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Right-wing media is splitting into Trump, establishment camps

12 January 2021
Dan Ackermann

Following the Capitol siege, the right-wing media landscape is beginning to split between entities that want to double down on pro-Trump rhetoric and those that want to stick with the establishment.

Why it matters: The future of the Republican Party, in part, hangs on whether fringe conservative media or traditional conservative commentary will dominate with audiences.

Driving the news: Fox News said Monday it will replace its 7 p.m. evening news hour hosted by Martha MacCallum with a right-wing opinion show.

  • The move was made in response to ratings pressure, CNN reports.
  • Fox has faced growing competition from fringe-right cable news networks like Newsmax and OANN — networks that look more like Fox's opinion programming than its news shows.

On the other side, Cumulus Media, home to many right-wing radio personalities, has told hosts to stop suggesting the election was stolen, the Washington Post reports.

  • Brian Philips, EVP of content for Cumulus, wrote in an internal memo obtained by Inside Music Media that the company “will not tolerate any suggestion that the election has not ended. The election has been resolved and there are no alternate acceptable ‘paths.’ ”

Be smart: Fox News' update is notable given that other right-wing entities owned by Rupert Murdoch have decided to publicly disavow the president.

  • The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote a piece urging Trump to resign last week. Late last month, the New York Post said Trump was "cheering for an undemocratic coup" with his efforts to overturn the election he lost.
  • CNN reports that Murdoch was directly involved in the decision-making around the Fox News lineup shakeup.

What to watch: The increase of political money being poured into media will also impact whether and how this split evolves.

  • Epoch Times, a pro-Trump media outlet backed by a political PAC, saw its revenues double over the past two years despite efforts by Tech platforms to limit its distribution, Axios' Lachlan Markay reports. (LINK)

Go deeper: Insurrection and misinformation is tearing the country into three Americas

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.