, which answers were clearly to her reputational detriment but greatly benefitted Fox News,” according to the Delaware lawsuit.

A Fox News producer claims that she was “coerced” and “intimidated” by the network’s legal team into providing misleading and evasive testimony in a deposition in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox News Media, known best for shows led by Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, is placing new emphasis on programming that relies more heavily on Kevin Costner, weather emergencies and Greg Gutfeld. In a meeting with advertisers slated to be held Tuesday, executives at the Fox Corp.-backed operation, will spotlight a growing array of lifestyle content, while continuing to nod to the political programming that draws some of its networks’ biggest audiences. Among the Fox News Media executives scheduled to be on hand were Suzanne Scott, the CEO, and Jay Wallace, president and executive editor. “If you take a look at our overall audience across all of Fox News Media, 40% comes from lifestyle – sports, weather, entertainment offerings,” says Jeff Collins, executive vice president of advertsing sales for Fox News Media. “We just want to reiterate to our clients the depth and breadth of this type of content that we have outside of just hard news.”

It looked like a good week for Fox News on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver today as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and uncertainty in the financial world replaced the searing revelations resulting from Dominion Voting’s lawsuit against the Rupert Murdoch-owned cable newser on the HBO series.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The battle for cable-news viewers is coming to March Madness. CNN intends to run a new promo during the heavily watched NCAA men’s basketball tournament that throws a sharp verbal elbow at Fox News Channel and the legal defamation case filed against it by Dominion Voting Systems. The promos will air starting this weekend on TNT, TBS, TruTV and CBS, all of which carry the games under a joint rights agreement held by the owners of those networks, Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery, which is also the parent of CNN. Fox News Channel is not mentioned in the promo script, reviewed by Variety, but the references are clear. “What should you expect of a news network?” asks the narrator. “Some bury the truth, while we fight to reveal the facts. The only side we are on is yours.” Viewers see images of CNN correspondents and anchors such as Abby Phillip and Clarissa Ward.

Fox News Channel viewers are less trusting of the cable network in the wake of publicly disclosed text messages and emails from Fox executives and on-air personalities, according to a new survey.  But only 9% of Fox News viewers say they aren’t watching the network as much as they used to, per research provided exclusively to Variety Intelligence Platform by consumer insights specialists Maru Group. (Click to an expanded subscriber version for full results.) A representative for Fox News told VIP+, “There has been no impact to advertising, with no advertisers dropping or pausing.” 

Maybe it was the way Brendan Gleeson pointed at Jenny the emotional support donkey, or how Julia Louis-Dreyfus jazzed up what could have been a sleepy introduction to the costume design category by saying how she was donning a dress from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Either way, the 95th Annual Academy Awards served up plenty of delightful moments for awards show-weary viewers.

Anyone missing their Sunday sermon this morning in Austin, TX, completely heard it in full from the 52nd former Speaker of the House who made a pitstop here at SXSW for The Atlantic session “The Future of Global Democracy”. Nancy Pelosi canvassed several topics impacting the nation’s democracy and welfare including the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in her San Francisco backyard, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Republicans who prop political violence — and that was just in the first 20 minutes of her hour-long session.

Colin Jost kicked off Weekend Update with a couple of Oscar yuks, including one that reference John Travolta and how he botched Idina Menzel’s name at the 2014 Academy Awards.

Former Vice President Mike Pence was one of the featured speakers at the white tie Gridiron Club dinner in Washington on Saturday, an event that typically is a showcase of sometimes biting humor.

If Chelsea Handler had to take a guess as to who would survive for the GOP Presential ticket, it would be Florida governor Ron DeSantis over former President Donald Trump.

The White House went on the attack against Tucker Carlson over his segments that downplayed the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

A huge release of text messages, emails and deposition transcripts dropped today in the Dominion vs. Fox litigation sheds further light on the scramble among Fox News personalities and Fox Corp. executives to respond to the backlash in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election and then the repercussions after the attack on the Capitol on January 6th.

The chief of Capitol Police blasted Tucker Carlson’s characterization of the January 6th attack on the Capitol, calling the Fox News host’s conclusions “offensive and misleading.”

Gigi Sohn is withdrawing her nomination to the FCC, after a 16-month battle in which she faced relentless attacks from industry lobbyists and from commentators on the right.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox Corp. sought to tamp down furor around a series of implicating quotes and texts culled from corporate executives and Fox News anchors, in the newest filing, part of a closely watched defamation lawsuit from voting-technology firm Dominion Voting Systems. Fox Corp. and Fox News Channel made the case in two filings in the Superior Court in Delaware that many of the colorful utterances from Fox News stars such as Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity and even some from Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch were beyond the scope of Dominion’s case, and urged the court to reject the company’s call for a summary judgement, or a ruling in Dominon’s favor that would negate the need for a trial. Dominion is suing Fox for $1.6 billion in damages it alleges it is owed after Fox News made false claims about the Dominion’s actions and influence on the 2020 election. It is the second legal proceeding made against Fox News for its coverage of the aftermath of the 2020 race for the White House. Smartmatic, a voting technology company, has filed a massive $2.7 billion suit against Fox News. At issue in the suits, are allegations that Fox News falsely claimed the companies had rigged the election, repeated items about the matter and refused to engage in efforts to set the record straight. The 2020 election was not fixed and its results were certified by multiple legal processes.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor How can trees be racist? That’s the question explored in a new documentary, “Racist Trees,” about a historically Black neighborhood called the Crossley tract in Palm Springs, Calif., whose residents suspected a dense row of tall tamarisk trees might have been planted decades ago to segregate them from the adjacent golf course. While putting a close-up on the residents’ campaign to have the messy, view-blocking trees removed, the film deftly explores wider issues, like the troubled racial history of the idyllic resort town, gentrification and generational wealth – all with a light touch that includes plenty of colorful historic footage of swimming pools and movie stars.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reportedly has given Tucker Carlson exclusive access to tens of thousands of hours of surveillance footage from the attack on the Capitol, a move that is drawing concerns among former members of the January 6th Committee that the video will be misused.

John Oliver returned with Last Week Tonight after a three-month hiatus and it wasn’t long before he started taking swipes at Fox News.

Chelsea Handler being childless triggered Tucker Carlson and other conservative commentators who rushed to diss her.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Dominion Voting Systems alleges that emails, depositions and text messages among Fox News executives and its top stars show that the network had a clear financial motive to lie to its audience about voter fraud in the wake of the 2020 election. In a summary judgement motion filed Thursday, the company argued that Fox anchors feared losing viewers to rival Newsmax if they did not perpetuate the fantasy that the election was stolen from President Trump. “The network is being rejected,” wrote Sean Hannity, in a text message to Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson. In another text thread, Hannity wrote: “Respecting this audience whether we agree or not is critical.”