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Media+Accountability
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1. What you see here is clearest illustration why things are so messed up and why it cannot get any better until this asymmetry is addressed.
Put simply: right-wing has narrative dominance.
My org (@mmfa) did this study and been sounding this alarm for years. Some thoughts...
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"Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He's weak and he's ineffective. So the only way he figures that he's going to get reelected and is sure as you're sitting there is to start a war with Iran."
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1/ There is some pretty substantial context about Twitter's 2023 revenue and advertisers that I think partly help explains why Musk is really losing it...
And it involves upfront ad sales. Let me explain...
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1/ I want to share a bit about Fox News, advertisers, revenue and accountability.
Let me first start by saying that, Fox News is actually suffering quite severely on the advertiser front. (The next chart will illustrate just how badly)...
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They’re actually losing it.
“And I heard the scientist say the other day that when a man votes for a woman, he actually transitions into a woman.”
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Current Fox News segment is all about how Netflix, Reed Hastings, Susan Rice, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama are pedophilia advocates.
QAnon isn’t a fringe thing, it’s the core of the current Republican party.
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7/ My point here is: It's actually worse than that I think a lot of people even appreciate all because Musk's conduct and commitments to roll back brand safety and community safeguards essentially obliterated Twitter's new front sales event that woulda secured 2023 revenue.
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Apple just announced they're pulling their ads from from X/Twitter is very significant for 3 reasons:
1) X needs the App Store. It's very hard/nearly impossible for Apple to fairly enforce App Store rules when they're one of biggest advertisers. Now the conflict is gone.
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Alex Jones lawyers messed up and accidentally sent to lawyers for Sandy Hook families a full copy of everything on Jones’s phone. This then exposed Jones as hiding evidence he should have turned over.
Jones upon learning this: “This is your Perry Mason moment.”
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5/ This means that instead of heading into 2023 with 15-20% of 2023 already secured as they typically would have, Twitter heads into next year with almost none of that. All because of Musk's red pilled edgelord approach.
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6/ @elonmusk has had months to address these concerns or even learn about them. But instead, he's insisted on antagonizing the very businesses and people that sustain Twitter.
Back in May, the groups and companies weren't calling for a boycott, they were asking basic questions.
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Michael Cohen had only 3 clients: Donald Trump, Sean Hannity and GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy.
Sean Hannity's entire 15 minute monologue tonight was just him tearing into Cohen. At no point did Hannity disclose that Cohen was recently serving as his lawyer.
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Good afternoon @Keurig. You are currently sponsoring Sean Hannity's show. He defends child molester Roy Moore and attacks women who speak out against sexual harassment. Please reconsider.
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4/ Media buyers did ask those questions. Twitter had zero answers or assurances, the presentation imploded and ended shockingly early. Twitter from what I understand basically sold almost nothing and locked in extremely little 2023 revenue.
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1/ I run Media Matters (a media watchdog organization). I want to say something about @ewarren's departure from the race. Horserace, polls, nomination aspect aside aside, we will all feel the effects of Warren's absence from the race, whether you realize it or not. Here's why...
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Did you know that @gucci pays bigot Donald Trump who maliciously targets lgbt military service members about $21,000,000 every year in rent? Nike already announced they’re moving outta Trump’s building. Maybe Gucci should follow?
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Yes. Amazing that Lamb is ahead at 49.9%. But, know what I find more amazing? That a guy who blamed Pulse night club mass murder on gay people and is a corrupt monster still got 49.5% of vote. I'm amazed we're amazed instead of being horrified by what this says about our society.
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3/ This year, they didn't sell much of anything.
A coalition called Stop The Deal spent time educating and using media buyers and big advertisers at the event to ask Twitter some basic questions about potential Musk takeover before giving him a guaranteed income for 2023.
