Seth Meyers
Seth Meyers dug into new court filings from Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News, a network which “does something that virtually no other mainstream media outlet does: they tell their viewers that they can only trust Fox News and no one else,” the Late Night host explained. “They’re like a creepy husband from a Lifetime movie.”
And “one of the biggest proponents of that message” is host Tucker Carlson, “who’s been telling his audience for years that the rest of the media is knowingly lying to them, specifically because they hate Donald Trump.”
But based on text messages and other communications revealed in court filings, we now know that “in private, he felt much differently”.
In a text message from 4 January 2021, Carlson wrote: “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait … I hate him passionately.”
“Oh my God! It turns out the Trump hatred was coming from inside the house,” Meyers joked.
In other messages, Carlson called Trump a “demonic force, a destroyer” and said all of his businesses fail – “What he’s good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that.” He called the attempts by Trump’s legal team to discredit the 2020 election “absurd”, “shockingly reckless” and “insane” and said Trump’s behavior was “disgusting. I’m trying to look away.”
“I never would’ve imagined that Tucker might watch this show until I saw those text messages,” Meyers laughed. “I mean, seems like our message might resonate with that guy.”
Stephen Colbert
On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert also discussed the new revelations about Fox News. “The big surprise is something that should surprise no one: Fox News doesn’t believe a word they say, and neither should you,” he said.
Colbert turned to private messages in which Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire owner of Fox News, worried that Trump was going “increasingly mad”.
“I’m just curious, Rupie – at what point in his madness might it occur to you to report that the most powerful man in the world has grown increasingly mad?” Colbert wondered. “I believe the scale goes: mad, increasingly mad, inciting a coup, strangling his Secret Service driver, and dinner with Kanye.”
Murdoch said under oath that he believes the 2020 election was free, fair and not stolen. But new communications reveal that after Fox’s own vote tracking team called Arizona for Biden, the network held an emergency meeting in which the CEO, Suzanne Scott, lamented, “if we hadn’t called Arizona, those three or four days following election day, our ratings would have been bigger” because “the mystery would have been still hanging out there”.
“That’s right, Fox News believes news should be mysterious,” Colbert said. “They learned their journalism from Scooby Doo.”
In other messages, Sean Hannity complained about news team’s insistence on reporting facts, writing “news destroyed us”.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better Sean, you also destroyed news,” Colbert retorted.
And in January 2021, Carlson wrote in a message that he hated Trump “passionately”.
“You hate him?” Colbert laughed. “But talking about him is the thing that pays your big salary!”
The Daily Show
Who knew Tucker was so different from his on-air persona? This is like finding out Nikki Haley has a blaccent. pic.twitter.com/z68UgSoYvl
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) March 9, 2023
Marlon Wayans, the Daily Show’s guest host for the week, also focused on Fox News on Wednesday evening. “We’ve been finding out what they really think about Donald Trump, and it’s hilarious,” he said.
Wayans zeroed in on Carlson’s texts about Trump, in which he said he hated him and that “there is no upside to Trump”.
“That’s fighting words! White on white crime, let’s go,” Wayans joked. “I know this looks bad, but their makeup sex is going to be so much hotter.
“This is so embarrassing for Fox News,” he added. “If they want to keep their shit quiet, they should do what the crack dealers do: use a payphone!”
Still, Wayans said he was enjoying the reveals: “I have never seen someone’s private texts that are so opposite from their public persona. This is like finding out Nikki Haley has a blaccent.”
