So, let me preface this with the obvious caveat: I am not a lawyer, and I don't have the gall to play one on the blog. But when I say it looks to me like Fox News is pretty fucked based on all the news I've been reading today--I mean, I don't think you actually have to be a lawyer to recognize their position is basically in deep shit. Today, their lawyers got told off for withholding information because they wanted to screw about regarding whether Rupert Murdoch was considered an executive at Fox News or just Fox Corp. or whatever.
That was pretty dumb. And then there were the tapes: a Fox News producer recorded conversations where Trump campaign officials and Elite Strike Farce lawyers alike admitted they didn't really have a basis for what they were doing. They were just cynically pretending there was election fraud because they didn't want the election to be over for whatever (maybe monetary, maybe not) reasons. MSNBC got hold of these recordings, and yeah, this is very problematic for Fox--and for Trump. I can see it being of interest not just in this Dominion case and maybe the Smartmatic case, but also of interest in Trump's Georgia case and of interest to Jack Smith's investigation, because it connects Fox News lying about the election with January 6.
Yeah. Exactly. Just after Fox News went out of their way to say bringing up January 6 was prejudicial to this case. Maybe it is, but it isn't irrelevant to the big picture about their reckless disregard for the truth or the outcome of their lies. And it demonstrates one way the Fox News hosts lied with a purpose: to help a Republican presidential candidate even after he very verifiably lost. For a degree of "help" that was not, itself, lawful.
It was fraud. They helped perpetuate a fraud. A fraud Trump/the RNC raised money on. And why?
I know this sounds stupid, but we've been told that Trump was so good for the ratings. And for Fox News--they built their world around this guy. He genuinely became their bread and butter. We just saw Tucker Carlson last night play a loving acolyte of the cult of Trump even if, in the real world, we know Carlson has said he hates Trump with a passion.
So back to why they risked fucking up their case (contempt? sanctions?) by withholding information: because the alternative was revealing they are, to put it mildly, not a news organization at all but highly full of shit. Their whole existence relies on them being the news people listen to. Drawing back the curtain on the utter, propagandistic, cynical farce might end them altogether.
If losing or settling defamation suits, and derivative action lawsuits by shareholders who now realize that Fox News and Fox Corp misrepresented their activity and opened up their business to extensive monetary legal liability, are going to occupy the company for the next several years--maybe it's a good idea for them to moderate their voice and try to correct the record to demonstrate good faith and their own recognizance?
Hah--the same awful sociopaths who lied their faces off about the 2020 election are lying their faces off now about Trump's multiple fronts of legal jeopardy. Reality has not crept at all into their "reportage".
Because that's not the product they push, kids. It never ever was.
2 comments:
I'm hoping that this will be the ending of Faux Snooze. But not to worry their audience still has an appetite for the lies and distortions they've manufactured, so some other sleazy outfit will take over maybe OAN or Newsmax...
The scary thing about Fox News is that it doesn't live on ad revenue, but cable carriage fees (and Mike Lindell, I guess). So, people who don't even watch Fox News but just have cable, are paying for Fox News to exist. Now, this is a great argument against cable (I'm a cable cutter, being made of digital stuff), but the outcry against Fox would have to be deep and wide to get the attention of cable carriers--except: their fees are over-valued and they are in distress, so maybe they will have to beg for their supper to stay platformed.
I would honestly just love to see them barred from being the news on military installations.
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3887680-veterans-group-ban-fox-news-on-military-bases/
They have not been patriots, but shit-stirrers for the longest. They spread disinfo. They are hacks. They should be treated as such.
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