Monday open thread: Let's go, Dominion!
If right wing talk radio in the 1980s began the march to Donald Trump's presidency, then the birth of Fox News cemented the inevitable. The myth of the "liberal media" rested on a period in the late 1960s when the media turned against the Vietnam War. It's been a myth otherwise. But that myth was enough to engender both right wing radio and Fox News. Conservatives weren't content with hammering the media for its supposed liberalism. The conservative movement realized that it needed its own organs in mass media. First it had President Ronald Reagan do away with the Fairness Doctrine, which allowed right wing talk radio to blossom. Then former aide to both Reagan and Richard Nixon, Roger Ailes, sold right wing Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch that a hard conservative "news" channel could be successful. And, of course, he was correct; Ailes knew that whereas liberals sample a broad array of news sources, conservatives just had to be pointed where to watch and, thus, what to think. Conservatives accuse liberals of being unthinking sheep; as always, every accusation is a confession. For conservatives, even the Wall Street Journal's news section—as opposed to its editorial pages—is too liberal. (Which, of course, is hilarious, since the Journal is also owned by Murdoch.)
But things seem to be coming to a head for Murdoch and Fox News. Today, the defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News begins. To recap: the conspiracy theory among the MAGA right is that Dominion's voting machines changed votes from Trump to Joe Biden, a fraud which gave President Biden the election. Fox News parroted this baseless theory both in its "news" daytime programming, and its "opinion" nighttime programming. There's a slight problem with this: as Dominion uncovered during discovery, all the "talent" and producers, even Murdoch, knew that these accusations were baseless and without merit. But the organization valued keeping its audience and ratings over journalistic truth and facts, and thus pushed a line it knew to be false.
Dominion is suing for $1.6 billion. That isn't chump change. And the judge in charge of the trial has already made pre-trial judgments in favor of Dominion, the biggest one being summarily declaring that Fox News' lies about Dominion voting machines were without merit and, in fact, lies. What the trial is set to determine is if the lies were spread with malice.
Now, Dominion is not the only voting systems company suing Fox. Smartmatic was subject to the same lies as Dominion, and it is suing for $2.7 billion. And a producer for Tucker Carlson is also suing, claiming she's being set up as the patsy for the election lies. There is a nonzero chance that these suits will roll up the entire Fox News world.
Fox News made its bones selling lies to people who wanted to be lied to. And now, ojala, it will be gored on its own horns. When lies are your stock in trade, then eventually those lies will come back to destroy you. It's taken too long, and so much damage has been done by this fetid organization. But I will accept justice, no longer how long it takes. Right matters, and truth matters.
This is your open thread.
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