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15/ b) Cable Fees -- Tell cable providers to stop forcing all of us to pay Fox News such a wildly inflated amount fee, let even consider jacking that up as much as they are trying. Make Fox News actually rely on ads for revenue, watch how fast they change
unfoxmycablebox.com
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It is literally not the even same shape or color! And look who is hmmm’ing it as if it is some stunning revelation.
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Media Matters has won its lawsuit against Texas AG Ken Paxton.
Paxton (at Elon Musk’s encouragement) launched an investigation into Media Matters.
We sued asking court to bar him from proceeding. We were just granted our injunction.
Big win for us and free speech!
Details tk
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1/ There's something incredible in the background during this Dominion trial that is at least as significant (and possibly even more significant) as the trial itself for Fox News' bottom line.
My goodness is this a doozy...
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Following story about 4chan users clogging Iowa call lines, we are now seeing reporters from major outlets posting in chans, saying they are working on a story and sharing their contact info.
If this is indication of how major outlets are gonna engage with disinfo, we're doomed.
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So, Fox News execs kept a record of HR violations, misconduct and otherwise fireable offenses…and instead of doing anything about it, they let Fox staff endure these issues on off-chance they needed to blackmail Tucker one day?
This isn’t the own they think it is.
According to eight current and former Fox News sources, the network has an "oppo file" of dirt on Tucker Carlson, and they're hoping it'll keep him from lashing out at his former network trib.al/btdtFxL
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10/ Fox News' fees are artificially inflated. Fox would not be able to sustain itself in its current incarnation w/out bullying cable providers into overpaying. It's time the 90M cable customers pushback way Fox has pushed all these years. We need a Fox News fee correction.
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Note: Tucker was supposed to do a show tonight. He was set to interview Vivek Ramaswamy. Fox had been promoting it this AM.
So whatever happened, it was abrupt.
My gut is Tucker didn’t want to play ball in this delicate moment for Fox News and it unravelled fast.
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Spread the word. @Keurig has done what many other big name advertisers, like Cadillac and E-Trade, have done and removed their ads from Hannity's show.
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2/ Back Twitter (like a lot of digital companies) participates in an event called new fronts. At this event, they sell large chunks of ads for the following year.
Typically, Twitter sells like ~600-900M in ads at new fronts. That's guaranteed revenue for following year.
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It’s not what Trump posted that tells you where this is going; it’s how his people are responding to it that really tells you where this is going.
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16/ c) Lawsuits - Fox News spent months not only downplaying coronavirus, but actively misinforming their audience about it - and also encouraging them to do dangerous things (like take trips). While Fox News was lying, the Murdochs were canceling gatherings and social distancing
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The reason we released this is precisely because the things you say on your Fox News show echo the misogyny displayed in those clips. We were actually helping people better understand just how vile your current Fox News show is by showing what that worldview really looks like.
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Spread the word. Confirmed: @VolvoCarUSA confirms that they have removed their ads from Sean Hannity's show.
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CONFIRMED: Long John Silver will no longer advertise on Fox News.
In 2018, Long John Silver ran ads on Fox almost every day; they advertised heavily for the first portion of 2019. In April declined to renew contract and to avoid Fox News going forward. Today they confirmed to me
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23/ So, stay tuned.
We tried to warn shareholders at the last annual gathering. They should have listened.
Your participation matters. Onward!
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2/ This is the number of paid ads on Tucker's show. As you can see this chart shows the average number of *paid* commercials per show. It dropped off quite severely in 2019. It *still* hasn't recovered.
So what's this mean in terms of dollars?
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You might say: "But Angelo, how can you possibly know this?"
And that's because Trump's incompetent team was talking about it while their stream was still live streaming. Truly the dumbest people.
FYI members of the media at Trump rally: Mike Pence's nephew, John Pence, is supposedly working with the venue to adjust wifi bandwith so that regular media is throttled and a right-wing pro-Trump YouTube page is prioritized. If your internet is slowing down, this is why.
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My god. These Fox documents. I’m reading through the exhibits and transcripts. It’s so much worse than what has already been revealed.
