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America Decides plays as if the writers committed the pretrial discovery file to memory. The episode follows Tom Wambsgans, Shivs estranged husband and ATNs head, through an ulcer-making election night. He is sleep deprived and coked up, under pressure to deliver big ratings for the Roys and scary antifa stories for his audience, which is getting raw, uncut propaganda from ATNs farther-right competitors.

This was much the dynamic at work in the internal messages disclosed in the Dominion suit, which showed Fox stars and executives freaking out over competitors like Newsmax, who were gaining traction by embracing the election-fraud lie. (And of course, Foxs worries stemmed from viewers fury over election night, particularly about the network calling Arizona for soon-to-be President Biden.)

Asked why ATN isnt reporting the evidence that the ballots were torched by Menckenite brownshirts, Tom says, We need to respect our viewership phrasing almost verbatim from the Fox messages. Respecting this audience whether we agree or not is critical, the host Sean Hannity texted after the 2020 election.

So ATN brings out its sneering alt-rightist, Mark Ravenhead, to insinuate that the fire was a false flag, while Tom suggests booking an egghead historian to tell viewers that everything is fine and normal. Succession has always had a feel for how the shamelessness of extremists defeats, and is enabled by, the flaccid reasonableness of centrists.

Of course, ATN, like Fox, operates in a larger media environment, and the episode is less clear on how election night is playing elsewhere, especially on PGN, the in-world analog to CNN. Theres a brief clip suggesting that PGN, and presumably other mainstream news, is treating the election as undecided while the legal process plays out. (On a story level, this suggests that the election and Waystar Roycos fate may have a few turns yet to take.)

In our reality, mainstream outlets have their own pressures and owners. CNN, which is part of Warner Bros. Discovery, has a new head, Chris Licht, and a reported new corporate mandate to reposition after years of pugilistically covering President Trump.

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In 'Succession,' Democracy Goes Up in Smoke - The New York Times