Let’s not forget that if Murdoch’s networks peddled the COVID lies in the UK or Australia that they peddle here, he would lose his licenses to broadcast. They would kick him off the air in a heartbeat, which his why he dumped the person in Australia…to save the network there.
It’s all part of the coup. The media wants Biden to appear weak and failing. That includes making the pandemic continue so they can use the talking point that he has been unable to stop the spread of COVID. Murdoch’s and the media’s goal is to get Republicans back in control of Congress next November. The Big Lie continues to sew division. Those subpoenaed are stalling or outright ignoring the call to testify hoping that a Republican House can kill the Jan 6 committee. State legislatures have been elected so that they can alter the votes if necessary to give control to a Republican House so that next time the coup will succeed. So Murdoch is doing his job to insure he and the billionaire owners can control power through puppets they install. Sound crazy? Maybe I am but when I add up all this shit, this is what I come up with. We are headed for authoritarianism unless the 70 percent of America who want justice gets highly engaged in the midterms and 2024. Short of that we become the United States of Autocracy.
I think that because Fox News is first and foremost a business, they will ultimately do whatever is good for the bottom line. If keeping their viewers from defecting to even fringier networks means perverting the news, then they will do it.
That said, killing off their aging viewers (without replacement generations lined up) seems like a short-sighted strategy. And so I wish them luck with that plan, bless their hearts.
Rupert Murdoch & his Faux Flunkies (Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Laura Ingraham, etc.) don't care if their viewers die from Covid-19 due to the disinformation being spread by them.
As long as there's money to be made from hatemongering & fearmongering, the Faux gravy train could go on forever since those assholes believe in warped interpretation of the First Amendment that they're allowed to spew garbage with zero accountability.
It's frustrating how the right-wing movement's overemphasis on individual freedoms has become destructive to American society as a whole.
Faux constantly spreads this belief in their anti-vaccine rhetotic by claiming those who support mask & vaccine mandates are Communists or Socialists which is complete B.S.
Seriously, the "muh freedumbs" crowd that Faux is pandering too doesn't get the concept of collective freedom in which the freedoms of EVERYONE are being threatened by group of stubborn individuals who refuse to be vaccinated because of the disinformation spread by a power & money hungry media organization.
Murdoch is craven. He’s killing his own viewers. The situation arguably means COVID can’t/won’t end. Add the authoritarian bent of host’s like Carlson and you get a truly toxic brew.
Thanks to Murdoch and political buffoons like Lindsay Graham, the word hypocrite is no longer powerful enough. Fox News mandates vaccinations for its staffers and then lets them go on the air and spew nonsense about the vaccine. They would be on firmer ground if they were claiming the vaccine attacks the portion of the brain that enables you to be honest.
The murdering murdochs are aided and abetted by trumptoad Neil (nobody tells ME what to do!) gorsuch, who refuses to wear a mask on the Supreme Court bench, a hypocrisy as obvious as it is predictable.
Actually, I think we could count it. Figure out how many people would have died in a first wave. Then, since Fux Noise helped install every single republican officeholder who fought vaccines, masks, lockdowns, and other measures that would have saved lives, everyone after that.
I guess I have 3 thoughts: 1) fascist rule is not only nightmarish for the average citizen, but it will crater the economy. As people retreat into fear, they'll stop spending money, which will translate into corporate layoffs, which will cause price slashing, which will cause revenue downturns and stock markets to slide...how will this benefit Fox?, 2) under a Putin-esque model, large corporations and CEOs will be openly extorted. Under a Trump/Putin model, absolute loyalty demands the commission of heinous acts, and eventually Trump will tire of Tucker's influence (ie competition with Trump) and demand his removal...how will this benefit Fox? 3) Another question is why there have been so few lawsuits against Fox..they clearly incite violence, endanger lives, knowingly spew lies, why haven't there been more class action suits?
I don't believe the First Amendment was intended to be a suicide pact. That said, some sort of action needs to be taken against Fox, whether FCC-based, a refurbishment of the Fairness Doctrine or pressure on cable providers and sponsors to drop them. The idea that part of my cable bill is going to subsidize an enemy propaganda, asymmetrical warfare campaign against American democracy makes me want to vomit.
Let us also keep in mind that Murdoch and that piece-of-shit son of his are evil on the scale of James Bond supervillains. Indeed, one of the Pierce Brosnan Bond films depicted a megalomaniac media oligarch bent on starting a world war for ratings, a thinly veiled metaphor for Murdoch. He is an enemy alien who only took on the mantle of U.S. citizenship to circumvent rules about the concentration of foreign ownership of U.S. media. He is a monster. Covid would be doing humankind a service if it turned his lungs into blocks of gelatin, along with his son's.
