Lies, Lies, And Still More Lies

Posted on by under Election 2020, Free Press Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

Yesterday came big news … now hold onto your hats, ‘cause this is going to shock you … ready?

Fox ‘News’ Lies!!!

An excerpt from Heather Cox Richardson’s nightly newsletter explains …

Dominion Voting Systems is suing FNC for defamation after FNC personalities repeatedly claimed that the company’s voting machines had corrupted the final tallies in the 2020 election. The filing today shows that those same personalities didn’t believe what they were telling their viewers, and suggests that they made those groundless accusations because they worried their viewers were abandoning them to go to channels that told them what they wanted to hear: that Trump had won the election.

The quotes in the filing are eye-popping:

On November 10, 2020, Trump advisor Steven Bannon wrote to FNC personality Maria Bartiromo: “71 million voters will never accept Biden. This process is to destroy his presidency before it even starts; IF it even starts….  We either close on Trumps [sic] victory or del[e]gitimize Biden…. THE PLAN.”

FNC’s internal fact checks on November 13 and November 20 called accusations of irregularities in the voting “Incorrect” and said there was “not evidence of widespread fraud.”

On November 15, Laura Ingraham wrote to Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity: “Sidney Power is a bit nuts. Sorry, but she is.”

On November 16, Carlson wrote to his producer, Alex Pfeiffer, “Sidney Powell is lying.”

On November 19, FNC chair Rupert Murdoch wrote: “Really crazy stuff.”

Hannity later testified: “[T]hat whole narrative that Sidney was pushing. I did not believe it for one second.”

Fox Politics Editor Chris Stirewalt later testified, “[N]o reasonable person would have thought that,” when asked if it was true that Dominion rigged the election.

The filing claims that FNC peddled a false narrative of election fraud to its viewers because its pro-Trump audience had jumped ship after the network had been the first to call Arizona for Biden, and its ratings were plummeting as Trump loyalists jumped to Newsmax. “I’ve never seen a reaction like this, to any media company,” Carlson wrote to Suzanne Scott, chief executive officer of Fox News, on November 9. “Kills me to watch it.” On November 12, Hannity told Carlson and Ingraham, “In one week and one debate they destroyed a brand that took 25 years to build and the damage is incalculable.”

They went to “war footing” to “protect the brand.” For example, when FNC reporter Jacqui Heinrich accurately fact checked a Trump tweet, correcting him by saying that “top election infrastructure officials” said that “[t]here is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” Carlson told Hannity: “Please get her fired. Seriously…. What the f*ck? I’m actually shocked…. It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.”

Heinrich deleted her tweet. 

The filing says that not a single witness from FNC testified they believed any of the allegations they were making about Dominion. An FNC spokesperson today said, “Dominion has mischaracterized the record, cherry-picked quotes stripped of key context and spilled considerable ink on facts that are irrelevant under black-letter principles of defamation law.”

I have never considered Fox to be a legitimate news venue, which is why I write it as Fox ‘News’ when I refer to them, but this gives us all the evidence we need that their focus is not on accurately reporting the news, but providing entertainment in whatever form gains them the most viewers.  That, my friends, is a damn shame, but the bigger shame is that Fox is the most viewed cable ‘news’ channel in the country!  It is my hope that these latest revelations about Fox’ dereliction of duty to provide accurate, fact-based news will drive viewers back to legitimate news channels, but I’m not holding my breath.

Here is a link to a video clip from PBS Newshour with David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart talking about this.  I fully agree with Brooks’ first remarks about how every journalist will sometimes make mistakes in their reporting, but that the majority of them try to get it right.  Fox wasn’t even trying to get it right … they KNEW they were lying to the public and were only trying to hold onto their bottom line.

11 thoughts on “Lies, Lies, And Still More Lies”

  1. Jill, this ties into my post of yesterday. Thanks for sharing the link to the Brooks and Capeheart recap of the week. In essence, this news is very indicting of Fox News to allow its opinion hosts to knowingly gaslight its audience. How can a network have a shred of credibility for letting this happen. They will likely pay a hefty price for defamation of Dominion and they earned every penny of the cost they will pay. Keith

    Liked by 1 person

    • Indeed, it does. I saw your post earlier and commented that, as often happens, we were of like minds. I suspect that this will not be a good thing for Fox, but … as my grannie used to say, “they made their bed, now they have to lie in it.” Interesting times we’re living in, aren’t they, my friend? Sigh. Some days I could do with a little less of the ‘interesting’.

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  4. There are, many of the television stations or newspaper that leaned toward one party or the other, and they’re the ones, that attempted to, deceive the readers, into believing whatever party they support are the right ones to rule, and unfortunately, people can’t develop their own sense of judgment, and separate facts from opinion, which is why these biased newspaper, news stations are still, operating in the countries of the world.

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    • True. But most, I think, strive for non-partisan, non-biased reporting and admit their mistakes when they make them. Others, like Fox, OAN, and NewsMax, deliberately pass along falsehoods and conspiracy theories. Sadly, a large portion of the people in this country prefer the entertainment value over the facts.

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  6. I’d like to see both the Justice Department and the Senate Democrats investigate this extraordinary example of the Fox enterprise’s fictional coverage of just about everything–as well as the Barr/Durham “weaponization of the government,” to use a phrase that is yet another example of the Republicans’ projections of their actions onto the Democrats.

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    • I suspect this will definitely put a dent into the credibility and authenticity of Fox ‘News’. I, too, would like to see them investigated, and I suspect they will be. It still amazes me that there are so many people in this nation who, knowing that Fox is extremely biased, have still made it the #1 cable “news” channel. Where are the brains these days?

      Yes, I want to see the Barr/Durham attempts to discredit the Mueller report investigated, too, but I’m not holding my breath.

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