Tag: highlights

Tucker Carlson: firing highlights texts unearthed during Fox-Dominion trial

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The $787.5m settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems spared executives and on-air talent from taking the stand in a defamation lawsuit that centered on the network airing false claims of a stolen election in the weeks after Donald Trump’s 2020 loss.
The lawsuit still revealed plenty of what Fox personalities had been saying about the bogus election claims, including Tucker Carlson, the network’s top-rated host who was let go Monday. His unexplained departure has turned a spotlight on what he said in depositions, emails and text messages among the thousands of pages Dominion released in the leadup to jury selection in the case.
Carlson’s messages lambasted the news division and management, revealed how he felt about Donald Trump and demonstrated his skepticism of the election lies – so much so that Fox attorneys and company founder Rupert Murdoch held him up as part of their defense of the company. The judge who oversaw the case ruled that it was “CRYSTAL clear” none of the election claims related to Dominion was true.
Election lies
“Sidney Powell is lying,” Carlson told a Fox News producer in a 16 November 2020, exchange before using expletives to describe Powell, an attorney representing Trump.
“You keep telling our viewers that millions of votes were changed by the software. I hope you will prove that very soon,” Carlson wrote to Powell a day later. “You’ve convinced them that Trump will win. If you don’t have conclusive evidence of fraud at that scale, it’s a cruel and reckless thing to keep saying.” There was no indication that Powell replied.
Fox attorneys noted that Carlson repeatedly questioned Powell’s claims in his broadcasts: “When we kept pressing, she got angry and told us to stop contacting her,” Carlson told viewers on 19 November 2020.

Carlson told his audience that he had taken Powell seriously, but that she had never provided any evidence or demonstrated that the software Dominion used siphoned votes from Trump to Biden.
Fox’s 2020 election coverage
Fox viewers were outraged when the network called Arizona for Joe Biden on election night, a race call that was accurate. Fox executives and hosts began to worry about ratings as many of those viewers fled to other conservative outlets.
“We worked really hard to build what we have. Those [expletive] are destroying our credibility. It enrages me,” Carlson said in a 6 November 2020, exchange with an unidentified person.
On 8 November, after Biden was declared the winner, Carlson texted a couple of other employees: “Do the executives understand how much trust and credibility we’ve lost with our audience? We’re playing with fire, for real.”
Later in the chain, as others bring up Newsmax as an emerging competitor, Carlson said, “With Trump behind it, an alternative like Newsmax could be devastating to us.”
Donald Trump
In a text exchange with an unknown person on 4 January 2021, Carlson expressed anger toward Trump. He said that “we are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights” and that “I truly can’t wait.”
Carlson said he had no doubt there was fraud in the 2020 election, but said Trump and his lawyers had so discredited their case – and media figures like himself – “that it’s infuriating. Absolutely enrages me.”
Addressing Trump’s four years as president, Carlson said: “We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There really isn’t an upside to Trump.”
In texts early on the morning of 7 January 2021, a day after the violent assault on the US Capitol, Carlson and his longtime producer, Alex Pfeiffer, bemoaned how the rioters had believed Trump’s election lies.
“They take the president literally,” Pfeiffer said. “He is to blame for everything that happened today.”
“The problem is a little deeper than that I’d say,” Carlson replied.
Later, Carlson writes of Trump: “He’s a demonic force, a destroyer. But he’s not going to destroy us. I’ve been thinking about this every day for four years.”
Fox news department
Some of the most heated vitriol was reserved for colleagues in the news division and included conversations with fellow on-air personalities Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity.
On 13 November, the week after the 2020 election, Ingraham, Carlson and Hannity got into a text message exchange in which they lambasted the news division. It began with Ingraham pointing out a tweet by correspondent Bryan Llenas, saying he had seen no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania.
Carlson replied that Llenas had contacted him to apologize, then added “when has he ever ‘reported’ on anything”.
Ingraham then names another colleague who indicated there was no fraud, with Hannity responding: “Guys I’ve been telling them for 4 years. News depart that breaks no news ever.” In a subsequent Twitter message seconds later, Hannity says, “They hate hate hate all three of us.”
Ingraham responds she doesn’t “want to be liked by them” and Carlson chimes in, “They’re pathetic.” The conversation continues with Hannity bemoaning the damage that has been done to the brand: “In one week and one debate they destroyed a brand that took 25 years to build and the damage is incalculable.”
Another text conversation by the trio three days later had Ingraham telling her colleagues that her anger at the news channel was “pronounced”, followed by an “lol”. In response, Carlson attacked two Fox anchors: “It should be. We devote our lives to building an audience and they let Chris Wallace and Leland [expletive] Vittert wreck it. Too much.” Wallace and Vittert have since left the network.
The three hosts then started musing about a path forward after Ingraham says they have “enormous power” and that they should think about how, together, they can force a change. Carlson’s response: “For sure. The first thing we need to do exactly what we want to do. That’s the key. Leland Vittert seems to have the authority to do whatever he wants. We should too.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 25, 2023
CAG Highlights Lack Of Adequate Response Of Government Departments To Audit In JK

