When `Faux' is an appropriate name

The emails and texts released as part of Dominion's lawsuit against Fox News have really pulled back the curtain on how unscrupulous and deceitful that network has become.

When Fox analysts had the temerity to accurately call Arizona for Biden on election night in 2020, the backlash was swift. Trump was furious, and told son-in-law Jared Kushner to call Fox owner Rupert Murdoch and demand a retraction. Murdoch refused, saying the call was backed up by the data.

But telling the truth about the election caused Fox viewership to plummet. Their political editor was fired. Tucker Carlson texted his producer: “Do the executives understand how much credibility and trust we've lost with our audience?” To regain market share, the Fox hosts went allin on Trump's false claims of election fraud, giving straightfaced prime-time interviews with conspiracy theorists like the My Pillow guy and Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell (whom the hosts privately described as “insane,” “crazy,” “mind-blowingly nuts,” “off the rails,” and “effing lunatics”). When a Fox reporter fact-checked a Trump tweet spreading lies about stolen votes, Carlson demanded that she be fired.

As one reporter put it, “These documents make clear not only that Fox News stars and executives think their audience is a bunch of half-wits but also that they live in fear that the audience will turn on them unless they tell viewers exactly what they want to hear regardless of the facts.”

Calling them “Faux News” isn't a pejorative, it's an accurate descriptor.

— Scott Paulo, Chico