THE DAILY NEWSLETTER  - THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2020

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Fox News Impeachment Coverage

Fox has won another key ratings battle this week, with the network's coverage of the final day of the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.

In the overall category, Fox posted 17 of the top 18 programs in Wednesday’s ratings. (Only The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, which finished ninth, broke through the Fox stronghold in the top 18.)

A whopping 5.4 million total viewers were watching Fox News at that hour, with 902,000 of those falling in the advertiser-coveted adults 25-54 demographic. 

On cable news, the politics of the Trump era isn't just an ideological battle but a battle for eyes and ears, and that's what makes the monster showing for Fox News, on a major and historic event in a year that will be filled with them, such a clear media win.

It is telling of the power of the network to draw viewers that outlets like CNN and MSNBC, designed to appeal to different partisan audiences, can barely scratch the surface of its hold on the ratings crown. Even on something with arguably more appeal to Trump's detractors.

Perhaps, with such great power, there is coming a greater sense of responsibility, as the story of today's Media Loser touches on.

Here's the ratings breakdown.
MEDIA LOSER:
John Solomon

Controversial conservative journalist John Solomon, formerly of the Hill and frequently of the President's Twitter feed, has been under steady fire and increased scrutiny for his reporting on Ukraine.

In fact, The Hill has an ongoing internal review of Solomon's articles posted there.

Solomon is a Fox News contributor, who was stridently defended by Devin Nunes during the House impeachment hearings, and was named by Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas as being integral to his and Guiliani's efforts in their Ukraine campaign.

Solomon, it was revealed on Thursday, is a hot topic in a 162-page document from the Fox News research team on the subject of disinformation. 

"Ukraine, Disinformation, & the Trump Administration”, produced by what is referred to in-house as the network’s “Brain Room”, is "especially critical" of Solomon, the Daily Beast writes in their revealing report.

Fox News says the document naming their contributor Solomon, and several other Fox News figures, as purveyors of "false and misleading stories," is not a big deal.  Which is ... interesting.

As for Solomon himself? Well he's launching a new website dedicated to "just the facts" reporting. 

Amazing.

The A-Block

'I Pray for You'-gate

President Donald Trump participated on Thursday in the National Prayer Breakfast, and kicked off his faith-focused speech by holding up a copy of a USA Today newspaper bearing the headline “Acquitted” as he walked in.

The president then addressed the bipartisan event on the subject of impeachment at length, but made sure to include a bipartisan faith focus by mocking the professions of faith from Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Nancy Pelosi

“I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong," said Trump at one point in the diatribe. "Nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you,’ when they know that that’s not so."

So add "people who don't pray correctly" to "people who get shot down" on the list of people who Trump doesn't like, if you're taking notes.

The Romney Retribution

The Green Room yesterday chronicled some of the more ... colorful, responses from the Trump right to Sen. Mitt Romney voting to convict Trump on one of the two articles of impeachment. 

There were a lot. In fact, so plentiful and dramatic were the cries against Romney that Fox News Channel's Geraldo Rivera felt compelled to make a suggestion: "Dudes chill."

"He's allowed to have an opinion dictated-he says-by his deep religious belief," said Geraldo, who must not be keeping his notes on what kind of people to dislike up to date.

For every Yin, a Yang

The State of the Union this year was, by any measure, an over-the-top affair. That is true of the spectacle put on by the White House as well as the counter-spectacle from the Democrats. Not to mention the outraging over both from each other. 

But just as the Democrats and Republicans were opposite sides of the circus coin, so, too, the very notion of spectacle itself found it's Yang twin. Which is to say, in response to the President's speech, CNN's new White House Correspondent John Harwood put on his own spectacle, describing it on air as "a very disturbing tableau for the country."

"It was dark because he’s made clear that his mind is dark,” analyzed journalist Harwood on a CNN coverage panel. “This is somebody in deep psychological distress right now. Self-pitying, insecure, angry.”

Well, at least he's being thematically consistent.

The Bernie Surgie

Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) has roughly a 50/50 shot at winning the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination — more than double the probability of his nearest competitor — according to Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.

That is, needless to say, a development. And one that naturally has a pretty major downside for Joe Biden. His campaign isn't having the best week.

The Mayor and the Meghan

Mayor Pete Buttigieg had a relatively big TV moment on Thursday when he faced off with The View's Meghan McCain on the topic of "infanticide after a baby was born."

We're confident that's enough teaser to motivate you to watch the clip. Because you definitely should.

Also on the same show, Buttigieg responded to the now-viral video of an Iowa Democratic voter becoming distressed upon learning that the Mayor is gay. "I'm running to be her president, too," he said

The Judge

Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano is not backing off his views on President Trump's guilt, post-acquittal. Into the triumphalism among some of his colleagues, and the core network audience, Napolitano reiterated on Thursday, in a new op-ed, that "the evidence that Trump did this is overwhelming and beyond a reasonable doubt, and no one with firsthand knowledge denied it."

 

Must-See Clip of the Day

Quarantined in China

Each day the world hears about not just the status of the coronavirus outbreak, but news reports of people, from entire cruise ships to individuals, being held in quarantine as part of the effort to contain it.

In China, CNN’s David Culver and his team were on the ground, and went in to Wuhan as the whole thing began and eventually, they ended up quarantined. They were in what appears to be an excellent hotel in Beijing, not aboard a ship or in a hospital ward, but it makes for a fascinating report.

It's quality reporting, and entirely unique.

Links We Like

Democrats at a Crossroads After Trump Acquittal
via Washington Post 
Trump’s Team Celebrates Acquittal at (Where Else?) His Washington Hotel
- via The New York Times

Prank Callers and Internet Trolls Sought to Sow Chaos on Iowa Caucus Night
- via CNN
Trump’s Press Secretary Whines About Media Lunch Leaks—in New Leaked Email
- via The Daily Beast
The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President
- via The Atlantic
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