Truth vs Lies

When people talk about fake news, you can now include Fox News Channel.

The texts, emails and testimony from the $1.6 billion Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit against Fox News, are mind-blowing.

The powerhouse prime-time hosts, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, knew Donald Trump’s claims of a stolen election were as fake as the ex-President’s orange hair color.  Nevertheless they gave credence to those claims. 

They knew the assertions of people like Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, that there was massive election fraud, were flat-out false.  Carlson said “The whole thing seems insane to me.”

Insane indeed.  Carlson and Co. were only concerned about losing viewers to more right wing rivals.  Hannity texted, “You don’t piss off the base.”

The base was angry that FNC called Arizona for Biden way before anyone else.  The research guys were telling them that the Fox loyalists were in revolt.  Translated, the Fox News Channel was in danger of losing audience which in turn would mean losing revenue.  

That’s when the panic set it.

Here’s what Laura Ingraham said in a text message exchange about two weeks after Election Day with colleagues Carlson and Hannity.  Ingraham wrote, “I think the three of us have enormous power.  We should all think about how together we can force a change.”

The powerful and influential hosts doubled down on getting behind the stolen election squad even though they knew the truth.

Rupert Murdoch said in emails to his news chief Suzanne Scott, that he thought they had gone too far, but no one stopped them.  Murdoch said to Scott, “All very well for Sean (Hannity) to tell you he was in despair about Trump, but what did he tell his viewers?”  

What did Hannity “tell his viewers?”  What did Rupert Murdoch and Suzanne Scott tell Hannity?  Did they tell him to tell the truth?  Apparently not.  

In fact, Scott caved into pressure and reportedly castrated reporters and news executives who were trying to play it straight and report the “true” facts.  

One veteran, high ranking Fox News executive called the continuing focus on election fraud “the closest thing I’ve seen to an existential crisis — at least journalistically.”

It seems the journalists that were skeptical of the false rigged election rants were sacrificed for the cash-cow, base-pandering, lie-perpetuating hosts.

I don’t care if you run Fox, MSNBC or CNN.  If you allow ideologues to control the major profit center of your network, those hugely important prime-time hours, then you leave yourself open to what we are seeing unfold at Fox News. 

No one stopped the lies those hosts were peddling because of the piles of money they make for the corporation.  The hosts were petrified of losing their influence and their very high-paying jobs. 

That’s the bottom line.  That’s the truth. You can’t get more crass than that. 

The big money in cable TV news is generated from the prime-time programs.  Fox News Channel under Roger Ailes brilliantly (some say diabolically), tapped into the right-wing audience with spectacular success and eventually MSNBC and CNN woke up and tacked left and found their own pots of gold.

In doing so, they have aided and abetted the polarization of our nation, providing dark and dangerous echo chambers for their devoted viewers.

We now know about the seeming dishonesty of Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham, but what about the hosts of the leftist cable news channels.  When Chris Cuomo was at CNN, did he give us the honest truth about what Andrew Cuomo knew and didn’t know about COVID?  He was obviously compromised by dint of his cozy relationship with his brother, the governor.

Will we learn the truth and nothing but the truth, from former Biden White House Press Secretary, now MSNBC host Jen Psaki, on Joe and Hunter Biden’s business dealings?

Did anyone ever try to rein-in CNN’s Jim Acosta as he sucked the air out of the White House briefing room during the Trump Administration, with his highly partisan and obnoxious questions?

It takes courage as a news executive to stand up to your boss who is bombarding you with emails, texts and phone calls, trying to bend news coverage to her/his viewpoint or corporate interest.  It is hard to tell your stars to cut it out!

I know.  I’ve been there. 

Yes, you have to pick your battles but you also can’t be a pacifist.  You have to stand up for truth.  You have to shield your colleagues from the pressure coming from the corner office so they can freely and impartially do their jobs.  That may be at your own peril and at the expense of your own job.

But, you have to have to be able to look yourself in the mirror and believe you did the right thing.  All you have is your integrity.  

I don’t know how that defamation lawsuit against Fox News will turn out.  Maybe they will be vindicated.  But what I would say to those in charge of cable news networks is, put truth above profit and power.   For the sake of the country, is there any other choice?