Fox News is not news and should not be treated as such. Let’s call it what it is: a right-wing variety show where ratings outnumber the truth.
It certainly isn’t a revelation to the millions of Americans shocked by the network’s lack of journalistic integrity, or to those resigned to the dystopian nightmare that democracy will fall before Tucker Carlson’s ratings. But the $1.6 billion Dominion Voting System libel lawsuit against Fox News has exposed a weakness at the heart of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire and increased pressure on his conservative crown jewel to reverse its destructive course. .
Dominion hit Fox where it hurt and I’m not referring to his moral compass. When Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp. himself said in a statement that the central factor in his decision-making was “neither red nor blue. It is green.” In other words, not politics per se, but money, profits and ratings are the basis of Fox’s reporting. If a fact comes into the mix, so be it.
The fear of losing viewers to launch Newsmax and its far-right brethren has clearly influenced programming decisions at Fox News. Take the days after the 2020 election. Alex Pfeiffer, producer of internal communications programs for Tucker Carlson, warned the host not to deviate from his favorite topic of conversation: “A lot of viewers were upset tonight that we didn’t cover voter fraud. … That’s all our viewers are interested in right now.
Court records show that Carlson, like his boss, panicked about the bottom line. When Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich verified Trump’s election lies in a tweet, Carlson wrote in a text chain with co-hosts Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity: “Please get her fired. Seriously… Who cares? I’m really shocked… This has to stop immediately, like tonight. This is measurably hurting the company. The share price has fallen. No kidding.” Everyone knew that the allegations of voter fraud were a lie.
Indeed, numerous internal communications within Fox News show that leadership and management fully understand that Dominion voting machines were not part of a sinister plan by Venezuela to steal Trump’s election and give it to Biden. Murdoch threw the Fox News star anchors under the bus in his bomb drop. When asked if he “knows now that sometimes Fox supports this false idea of stolen elections,” Murdoch said, “Not Fox. But maybe Lou Dobbs, maybe Maria [Bartiromo] as commentators. … Some of our commentators have advocated this. You agreed.”
In the tense days following the 2020 election, with the deadly events of January 6 and the fate of the union hanging in the balance, Fox remained committed to whoever or whatever had to be in the US to stay black. But getting involved with Dominion, an entity with the resources to fight back, was a bad idea. Legal analysts said there was enough evidence to prove in court that Fox had falsely targeted the maker of the voting machine or that the ulterior motive was to help Trump and the Republican Party stay in power and feed viewers more red meat than the network bought itself. them. stalled, hesitant competitors, or all together.
Media watchdog groups have called for Fox to be punished for his creative use of the word “news,” but these campaigns have been about as effective in creating real change as Robert Mueller’s account of Russian collusion in the 2016 election. Ethically Grounded To make its argument, Fox News assumes that the network values fundamental principles of journalism, such as avoiding conflicts of interest, that would undermine its credibility. But that ship sailed a long time ago, perhaps from the flat end of the earth if we are to believe the extreme elements that inevitably fuel the network’s conspiracy theories.)
Even before the Dominion trial, litigation was the only effective weapon against Fox News’ dangerous excesses. After all, two of the network’s most influential – and seemingly untouchable – figures have been sued in lawsuits. The news of multiple settlements, which in turn led to more lawsuits, eventually reassured its top executive, Bill O’Reilly, and its too-big-to-fail CEO, Roger Ailes. And make no mistake, it was a deluge of multi-million dollar payouts that brought them down, not the shame or embarrassment they inflicted on their colleagues and subordinates.
Fox News’ loose stance on facts and its unholy alliance with the Republican Party’s most nefarious characters has finally taken hold, and now the network is willing to pay a heavy price. But it won’t be the revelation that it’s a partisan propaganda outlet that will bring them down. As with O’Reilly and Ailes, what might silence the network’s worst instincts will be what has always been the kryptonite: the almighty dollar.
Source: LA Times