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FOX Lies, Democracy Cries: News on the Liar and Steps We Can Take to Reduce the Lies [1]
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Date: 2023-03-26
FOX News is a blight upon our country. FOX News, despite being sued for lies, is doubling down on lies, and is inviting the worst of the big liars back on its airwaves (this has to be partly because Tucker was caught saying he passionately hates tRump).
That doesn’t mean we should take their lying lying down. And there are reasons to hope.
FOX News, thanks to the brave and tenacious folks over at Dominion, is more vulnerable than it has been in years. We should do everything we can at the moment to weaken its ability to pump out pernicious propaganda into our great nation.
In the last three weekends, I posted diaries focused on the same issue. (March 19 and March 12 and March 4) Why post again?
Because: Repetition is good. Repetition is good. On the left, we often expect people to learn things the first time, and so we politely don’t repeat things. But other people learn differently, or people may have never gotten the message. Repetition has a way of turning things into truths. People accept the ideas even when they don’t believe them.
The information below is also being refined and expanded. So: what have you done and what else can we do to kick FOX News when it’s down?
UPDATES
Some believe, no matter the result, FOX News has been damaged by the Dominion lawsuit Sam Levine, The Guardian
As Fox News continued to broadcast lies about Dominion voting systems and the 2020 election, Tucker Carlson, one of its star hosts used one word over and over to describe what the network was doing – “reckless”. Those messages were the first pieces of evidence Justin Nelson, a lawyer representing Dominion, displayed on Tuesday as he began his argument for why a judge should rule the network defamed his client. “Reckless was a meaningful word” – in order to win the case, Nelson has to prove that Fox acted with “actual malice” – that its hosts, producers and executives knew the statements were false or acted with reckless disregard to the truth. “Unlike every other single defamation case, we have in their own words the fact that they knew it was false,” Nelson said. ✂️ A jury will ultimately decide on the liability issues, but seeing one of the network’s most visible stars forcefully disagreeing with what was going on on-air will probably be what endures in the mind of the American public. ✂️ But Dominion’s lawyers painted a more realistic picture of Fox, emphasizing the immense influence it has among conservatives. When the network chose to air the false claims about Dominion, it wasn’t just airing allegations, the lawyers said, it was pumping it into the veins of the American public. Fox didn’t just give Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani airtime, the network made them household names.
FOX News producer (now former FOX News producer) files suit against FOX News, saying she was coerced into lies Oliver Darcy, CNN Oliver Darcy, CNN
New York CNN — A Fox News producer on Monday filed a pair of explosive lawsuits against the right-wing talk channel, alleging that the network’s lawyers coerced her into providing misleading testimony in Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation case against the company. The lawsuits filed by Abby Grossberg, who worked as a senior booking producer for Maria Bartiromo and most recently head of booking for Tucker Carlson, accused Fox’s legal team of having engaged in wrongful conduct as it prepared her for a pre-trial deposition in the election technology company’s case. ✂️ The Delaware lawsuit alleged that the “concerted efforts and actions” from Fox’s legal team ultimately caused Grossberg to testify in a way that portrayed the facts “in a false light” in order to “shift culpability” away from senior Fox News executives and “away from Fox Corporation.” That matter is important because Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, has asked to be dropped as a party in Dominion’s lawsuit by arguing that it does not play a big role in coverage decisions at the network. DOES IT MATTER?
You probably know that one reason FOX News persists in lies is because their viewers want those lies. When their viewers aren’t served their preferred version of reality, they change channels. What can you do when people want to be lied to? These people are literally addicted to their worldview.
Yet addictions can be broken. It may be painful at first, but some people can recover. Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian
In an unusual, and labor intensive, project, two political scientists paid a group of regular Fox News viewers to instead watch CNN for a month. At the end of the period, the researchers found surprising results; some of the Fox News watchers had changed their minds on a range of key issues, including the US response to coronavirus and Democrats’ attitude to police. ✂️ The CNN switchers were also, as Bloomberg’s Matthew Yglesias reported, 10 points less likely to believe that Joe Biden supporters were happy when police officers get shot, and 11 points less likely to believe that it is “more important for the President to focus on violent protests than the coronavirus pandemic”. In addition the CNN viewers were 13 points less likely than the Fox News viewers to agree that: “If Joe Biden is elected President, we’ll see many more police get shot by Black Lives Matter activists.”
There’s also evidence that the scandal is hurting FOX News. Now, we’re all leery about polling these days, but here’s some analysis from Steve Benen at the Maddow Blog, based on a Quinnipiac poll.
The latest national poll from Quinnipiac University suggests the controversy has had an effect on the network’s standing. Nearly two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) think Fox News should be held accountable after Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged in a deposition that a number of the network’s hosts spread false information about the 2020 presidential election being stolen from Donald Trump, while 26 percent think Fox News should not be held accountable. According to the results, 93% of Democrats agreed that the network should be held accountable, and 67% of self-identified independents agreed. Not surprisingly, there was a partisan gap — GOP voters are bound to be more sympathetic toward an outlet aligned with GOP politics — but Quinnipiac nevertheless found that 41% of Republicans also believe that Fox News should be held accountable. Tim Malloy, a Quinnipiac polling analyst, noted in an analysis of the data, “Still highly rated, but leaking loyalty? Fox should pay for some of its hosts endorsing false claims about the 2020 election, say a large majority of Americans, and its most loyal viewers aren’t exactly thrilled with the network’s conduct.”
Also, when FOX News is switched off, people do recover, at least to a degree. Now, they may protest — during the Daily Kos outage last week, I experienced withdrawal symptoms myself — but the pain will be temporary for many, and then they will feel and think much better.