Murdoch has no problem with egregiously abusing the First Amendment, but here we are. And making it worse is that any legal challenges to him and his empire are probably too expensive even to consider.
The heartless greed this country has fallen into is also egregious, whether it's manifested in corporations who buy advertising time on Fox or even in the self-absorbed and delusional individuals who watch Fox programming, not giving a damn that they're helping to perpetuate the deadly lies spewed by the hypocrites on Fox.
Fox's ratings during the Trump years were the highest in the industry, up until the moment they declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election. Like rats from a sinking ship, the audience scurried to other trash news outlets, and Fox was stuck with the old farts not tech savvy enough to look for a new channel to watch.
I don't watch Fox, but my guess is that in their attempt to lure people back, they're focusing on grievance politics, not specifically Trumpian but largely about covid, playing every conspiracy theory even as all their pundits are fully vaccinated. Unprincipled, cynical and hypocritical as hell, right? But it works because Americans in general are becoming the same way. Anecdotal, but who has failed to notice the anger that's manifest in all sides? Yesterday I was reading a piece about a guy who blew off warnings about the snowstorm and who went hiking only to find himself in trouble; he called for rescue. I saw at least 5 comments saying he should have been left there to die because he was stupid. Of course, I have also read countless similar comments about unvaccinated people who get deathly ill with covid. "Let them die." We didn't used to be like this.
Eric, I read your daily news religiously. Sometimes I REALLY need suggestions on what to do about the clear and present dangers you share. This is one of those cases. I guess I can take comfort in, as previous posters here have noted, they are at least killing off their audience. Is there nothing we can do to get our nation's news system back in kilter?
Murdoch lacks a moral core but also I think at some level the beast has taken over and he has to feed it to survive. He doesn't really care about the destruction it causes. It brings in cash and frankly he can't stop it at this point without some amount of embarrassment and financial retrenchment.
Pay a visit to sorryantivaxxer.com and see all those folks who Screwpert and his son brainwashed into rejecting the vaccine and they wound up in the GOP Forever Box!
Let’s not forget that if Murdoch’s networks peddled the COVID lies in the UK or Australia that they peddle here, he would lose his licenses to broadcast. They would kick him off the air in a heartbeat, which his why he dumped the person in Australia…to save the network there.
As I saw someone put it (on Twitter) several months ago: We are going to first amendment ourselves to death.
And no, that doesn't mean end the first amendment.
It’s all part of the coup. The media wants Biden to appear weak and failing. That includes making the pandemic continue so they can use the talking point that he has been unable to stop the spread of COVID. Murdoch’s and the media’s goal is to get Republicans back in control of Congress next November. The Big Lie continues to sew division. Those subpoenaed are stalling or outright ignoring the call to testify hoping that a Republican House can kill the Jan 6 committee. State legislatures have been elected so that they can alter the votes if necessary to give control to a Republican House so that next time the coup will succeed. So Murdoch is doing his job to insure he and the billionaire owners can control power through puppets they install. Sound crazy? Maybe I am but when I add up all this shit, this is what I come up with. We are headed for authoritarianism unless the 70 percent of America who want justice gets highly engaged in the midterms and 2024. Short of that we become the United States of Autocracy.
I think that because Fox News is first and foremost a business, they will ultimately do whatever is good for the bottom line. If keeping their viewers from defecting to even fringier networks means perverting the news, then they will do it.
That said, killing off their aging viewers (without replacement generations lined up) seems like a short-sighted strategy. And so I wish them luck with that plan, bless their hearts.
Rupert Murdoch & his Faux Flunkies (Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Laura Ingraham, etc.) don't care if their viewers die from Covid-19 due to the disinformation being spread by them.
As long as there's money to be made from hatemongering & fearmongering, the Faux gravy train could go on forever since those assholes believe in warped interpretation of the First Amendment that they're allowed to spew garbage with zero accountability.
It's frustrating how the right-wing movement's overemphasis on individual freedoms has become destructive to American society as a whole.
Faux constantly spreads this belief in their anti-vaccine rhetotic by claiming those who support mask & vaccine mandates are Communists or Socialists which is complete B.S.
Seriously, the "muh freedumbs" crowd that Faux is pandering too doesn't get the concept of collective freedom in which the freedoms of EVERYONE are being threatened by group of stubborn individuals who refuse to be vaccinated because of the disinformation spread by a power & money hungry media organization.
