Introduction:
In recent months thanks in large part to the settled lawsuit from Dominion voting systems, we have learned a great deal about the inner workings of Fox News and how many of its most important news anchors feel about their viewers, their colleagues, and the people they are supporting on the air. And the culture and priorities of Fox News have become clear as well. Basically, Fox News is and always has been a conservative propaganda wing of the Republican party, and they are more than willing to sacrifice any principles or integrity in the name of profits and retaining their audience. Now this has been a relatively big news story, and at the time of this writing it is still a developing story. But my question is, why isn’t this an even bigger story? Why aren’t these Dominion lawsuit revelations shaking American society and forcing us to question how we produce and consume news? This question I will discuss in Part 1 of this piece, and in Part 2 I will engage in a bit of shameless “I told you so” to Fox News and the strategy conservative media has been using for at least the past 25 years.
Part 1:
Why haven’t the revelations brought to light by the Dominion lawsuit about the inner workings of Fox News been a huge event that immediately and fatally damaged the legitimacy of Fox? I think there are two key answers to the question.
- The title of this piece, outrages exhaustion. I don’t know if this was actually planned or if it was accidental but one of the brilliant things about Trump and his presidency was to create so much controversy, with every single day bringing new crimes and new scandals, that it made people exhausted to the point of apathy just to keep track of everything. Now imagine trying to do anything about all those scandals and outrages on top of that. In addition, the lack of real consequences for people in power when they commit crimes is also depressing and exhausting. Trump has done a brilliant job of demonstrating how much the justice system protects the rich through the example of his own life. Trump has been getting away with crimes his entire adult life and no one can fail to notice how money and power equals immunity from punishment (his recent indictment at the time of this writing notwithstanding). Returning specifically to Fox News, not only are Americans apathetic to scandal now, but I would also use the analogy of a vengeful wife slowly poisoning her husband over a period of years by adding arsenic to his coffee. If Fox News started their network as fascist insurrection apologists America might take more notice. But since Fox has been incrementally increasing the amount of poison over the past 20 years we fail to notice the cumulative damage it has had on our society.
- For many (myself included), when we learned what the Dominion lawsuit revealed we all said “no shit.” It was less of a revelation and more of a confirmation. “So, you’re saying that Fox News is an evil corporate megalith concerned only with money and propaganda? That’s so obvious it’s like saying the sun rises in the east or that water is wet.” What has baffled me for years and is still true even after all of this has come to light is that Fox seems to have won its own war for legitimacy. It is still the case that in polite society we all have to pretend as if Fox is some impartial and credible news organization, when the truth is that it has always been a blatant propaganda machine concerned only with pushing their own agenda. Fox “News” has always reminded me of a scene in the Silence of the Lamb film when Hannibal Lecter cuts off that guy’s face and wears it to escape. Well Fox cut off the face of real journalism and has been ghoulishly wearing it for decades.
Anyway, another reason that these Dominion revelations have not gotten the reaction that they deserve is because that reaction of “no shit” was only felt by people who already disliked Fox. However, for those who watch Fox their reaction is much different. Mainly, most of them didn’t react at all, because they haven’t heard about any of this. Because guess which network didn’t cover the Dominion lawsuit or its aftermath? Or, if Fox viewers have heard about this they either don’t understand what the Dominion lawsuit was about, or they just ignore it.
Part 2:
Now if you’ll forgive my moment of bragging I’d like to take a quick victory lap and say that I was at least partially right about how Fox News’ strategy of peddling conspiracy and paranoia could backfire. One interesting thing that was brought to light by the Dominion lawsuit was the discussions had by Fox News pundits right after the 2020 election. Fox telling the truth about the election, especially when Biden won Arizona, made a lot of Fox viewers very angry. Telling the truth hurt the Fox brand and this is the dilemma that Fox has made for itself. It has spent decades creating an audience of ignorant and fearful people to make money, but Fox has had to become ever more radical to appease their increasingly irrational audience. But if they keep getting sued by companies like Dominion for the insane things they spew on their network they might not be able to afford to make one huge settlement after another to make the problem go away. But if they don’t keep their rhetoric insane enough, then their audience might leave to find someone who will say the things they want to hear. So, Fox is caught between trying to keep their audience and avoiding constant and costly legal headaches.
In my book that was released in 2022 I made a short story about a conservative political party whose strategy to keep voters and stay in power was to brainwash as many people as they could with a cocktail of conspiracy, ignorance, and paranoia. In this short story I asked whether this paranoid and ignorant monster could ever bite the hand that feeds it, or even eat the hand that feeds it. Watching Fox’s dilemma, I need to adjust that imagery slightly. The paranoid and ignorant monster isn’t biting Fox’s hand, it’s becoming unsatisfied with what Fox is feeding it, so it’s looking for a new hand to feed it what it wants.
Conclusion:
Fox News has been a malignant cancer destroying American society from the inside since the moment of its horror filled conception. A thousand ancient curses to everyone who created Fox, perpetuated it, and still make money off of it. The End.