Friday Night News Dumps: What they mean and why they happen

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For most, Friday represents a welcomed relief from the endless demands of the workweek and the beginning of a long-awaited weekend. But for politicians hoping to conceal a negative press story and dodge the anticipated blowback, Fridays are appealing for a different reason: the Friday news dump.

The concept of a "Friday news dump" may seem minor to those unfamiliar with the intricacies of news-breaking. The tried-and-true phenomenon has been a favorite tactic of Washington personalities and public figures seeking to soften the blow of negative press coverage by rolling out bad or controversial announcements when fewer people will see it in the news – specifically at the start of the weekend.

Stories that break late Friday tend to garner less attention from the public, making it an ideal time for those seeking to dodge public scrutiny.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top general of U.S. Central Command at the Pentagon, likely considered this when he announced on the afternoon of Friday, September 17th, 2021, the findings of an investigation concluding that the deadly Kabul drone strike on a vehicle in August had killed 10 civilians – including seven children – and that the driver and vehicle targeted had likely not been a threat as had been initially perceived.

Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of the United States Central Command. (Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times via AP, Pool) (Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

McKenzie said at the time that it had been a "mistake" and offered an apology. But some believed the timing of his announcement was intended to avoid further fueling Biden's critics who were already sounding off about his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The list of politicians who've effectively used Friday news dumps to their advantage is lengthy. A less recent, but perhaps more commonly known, example was the FBI's late-Friday release of nearly 200 pages of interview summaries from the agency’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she served as secretary of state.

The FBI's released pages of interview summaries from the agency’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she served as secretary of state in a series of Friday news dumps.  (The Associated Press)

The news came shortly after the agency released a different report also on a Friday — specifically the one before Labor Day, when most Americans were more concerned with traveling or settling in for a holiday weekend than they were with checking the news.

A "document dump," while similar in nature, relies less on the timing of the release, and more on overwhelming the receiver – or in many cases, the public – with the quantity of its contents in order to bury an incriminating or critical piece of information.

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