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Hannity defends child molester Roy Moore and then chastises the women that spoke out, reminding them the ten commandments say "thou shall not bear false witness."
Here's a current list of @seanhannity's sponsors: mediamatters.org/research/20…
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14/ So, here's what I think are the big next steps....
a) Advertisers -- Continue to push on advertisers. @mmfa, the FoxNewsBoycott folks, @slpng_giants will def be on top of that.
This is important work and must continue.
mediamatters.org/fox-news/th…
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1/ RE Tucker Carlson. So, I went through every single one of his ads for 2021 so far. Here's the thing: He has lost so many advertisers already that he doesn't really have any left to target.
His top paid advertiser is MyPillow and his 2nd biggest "paid" sponsor is Fox News.
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Hi @jack. So far, you have only been willing to speak with extreme right-wing figures and seth rich murder truthers (Hannity).
Media Matters is the nation’s leading media watchdog. We have extensive expertise here. This is a formal invitation and interview request.
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12/ Right now, Fox News is in midst of renegotiating more than 65% of all their cable provider contracts. Try to increase as much as 75%. That would mean Fox goes up to more than $3/month.
If we say nothing, this happens. Fox gets even more money despite being extra destructive
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17/ c) Lawsuits (cont) -- It isn't a question. There will be lawsuits. And the thing is, when that happens, my sense is that discovery will reveal that they were intentionally misinforming their audience and that they were coordinating with Trump admin to align messaging.
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1/ @elonmusk’s claims should be treated with tremendous skepticism and with a critical eye.
Let’s assume what he says is true. Then that means he put together a $44 billion offer without basic essential information. At best, it is reckless and business associates should run now.
BREAKING: Elon Musk tweets that his $44B deal to buy Twitter “temporarily on hold” pending more details on spam accounts. apne.ws/wxG7xD6
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On MTP, Peter Navarro floats theory that Democrats are not passing a COVID deal because they want to hurt the economy in order to boost electoral chances.
Chuck Todd responds: "I take your point."
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18/ c) Lawsuits (cont) -- Kinda like how when we finally got our hands on some internal memos, we found straight up proof that Fox News was sending instructions to on air shows to flat out lie about climate change.
mediamatters.org/fox-news/fo…
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Was asked what I thought elected Democrats should be doing right now.
My answer was: Show up. Not at locked buildings in DC, which only fuels narrative of Dem impotency. But go to places around the country already experiencing the harms of Trump admin actions.
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9/ The effect? News & info channels’ subscriber fees are normally small. MSNBC gets ~$0.33, CNN gets between $0.70-0.90 per month (and includes CNN and CNN Headline News). In contrast, Fox News charges near or over $2 a month. This is wildly out of step with industry averages.
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4 more rallies left to watch. This would bring my total up to 658 Trump rallies watched since 2016 campaign. And then, hopefully, I never have to watch another one again. Please America. I'm begging you. Release me from this hell.
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5/ So, how is that Fox News could lose all of that advertising revenue and still not be forced to make major changes.
Well, surprise surprise, Fox News cheats. And we all basically subsidize Fox News as a result of that cheating.
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Tucker warns about Biden: “They want to make you drink Starbucks from now until forever!”
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1/ So, I just want to point something out about Sec. Buttigieg's answer on Fox News Sunday yesterday. The good one that is making the rounds today.
Yes, it was a good answer. But, I think what most people don't realize is what happens after an answer like that...
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3/ Well: In 2017, Tucker's show generated about $100M in advertising revenue for Fox News. If you took all of the ad revenue that Tucker's show generated in 2018 and 2019, the combined amount is less than what Tucker's show earned in 2017 alone. It's easily a 75-80M loss.
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1/ Given all the recent revelations about Fox News' internal machinations from the Dominion filings, I'd like to give a sense of just how delicate this moment is for Fox..