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SRINAGAR: Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has highlighted lack of adequate response of the government departments to audit.
“Principal Accountant General (Audit), Jammu and Kashmir, conducts audit of Government Departments to check for compliance to rules and regulations in transactions and to verify the regularity in maintenance of important accounting and other records as per the prescribed rules and procedures,” the CAG said in its latest report.
After these audits, the CAG said, Inspection Reports (IRs) are issued to the Heads of Offices inspected with copies to the next higher authorities.
“Important irregularities and other points detected during inspection, which are not settled on the spot, find place in IRs. Serious irregularities are brought to the notice of the Government by the Office of the PAG (Principal Accountant General),” the audit body said.
For speedy settlement of audit observations and inspection reports, the Jammu and Kashmir Budget manual provides for prompt response by the Executive to IRs issued by the Principal Accountant General (Audit) to ensure remedial and rectification action.
The auditee offices and their controlling Administrative Departments are required to comply with the observations contained in the IRs and rectify the defects and report their compliance to the Principal Accountant General (Audit).
“The pendency of large number of paragraphs indicates lack of adequate response of the Government Departments to Audit,” the CAG said, adding, “The Government may look into this matter and revamp the system to ensure proper response to the audit observations from the Departments in a time-bound manner.”
Three Audit Committee Meetings (ACMs) were held in Revenue Sector settling six Inspection Reports and 83 outstanding paragraphs with a money value of Rs 6.60 crore. Similarly, during the period 2020-21, four Audit Committee meetings were held in Social, General and Economic Sectors in which 101 Audit paras were settled.

“It is recommended that Government should ensure that a procedure is put in place for action against officials failing to send replies to IRs/ paragraphs as per the prescribed time schedule and recovery of losses/ outstanding advances/ overpayments, etc., in a time-bound manner” The CAG has also recommended holding at least one meeting of each Audit Committee every quarter. (GNS)

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#CAG #Highlights #Lack #Adequate #Response #Government #Departments #Audit
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

March 29, 2023
China Select Committee hearing highlights partisan divide on Beijing-countering strategy