Murdoch is craven. He’s killing his own viewers. The situation arguably means COVID can’t/won’t end. Add the authoritarian bent of host’s like Carlson and you get a truly toxic brew.
Thanks to Murdoch and political buffoons like Lindsay Graham, the word hypocrite is no longer powerful enough. Fox News mandates vaccinations for its staffers and then lets them go on the air and spew nonsense about the vaccine. They would be on firmer ground if they were claiming the vaccine attacks the portion of the brain that enables you to be honest.
The murdering murdochs are aided and abetted by trumptoad Neil (nobody tells ME what to do!) gorsuch, who refuses to wear a mask on the Supreme Court bench, a hypocrisy as obvious as it is predictable.
Actually, I think we could count it. Figure out how many people would have died in a first wave. Then, since Fux Noise helped install every single republican officeholder who fought vaccines, masks, lockdowns, and other measures that would have saved lives, everyone after that.
I guess I have 3 thoughts: 1) fascist rule is not only nightmarish for the average citizen, but it will crater the economy. As people retreat into fear, they'll stop spending money, which will translate into corporate layoffs, which will cause price slashing, which will cause revenue downturns and stock markets to slide...how will this benefit Fox?, 2) under a Putin-esque model, large corporations and CEOs will be openly extorted. Under a Trump/Putin model, absolute loyalty demands the commission of heinous acts, and eventually Trump will tire of Tucker's influence (ie competition with Trump) and demand his removal...how will this benefit Fox? 3) Another question is why there have been so few lawsuits against Fox..they clearly incite violence, endanger lives, knowingly spew lies, why haven't there been more class action suits?
I don't believe the First Amendment was intended to be a suicide pact. That said, some sort of action needs to be taken against Fox, whether FCC-based, a refurbishment of the Fairness Doctrine or pressure on cable providers and sponsors to drop them. The idea that part of my cable bill is going to subsidize an enemy propaganda, asymmetrical warfare campaign against American democracy makes me want to vomit.
Let us also keep in mind that Murdoch and that piece-of-shit son of his are evil on the scale of James Bond supervillains. Indeed, one of the Pierce Brosnan Bond films depicted a megalomaniac media oligarch bent on starting a world war for ratings, a thinly veiled metaphor for Murdoch. He is an enemy alien who only took on the mantle of U.S. citizenship to circumvent rules about the concentration of foreign ownership of U.S. media. He is a monster. Covid would be doing humankind a service if it turned his lungs into blocks of gelatin, along with his son's.
Exactly
Murdoch has no problem with egregiously abusing the First Amendment, but here we are. And making it worse is that any legal challenges to him and his empire are probably too expensive even to consider.
The heartless greed this country has fallen into is also egregious, whether it's manifested in corporations who buy advertising time on Fox or even in the self-absorbed and delusional individuals who watch Fox programming, not giving a damn that they're helping to perpetuate the deadly lies spewed by the hypocrites on Fox.
Fox's ratings during the Trump years were the highest in the industry, up until the moment they declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election. Like rats from a sinking ship, the audience scurried to other trash news outlets, and Fox was stuck with the old farts not tech savvy enough to look for a new channel to watch.
I don't watch Fox, but my guess is that in their attempt to lure people back, they're focusing on grievance politics, not specifically Trumpian but largely about covid, playing every conspiracy theory even as all their pundits are fully vaccinated. Unprincipled, cynical and hypocritical as hell, right? But it works because Americans in general are becoming the same way. Anecdotal, but who has failed to notice the anger that's manifest in all sides? Yesterday I was reading a piece about a guy who blew off warnings about the snowstorm and who went hiking only to find himself in trouble; he called for rescue. I saw at least 5 comments saying he should have been left there to die because he was stupid. Of course, I have also read countless similar comments about unvaccinated people who get deathly ill with covid. "Let them die." We didn't used to be like this.
Eric, I read your daily news religiously. Sometimes I REALLY need suggestions on what to do about the clear and present dangers you share. This is one of those cases. I guess I can take comfort in, as previous posters here have noted, they are at least killing off their audience. Is there nothing we can do to get our nation's news system back in kilter?
Murdoch lacks a moral core but also I think at some level the beast has taken over and he has to feed it to survive. He doesn't really care about the destruction it causes. It brings in cash and frankly he can't stop it at this point without some amount of embarrassment and financial retrenchment.
Pay a visit to sorryantivaxxer.com and see all those folks who Screwpert and his son brainwashed into rejecting the vaccine and they wound up in the GOP Forever Box!