WHAT WE CAN DO
➡️Visit this website, Unfoxmycablebox. From their website:
Pay for cable or satellite TV? You’re subsidizing Fox News whether you watch it or not. Your cable or satellite TV provider pays a subscriber fee to carry Fox News. That cost is passed directly on to YOU. Every network charges cable and satellite providers a small fee per subscriber; the one for Fox News is extraordinarily high. A typical household pays Fox News almost $2 per month—about $20 per year— via their cable or satellite provider, regardless of whether they actually watch the channel. In 2023, a wave of big contracts between Fox News and TV providers for subscriber fees are set to expire. These contracts make up a major source of Fox News’ subscriber fee revenue. If we want to stop paying the "Fox fee," now is the time to act.
➡️Complain to your cable company. If you have a cable subscription that makes you pay for FOX News, then complain to them now. Tell them you don’t want to pay for a media outlet that lies all the time. Here’s some suggested text:
I’m writing to you to let you know I don’t want to have any of the money I pay you go to FOX News, which is lying to the American public. I expect you to reduce my bill by $X.
Even if you don’t have cable for your TV pleasure, but you use a cable company for your internet, you can let them know you’re not pleased if they’re supporting FOX.
➡️ Contact government. If you feel as if that’s not enough, then contact those who have influence on the contract. Contact your governor, contact your mayor, contact your senators and your representatives.
The House, with the Rs in charge, will not help, but the Senate could. Demand hearings, especially the lies exposed by Dominion. Also, some R senators are not pleased by those lies these days. They hate tRump with a passion.
Suggested text:
Dear Senator:
FOX News is pumping poisonous propaganda into the public. Lies should not be tolerated.
➡️ Write letters to the editor talking about how we’re being forced to subsidize lies that hurt us. Let other people know. Tell them on FB, Twitter, Instagram.
➡️ Afraid no one reads your stuff? Then freewayblog (thanks, freewayblogger)
➡️ Complain to the FCC (thanks, dadadata)
You should contact the FCC if you have complaints or questions about the following issues: Cable Consumer Complaints . File complaints at
https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us
Suggested text:
Dear FCC:
I strongly object to being forced to subsidize FOX News via my cable subscription. They are pumping propaganda for the Republican party. I want my bill to be reduced by these fees.
Also, if you could get them off the airwaves altogether, that would be great.
➡️Do you have connections in the military?
The Pentagon should pull the plug on FOX news. (Mike Lofgren, Jen Senko) At least as recently as a year ago, FOX News was the most popular cable news on the military. From the article:
There is a whole library of information about how Fox News influences mom and dad to become rabid right wingers. This is hardly surprising, because Republican operative Roger Ailes teamed up with media baron Rupert Murdoch for the specific purpose of a purported "news" channel to hype Republicans and malign Democrats. Less is known about how the network propagates incitement to sedition and refusal to follow lawful orders to members of the military, the very persons charged with upholding the Constitution and national security. And the Pentagon is abetting it. As to the seriousness of the problem, a former Marine has told the authors: "Right-wing society has captured the military . . . If you walk the Pentagon halls there will be not one TV tuned to anything but Fox." Another source told us that at their Air Force facility, Fox News is always blaring in common spaces during duty hours. Far from always being a service member's choice, the situation is often as at an airport lounge, where everyone is subjected to it like it or not. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has spoken of the need to prevent political extremism in the military. Indeed, the high percentage of service members and veterans among the Capitol rioters is alarming.
How do we get it out of the military? VoteVets has tried, without success, but there seems to be more opportunity now.
It may not be easy. There is the first amendment. Many of the people in the military really like FOX News.
On the other hand, people do recover, at least somewhat, when no longer exposed to the toxic propaganda.
➡️ Go after advertisers (thanks for the reminder, Progressive Muse)
Fox News gets way too much money from cable fees, but it also gets bucks from advertisers. Boycott their advertisers.
Sometimes advertisers are unaware of where their ads are going, as they work through third parties who place their commercials. But one place is tracking this: “The group is called Check My Ads and they have been profiled by media like NPR and Fast Company” (Progressive Muse). You may find helpful information there.
➡️ Turn off the station (thanks Wolvie)
Apparently, there’s something called “TVBGone” — a sort of remote that allows you to turn off the station in public places. I have never used this, and it does seem kind of rude. Maybe some military personnel should get this...
➡️Use the divisions between FOX and tRUmp. This is attacking FOX from the right, or rather from the crazy, but it is one way to weaken them. If you are speaking to tRump lovers who love FOX, let them know that the hosts all hate him.
x 2/And, Tucker continued, speaking of Trump’s presidency: “We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There really isn’t an upside to Trump.” — Jill Wine-Banks (@JillWineBanks) March 8, 2023
Even if your FOX-loving acquaintances refuse to believe you, the message sinks in.
👢 Let’s kick FOX “News” when it’s down, so it stops being an existential threat.
➡️I saw something flash past that FOX News is shown a lot in prisons. Does anyone out there know if that’s true? Any ideas on how to deal with it?
➡️ Do you have other ideas? Please post them down below.
➡️ Have you already done something? Please, tell us your story!
🐦 I do a lot of other writing. A recent offering: Hunters of the Feather, a story about a thinker-linker crow who wants to save birdkind from extinction, and sequels, Scavengers of Mind and the brand-new Familiars of the Flock (They’re really good! They’re really cheap! Buy and review or rate positively! And Hunters is also available on Audible!) Other stories, based on Jane Austen novels — including a new one for lovers of Pride & Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet’s Advice to Young Ladies — and others on Greek mythology, can be found here. All titles are available through Kindle Unlimited, but I only get paid if you turn the pages.
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