Stephen Colbert
On the Late Show, Stephen Colbert tore into the stunning deposition by Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire owner of Fox News, in the defamation lawsuit against the network by Dominion Voting Systems. Murdoch admitted under oath that Fox hosts Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo and others knowingly endorsed Donald Trump’s lie about the 2020 election and undermined Joe Biden’s victory.
But when asked if Fox News endorsed Trump’s big election lies, Murdoch answered “Not Fox … No. Not Fox.
“But if your most viewed hosts endorsed it, then your network endorsed it!” Colbert responded. “I’d like to see this guy in a murder trial – ‘did I stab that fella? No. I mean, my hand did, but he’s an independent contractor.’”
Murdoch also admitted he could have stopped people like Hannity from spreading election conspiracy theories, but he didn’t. “Because cash,” said Colbert. “For Murdoch, these lies were about the bottom line.”
Though a major story – Dominion is suing Fox News for $1.6bn – the network has censored all talk of the lawsuit on its programs. “So if there are any Fox News viewers watching this right now – first off, I assume you’re looking for remote batteries,” Colbert joked. “Try the junk drawer in the kitchen.
“Second, you should know a few things about Fox that it isn’t telling you,” he continued. “Fox News is being sued for defamation because their hosts endorsed lies about the 2020 election while their text messages to each other prove that they knew Joe Biden won fair and square, and that their guests talking about stealing the election were all crazy liars. Also, no one can invent a pillow! They already existed.”
The Daily Show
Fox knew the election wasn't stolen, but said it anyway? That's not shocking, but it is entertaining. @hasanminhaj pic.twitter.com/0jMyw7by3d
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) March 1, 2023
The Daily Show guest host Hasan Minhaj also dug into the Murdoch deposition on Tuesday evening, though he wouldn’t call the news shocking. “Fox knew the election wasn’t stolen but they said it anyway? That’s not shocking,” he said. “If Brian Kilmeade ever completed a wordle – that would be shocking.
“I’m not shocked, but I will say: I am very entertained,” because of all the text messages between Fox News hosts revealed in discovery. “There’s LinkedIn you. And then there’s iMessage you,” he noted. “That’s the deep, dark underbelly of who you really are. And boy oh boy were these iMessages good.”
For example, Tucker Carlson sent Laura Ingraham a text saying: “Sidney Powell is lying … it’s insane.” Ingraham responded: “She is a complete nut.”
Carlson also called Trump a “demonic force”. Ingraham referred to Rudy Giuliani as an “idiot”, while Hannity texted that he “was acting like an insane person”.
“Oh my God, do you know what this means? These people are secretly sane,” said Minhaj. “They also don’t respect anyone they have on their show. These guys are texting each other all day about how bullshit Fox News is. Their group chat is basically MSNBC.”
Minhaj pointed to one text from Carlson that “truly freaked” him out. Carlson wrote: “Do the executives understand how much credibility and trust we’ve lost with our audience? We’re playing with fire … for real and alternative like Newsmax could be devastating to us.”
“Think of it like this: Tucker Carlson is a moral vacuum,” said Minhaj. “A hole, if you will, who glorifies election deniers. So, a glory hole. And his viewers expect him to please them with his mouth. And he’s constantly terrified that they’ll find a new, more satisfying glory hole. And that’s why Tucker Carlson will never stop sucking.”
Jimmy Kimmel
And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel contextualized a report from the energy department over the weekend concluding, with “low confidence”, that the Covid-19 virus originated from an accidental Chinese lab leak.
“In other words, we don’t know,” said Kimmel. “But the dingbats know that this is some type of proof that they were right, that the virus came from a Chinese leak in a laboratory. Which, by the way, it might have. We didn’t know then, we still don’t know now.
“But what we do know is that Trump and his buddies blaming the Chinese resulted in a great deal of anti-Asian American sentiment and even violence in this country,” he added. “And that’s why it was irresponsible for the president to call it the ‘China virus’. But Tucker Carlson, apparently, disagrees.”
On a recent episode, Carlson played a 2020 Kimmel monologue in which the comedian criticized Trump blaming the virus on China, and accused Kimmel of taking “talking points from politicians and foreign governments”.
“The idea that I would be accused of reading talking points from a foreign government,” Kimmel laughed. “If it weren’t so brazen, it would almost be funny coming from this loathsome un-American Moscow mule.
“You know why they call him Tucker?” he continued. “Because in high school, he liked to get naked and tuck his Christmas ornaments, and he would prance around in front of his grandparents, and they started calling him Tucker. That’s what my Chinese intelligence tells me, anyway.”
