The cable network is an echo camber for an audience of one and a propaganda machine not afraid to tell lies and sow discord.
By David Todd McCarty | Tuesday, September 24, 2019
It’s hard to imagine Fox News being any more devoid of responsible journalistic ethics as they no longer even pretend to represent anything resembling conservative values, let alone news, but serve only as an echo chamber for the Trump Administration and his base.
When Fox News was launched back in October of 1996 by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the idea was to have a 24-hour news channel that could cater to a conservative audience.
Two decades later, and what was once a conservative-leaning news site has devolved into a sideshow of ultra conservative commentary, Trump loyalists, right-wing propaganda and increasingly unhinged guests. They keep losing hosts to scandal, and even their most highly rated shows have lost scores of advertisers as corporations flee bad press and angry consumers.
Even so, it remains the top rated cable network and commands a valuable segment of the population, but really it needs only to satisfy an audience of one, tweeting feverishly on Pennsylvania Avenue.
The danger that Fox News represents to democracy cannot be overstated as they fill the airwaves of the 24-hour news cycle with Republican talking points, carried across multiple programs and by multiple hosts, guests and commentators. They no longer report the news, but express personal biases wrapped in the guise of expert opinion, offer vague but incendiary innuendo that isn’t based on facts, but on a predetermined narrative that appeals to Trump and his base.
The vapid talking heads of Fox News programming have no expertise or journalistic accomplishments, nor are they serving as journalists. They are entertainers. Minstrels in a side show where the main act is an orange clown with overactive, yet strangely tiny thumbs.
These charlatans remain very dangerous to our democratic institutions and are working not for freedom and the American way of life, but for six and seven figure paychecks. They have no shame and no ideology, yet they inform a frighteningly large portion of the electorate.
They must be watched, fact-checked and reprimanded when need be. They are a bigger threat to our democracy than even Trump himself.