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Pottinger spiced up his testimony with a video of quotes by China’s paramount leader Xi Jinping that suggested hostile intentions toward the United States. Pottinger accused the Chinese government of waging “information warfare” on the U.S. and likened it to a series of magicians, calling the Chinese Communist Party “the Harry Houdini of Marxist-Leninist regimes; the David Copperfield of Communism; the Chris Angel of autocracy.” McMaster echoed that assessment and argued that some of the blame lies with leaders in academic, industry, finance and government who’ve exercised “wishful thinking and self-delusion” about China’s intentions.
But the hearing revealed stark differences in how GOP and Democratic committee members perceive the U.S.-China rivalry and the strategies to approach it.
Committee chair Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) laid out a GOP vision of an external facing “existential struggle” against China’s “ideological, technological, economic and military threat.” Democratic committee members countered with a more domestic-focused approach hinged to bolstering U.S. democracy and backed by government funding for an industrial policy that ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) said could thwart China’s challenge “through investments in technologies of the future, workforce improvement and by fixing weaknesses in our economy.”
And Democratic members made implicit reference to Rep. Lance Gooden’s (R-Texas) statement on Fox News on Feb. 22 in which he questioned Rep. Judy Chu’s (D-Calif) loyalty or competence — a sign of the divides that could undermine the committee. “Calling into question the loyalty of Chinese Americans, as a member of Congress recently did, is as dangerous as it is deplorable,” said Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). Neither Chu nor Gooden are members of the committee.
Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi have also rejected Gooden’s comments. Still, the divisions on display at the hearing suggest they face serious challenges from day one in delivering on their commitment to keep the committee’s focus on China rather than GOP-Democratic bickering.
“Just because this Congress is divided, we cannot afford to waste the next two years lingering in legislative limbo or pandering for the press,” Gallagher said in opening remarks. And he warned that a failure by the U.S. to respond decisively to the Chinese government’s threat means “a world crowded with techno-totalitarian surveillance states where human rights are subordinate to the whims of the Party.”
That tone captures the growing congressional concern about China following the discovery and subsequent destruction of a Chinese spy balloon over the continental U.S. in February. Biden administration warnings that the Chinese government is considering providing lethal weaponry to Russia in its war against Ukraine have only fanned those fears. And a Department of Energy report leaked on Sunday that concluded that a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China sparked the Covid pandemic has renewed congressional anger toward China’s role in a pandemic that has killed more than a million Americans.
Bipartisan antagonism toward the Chinese government led the House Financial Services Committee to approve 10 bills on Tuesday aimed to rein in Beijing’s economic power. That legislation included measures that would target Chinese manufacturing of synthetic drugs, and commission a Treasury Department report on the global economic risks associated with China’s financial sector.

But while GOP China committee members focused mainly on well-trod U.S-China hot button issues, including the role of Chinese-sourced precursor chemicals in the U.S. opioid overdose epidemic, concerns about Chinese purchases of agricultural land and the plight of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Democratic members called for domestic policy initiatives to offset challenges from China.
Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif) and Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) called for the U.S. to develop an industrial policy that would fund the development of manufacturers to supplant China’s dominance of global supply chains in areas including the supply of semiconductors for consumer products. “It provides dividends not only to our economy, but to our national security, to invest in R&D and invest in our manufacturing sector,” Stevens said.
There were no takers among GOP committee members. “The United States should not mimic the Chinese industrial policy and should not copy the Chinese command and control system. … We should not try to counter China by becoming more like China,” said Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.)
Democratic members argued, meanwhile, that facing down China’s authoritarian threat required a concerted effort to bolster what they described as America’s ailing democracy. Rep. Jake Auchincloss (R-Mass.) described the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection as a propaganda gift to Beijing. That day “was Xi Jinping’s best day in office,” said Auchincloss. “I hope the bipartisan spirit of competing with the Chinese Communist Party overseas extends to defending democracy here at home.”
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#China #Select #Committee #hearing #highlights #partisan #divide #Beijingcountering #strategy
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 1, 2023
PDP delegation joins Rahul Gandhi in BJY in Jammu; highlights public issues

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Jammu: A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) delegation on Monday joined Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra here and discussed various issues including the government’s eviction drive as well as demands of Kashmiri Pandit employees with him, a party leader said.
The PDP delegation, comprising several senior leaders, joined the foot march at Kunjwani bypass, shortly after the marchers led by Gandhi entered Jammu from adjoining Samba district in the afternoon, the leader said.
PDP’s provincial president, youth wing, Pervez Waffa and additional general secretary Rajinder Manhas walked alongside Gandhi towards Satwari chowk for 15 minutes and briefed him about various issues concerning the common people, he said.
He said they informed Gandhi about the eviction drive launched by the J-K administration to “snatch” the land from the people despite the fact that they are holding the property for generations.
The delegation also informed the Congress leader about the Prime Minister package Kashmiri pandit employees and Dogra employees who have been on strike in Jammu for the past over six months, seeking their relocation outside Kashmir following targeted killings.
Growing unemployment in J-K, inflation and economic distress also came up for discussion during the interaction, the PDP said leader.
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#PDP #delegation #joins #Rahul #Gandhi #BJY #Jammu #highlights #public #issues
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 23, 2023