I'll start with advertisers, then talk about cable agreements and close with likely cascading litigation
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4/ And, Tucker's show is *not* only Fox News show that experienced big dips in number of paid commercials and revenue. Fox News lost...a ton of advertising revenue.
That problem got even worse when they failed to meet their sales projections at their upfront event last year.
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11/ It'd be one thing if they were getting fees similar to other channels. If they were, they'd be more accountable to market forces and advertiser losses. In this case, they force everyone to subsidize their lies and extremism.
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Good evening @McDonalds. Are you aware your ads are currently running during Sean Hannity's show? Hannity attacks women that speak out and has defended sexually preying on children. Many companies already removed ads. Were yours run in error?
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Mark Meadows is on Hannity's radio show right now. Hannity is floating a conspiracy theory that Nancy Pelosi secretly helped enable the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
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13/ I share that because it is important context and an important backdrop here. It's happening right now, and if we really want to hold Fox News accountable...this seems like a no brainer. At minimum, they shouldn't get more money from us all.
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This is a frivolous lawsuit meant to bully X’s critics into silence. Media Matters stands behind its reporting and look forward to winning in court.
Onward!
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20/ Fox News' misinformation actively harms us all.
This is a moment of real reckoning for Fox, if we chose to act. I share the advertiser info to show it matters and that Fox will literally throw away hundreds of millions of dollars to advance its political interests.
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19/ And with that, here's Warren explaining why it was a bad idea to partner with Fox (just before this part of the clip, she explained how she was doing a lot of other events to reach conservatives and talk to conservatives and thus the idea that anyone needs Fox is bunk).
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8/ Fox News is notoriously recognized as the most aggressive negotiator. And it's not just that they are good at it. They lie and cheat. They tell Fox News viewers that their cable company is trying to silence Fox News, they enlist their hosts to spread that misinformation too.
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3) X/Twitter would often point to Apple's presence as evidence that the platform was brand safe. It's going to a lot harder for them to slow the advertiser losses without Apple's presence to point to.
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2. So much of convo in Dem circles and in parts of political media has been about messaging.
'Oh, Democrats just need better messaging,' I hear folks say.
Wrong. Even if Dems had the perfect message, it wouldn't get anywhere. This isn't messaging problem; it's a media crisis.
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On CNN, David Axelrod says that "as a political production, I think they're doing pretty well." Nia-Malika Henderson describes it as a "perfect night." And Gloria Borger praises it as well.
Not once...did any of them note that the production they are praising featured crimes.
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If you a reputable person, especially an influential one, please don’t go on Fox News. If you must, fine, but at least wait until this ad sales period is over.
I can’t emphasize this enough: They are having a severe ad sales crisis and are using your appearances to help sell ads
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11/ If you want to know what you can do this in moment, I strongly recommend you visit nofoxfee.com
The website tells you how to contact the current providers talking to Fox and what to say.
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Proactiv removes ads from Tucker Carlson's show. Just received this statement from Proactiv Company confirming it:
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Sean Hannity's Fox News show right now. Apparently, I have been exposed. (Of Note: I am gay. And, my husband/partner of 14 years is Jewish)
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6/ Fox News could have $0 in advertising revenue and still have a 90% profit margin. That should be surprising given that they are a commercial media outlet. But this is in large part why Fox seems impervious to some ad pressure. They have a big cushion.
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10/ I am proud to say that Fox News was one of the only media companies in 2019 that FAILED to sell off all of its ads at its upfronts. And in total, Fox News lost hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising revenue. (Be sure to let that soak in a second).
