The Offense To Democracy

Noise being noise, this will become just another of today's stories.

But it's really the story of the decade. I'm not kidding.

A "news" org, knowingly pushing a lie that led to deaths & a real threat to democracy. Then lying about lying.

It's evil. Criminal. But profitable.

— Billy Ray (@BillyRay5229) February 17, 2023

I keep thinking about a Fantastic Four comic where our heroes once again have defeated Dr. Doom and allowed him to return to Latveria to lick his wounds. The Thing laments this state of affairs, but Reed Richards very sensibly points out trying to take over the world is not a crime. An act of war, probably, but not a crime.

Neither is FoxNews promoting lies about the 2020 election a cause for government action. It’s a damning thing, it even offends democracy (if it actually threatens it, then our democracy is in a parlous state indeed). But it’s not criminal.

I also can’t imagine who’s surprised by it. If all the employees of FoxNews were as stupid as their public faces are, the big surprise would be that they stay in business.

My favorite bit is learning about Sidney Powell’s source for some of her election fraud claims: a woman who says she was decapitated in a dream as a child, but insists she’s not dead even though the Wind tells her she’s a ghost. I’m anxious to see that come up in Powell’s disbarment trial.

FoxNews deserves all the derision it gets, but this story is not the fall of the USSR, or of Joe McCarthy. The best thing that could happen is Dominion wins its suit. From this evidence it seems clear they will; on summary judgment, or at trial.

FoxNews did what it did in 2020 to preserve its business model and its audience. Which would also be reprehensible; if it wasn’t the American Way. I mean, how many American companies drove themselves out of business just to do something as vague and amorphous as “save democracy “?

So call me cynical, but:

Very curious if the Fox News revelations are even news that's discussed on the Sunday shows tomorrow. Sure feels like the whole scandal is just evaporating away as expected.

— Schooley (@Rschooley) February 19, 2023

Even if the NYT and WaPo devoted their front pages to this story tomorrow, and the NYT Magazine made it the cover story, and every major Sunday news show devoted their respective hours to it: so what? Would Rupert Murdoch and FoxNews melt away like the Wicked Witch of the West? No, of course not.

The people who despise FoxNews aren’t changing their minds now. They just get to say “I told you so!” The people who watch Carlson and Hannity and Bartiromo because they want to either don’t know this story, or dismiss it as more lies against their valiant heroes. Full coverage by every other news outlet would not make a difference to the FoxNews audience. The only thing that will is the outcome of the Dominion lawsuit. That’s really where information came from, and where it has the most value, the most impact. I’m enjoying the gossip as much as anyone enjoying this ; but I’m not surprised by it. Nor do I think it has all that much news value beyond Twitter. Which is, after all, just a lot of gossip.

Then again, so is 90% of the news.