Fox News lies to its viewers
Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion (with a “B”) for malice. Fox is countering with the Supreme Court ruling of New York Times v. Sullivan, which shields them with “freedom of the press.” This Supreme Court ruling protects media from liability of defamation unless they make false statements with “actual malice.” In other words, they knew they were lying.
Fox News is not a news media organization. It’s a rightwing propaganda machine that makes billions for its corporate overlords (Murdoch family) by selling commercials and streaming services to their viewers who want confirmation bias of what they already think and believe. It’s all about TV ratings and the cost of a 30-second ad spot. The last thing Fox News viewers want are facts and the truth. If you tell Fox viewers facts and truths, you will be fired.
The Fox News viewers had their faith in the cult of Trump shaken to the core when Fox News host Chris Wallace moderated the September 2020 presidential debate. Wallace scolded Trump like a parent with an obnoxious 5-year-old and the Fox News viewers thought it was unfair. Then there was Fox News digital political editor Chris Stirewalt, who called Arizona for Biden on election night. He was correct and all the other networks followed in the coming days. But because Stirewalt told the truth, he was fired by Fox. Fox News White House reporter Kristin Fisher factchecked the Big Lie by Rudy Giuliani saying, “So much of what he said was simply not true or has already been thrown out in court.” She was promptly fired.
Turns out when the Fox viewers are being told the truth, they switch channels to Newsmax or OAN, or whoever will tell them the falsehoods they want to hear. Fox News ratings (and profits) took a hit in November 2020, so Fox management made the decision to promote the Big Lie and follow Trump’s “stolen election” narrative by promoting his sycophants Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Mike “Pillow Guy” Lindell. The Fox News talking heads all got on board talking about election fraud with “may have” and “could have” hedges. Weapons of mass distraction worked on the Fox News viewers.
During a lawsuit, there is something called “discovery” where both sides get documentation from the other side. Dominion wanted the personal texts from the Fox News talking heads to compare what they were saying on TV versus what they were saying to each other. What the Fox News talking heads said on air and who they interviewed in prime time were completely opposite to what they communicated to each other via text. On Nov. 18, 2020, texts from Tucker Carlson to Laura Ingraham: “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane.”
Ingraham responds: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy (Giuliani).”
Tucker: “It’s unbelievably offensive to me. Our viewers are good people and they believe it.”
The Fox News viewers believed the Big Lie because that’s what Fox News spoon-fed them 24/7 for weeks on end, even though the Fox newscasters didn’t believe a single word of it. Fox News is very good at spreading disinformation. Just this week, pollster Frank Luntz conducted a live audience interview with 15 Phoenix-area Republican voters who still believe Trump won the 2020 Presidential election and that Keri Lake won her 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election. These Republicans all live within their GOP bubble where they get their “news” from Fox, Newsmax or OAN, or worse, Facebook feeds or some crazy website. They don’t read, especially any mainstream media. “Vote By Mail is bad and your vote can be switched by a computer program.” “There’s no way that 81 million voters would vote for an old man for president who never left his basement.” The percentage of Republicans who live in an alternative universe is frightening.
How did Fox News respond to Dominion’s lawsuit discovery facts? “There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners. But the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution.” While I agree with parts of that statement, Fox is owned by foreign private equity owners (Murdochs). Bottom line, does Fox News have the Constitutional right to lie to the American people, defame a company (Dominion) and call it news?