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I’ve analyzed every ad on Fox News over past 3 years. If I had to zero in on 4 companies that’d shake Fox News to core if they said they’d stop sponsoring unless Fox changed, it’d be:
1) @Expedia/@trivago
2) @ProcterGamble
3) @Allstate/@esurance/@EsuranceCares
4) @Applebees
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19/ c) Lawsuits (cont) - 10 yrs ago, I was involved in some of the advocacy around the Murdoch's UK hacking scandal. They got caught hacking hundreds of people's phones. Started when one nasty hack was revealed, then whole thing was blown open. This moment feels very similar
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9/ Warren not only rejected the town halls, she started making public case for why town halls were a bad idea. She didn't need to do that. She got no benefit from going out there and explaining the business of media buying and how Fox was modifying its sales pitch. But she did it
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Worth noting that this station is not an affiliate. It is one of the few local stations that is owned and operated by Murdoch's 21st Century Fox. Jack Abernathy heads the local television group; he used to be co-president of Fox News.
DEVELOPING: Search warrant: Marijuana found in Botham Jean’s apartment after deadly shooting bit.ly/2D2fd0u
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1/ Tom Cotton working double time to get publicity RE his take on Afghanistan.
Cotton is on Armed Services Committee. There have been 2 (public) hearings solely about Afghanistan since January 2020. Cotton attended neither of them. No one in media has mentioned that.
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The person who wrote that deceitful WSJ attack piece on Biden age is the same reporter who a few years ago (while at WaPo) had to delete a tweet for taking a jab at Biden as he visited his late son, wife and daughter's graves.
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FYI members of the media at Trump rally: Mike Pence's nephew, John Pence, is supposedly working with the venue to adjust wifi bandwith so that regular media is throttled and a right-wing pro-Trump YouTube page is prioritized. If your internet is slowing down, this is why.
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1/ This is significant -->
Today, more than 40 organizations signed a letter to Twitter's major advertisers urging them to commit to pulling ads if Musk follows through with promises to roll back community safeguards and scale back content moderation.
businessinsider.com/civil-so…
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7/ Every TV channel charges cable providers a fee for carrying channel set during negotiations. This is a subscriber fee. Provider pays this fee for each customer they have, not viewer of channel. Providers bundle channels into packages and pass costs to subscribers.
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Fox News new year’s eve coverage: An astrologist is interviewed in the lead up to Trump’s Fox appearance. She foretells that 2 guardian angels will be watching over Trump in 2019. The hosts are relieved.
(This is not a joke tweet; this happened.)
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15/ If you want to help make sure Fox actually experiences meaningful accountability for the lies, extremism and bigotry, this is really the only way to do it. This opportunity won't come again for at least another 3 years. So, it's now or never.
nofoxfee.com
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In light of Musk promoting a pretty absurd conspiracy theory about Paul Pelosi attack, I’m re-upping this thread about Twitter’s current major advertisers.
All the more important now for them to be engaged.
1/ Thread about some of Twitter's major advertisers and a few observations or things these companies should probably be forced to explain...
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22/ And, I share the lawsuit stuff, because it's not only inevitable but because it reminded me of similar moments. In the past, the phone hacking forced the Murdochs to split NewsCorp into 2 companies. This time it could actually unravel their control.
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Fox News hosts Pirro and Hannity are claiming that Biden did not pick Harris as his VP. They think there is some secret person that has yet to be revealed that actually made the selection.
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2) Apple was a very big spender (one of top advertisers) and even more relevant was one of few companies that increased spend over the past year.
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21/ But, make no mistake, those efforts have cost them real money. I share the cable fee stuff, because ultimately that is Fox News' firewall. Lachlan Murdoch, the CEO, has repeatedly made it clear that as long as the rates remain (and go up) he won't change programming.
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2/ As the trial is happening, Fox News will be renegotiating or gearing up to renegotiate carriage renewal with 3 cable providers -- Xfinity, Chater and Cox.
It's hard to overstate how significant this and how potentially consequential this is for Fox News' future. Here's why...
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I run Media Matters. There is no such list.
We do however keep a list of Fox News advertisers and update people on them. Here: dropfox.com
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All we did was take screenshots of your comments.
Communists bloggers like @mmfa run the same playbook of lies and smears on people they feel threatened by.
Produce fake news, spread it all around, then tag all fake news stories about their victim in all future stories.
Guess what?
Nobody cares about your BS.
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