A former Fox executive said Rupert Murdoch through his Fox News is damaging America by lying to millions.
Preston Padden wrote on The Daily Beast
Fox News has caused many millions of Americans—most of them Republicans (as my wife and I were for 50 years)—to believe things that simply are not true. For example, Yahoo News reports that 73 percent of Republicans blame “left-wing protesters” for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Of course, that is ludicrous. All one has to do is look at the pictures or videos of the attack to see that the violent mob was comprised of Trump supporters. Similarly, a poll by SSRS in late April found that two-thirds of Republicans either believe or suspect that the election was stolen from Trump—60 percent saying there is “hard evidence” that the election was stolen. As noted above, this ridiculous notion has been thoroughly refuted. But millions of Americans believe these falsehoods because they have been drilled into their minds, night after night, by Fox News.
Padden wrote that Fox News is poisoning America, which makes them no different from any other polluters that are harming the American people. Fox News has a First Amendment right and they can criticize the government, but what they should not be allowed to do is create a cinematic universe where reality is not welcome or present.
If the nation wants to take a step toward bringing its people back together and eliminating partisan media bubbles, a new fairness doctrine would do the trick.
Imagine Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson no longer being allowed to present conspiracy theories and one-sided fantasies as fact. CNN and MSNBC would be fine if a new fairness doctrine was enacted into law, but Fox News and other conservative media would be forced to radically change or be put out of business.
The answer to getting deadly right-wing partisan toxins out of the media is to stop making it so easy and profitable for people like Rupert Murdoch to poison America.
Mr. Easley is the managing editor, who is White House Press Pool, and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association