Background Briefing: March 9, 2023

More Damning Texts and Emails Show That Fox News Considers Telling the Truth Bad For Business

We begin with more damning texts and emails from court filings in the case of Dominion Voting Systems versus Fox News which reveal how Fox’s top anchors like Tucker Carlson thought that the January 6 insurrection would spell the end of Trump about whom Carlson said, “I hate him passionately.” Joining us is Ben Jacobs, a political reporter based in Washington, DC who is covering the 2024 election and the select congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol at Vox. He has covered three presidential campaigns and countless federal and state campaigns, as well as Capitol Hill, the White House, and the Supreme Court and we will discuss his latest articles at Vox, “CPAC used to be a barometer. Now it’s all about Trump” and “Donald Trump is now fully at war with the Republican Party’s past.”

 

The Saudi War Against Yemen Could be Coming to an End

Then we look into the possibility that the Saudi war against Yemen, one of the world’s poorest countries, that has cost 400,000 lives and brought about the world’s worst humanitarian disaster according to the UN, might end in a peace deal between the Saudis and the Houthis. Joining us to discuss the first ship carrying general cargo to dock in the Houthi port of Hodeidah following the lifting of the Saudi blockade is Annelle Sheline, a Research Fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute and an expert on religious and political authority in the Middle East and North Africa. She has worked as a journalist in Egypt and Yemen, was recently a fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and is currently completing a book on the strategic use of religious authority in the Arab monarchies since 9/11, focusing on the cases of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman. We discuss her article at The American Prospect, “Exit Yemen Now to Assist a Fragile Peace.

 

The Threadbare State Of NATO’s Military Readiness

Then finally we examine the threadbare state of NATO’s military readiness after decades of US pressure to buy American weapons while neglecting manpower, maintenance and ammunition stockpiles. Joining us is Max Bergmann, the director of the Europe Program and the Stuart Center in Euro-Atlantic and Northern European Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Previously he served in the U.S. Department of State from 2011 to 2017 in a number of different positions, including as a member of the Secretary of State’s policy planning staff; special assistant to the undersecretary for arms control and international security; speechwriter to then Secretary of State John Kerry; and senior adviser to the Assistant Secretary of State for political-military affairs. We discuss his article at Foreign Affairs, “Why European Defense Still Depends on America: Don’t Believe the Hype—the War in Ukraine Has Led to Little Change.”