(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Rupert Murdoch: A Threat to Democracy [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-02-18  

America does have an unacknowledged immigration problem; amoral communications billionaires who exploit our obvious vulnerabilities. They are far more dangerous to the country than any number of indigent souls, either fleeing crime and persecution, or seeking better economic opportunities for themselves and their families. Unacknowledged is that those are the same reasons most Americans are here in the first place (slavery and Native Americans/First Nation excepted).

At the top of the list is Rupert Murdoch. He understands the major vulnerabilities his audiences have and he knows they are undereducated, malleable, and readily willing to vote against their own best interests. Yes, I’m talking about the MAGA-oriented base of the Republican party. Having a college degree is one of the key differentiating factors in recent elections. GOP candidates, and their supporters, often rail against elitists (i.e., people who know stuff).

The fundamental threat to democracy is the diminished cerebral capacity of a great portion of the U.S. general population. While easily influenced, they are still allowed to vote, even though they frequently do so against their own best interests. Murdoch understands that vulnerability and has built a fortune exacerbating the situation in several countries.

As Lawrence O’Donnell notably tweeted on 17 February, “Rupert Murdoch believes his readers & Fox audience are stupid.” Retweeting that comment was retired General Michael Hayden, former director of both NSA and CIA. He responded in his retweet, “He has a point.” They are both correct.

From the released court documents, we know that every one of the Fox News headline propogandists knew that there was no significant fraud in the 2020 election, yet went on to support the Big Lie on air. Those actions placed many innocent people at risk of physical harm from the irrational, irate, FNC viewers who were being fed overt lies. We also know that Rupert Murdoch also knew that the information regarding claims of fraud were, “really crazy stuff.” Yet, neither the senior executives at FNC nor Murdoch did anything to stop the blatant lies that were undermining the fabric of the country’s democracy.

It is important to remember that during the period before and after the 2020 election, Newsmax and One America News (OAN) were competing for the crazy listeners, ones unbounded by reality and that were completely tethered to Trump and his lies. Newsmax was run by Christopher Ruddy, a personal friend of Trump, who now that the ship is sinking, is attempting to distance themselves (far too late). OAN, still comprised of election deniers, is epitomized by former anchor, Christina Bobb, the lawyer who certified that all appropriate documents had been returned to the National Archives from Mar-a-Lago before the FBI intervention there (oops). The concern was that FNC might be outflanked by the even crazier, rightwing news outlets thus losing viewers and revenue. Therefore, they made the conscious decision to lie about the facts, because that is what their viewers wanted to hear. Those lies of FNC directly contributed to the insurrection on 6 January, 2021.

To show the financial motive explicitly, an email message from Carlson actually complained about the FNC stock being devalued. In the same email Tucker demanded that a factchecker, Jacqui Heinrich, be fired for reporting the truth. Shamelessly, there are no lower limits to which FNC highlighters won’t stoop. As long as it sells, the more extreme and crazier the better.

To be clear, those lies continue to this day on Fox News. As an example, on Thursday, 16 February, Tucker Carlson told viewers that “we may never know” what really happened in that election. It also should be noted that clips from Tucker Carlson’s programs are often rebroadcast on Russian television. Since the beginning of the Russian illegal invasion of Ukraine, Tucker continuously has been supporting Putin’s agenda, while claiming America is led by warmongers. On 17 February he stated that the war would be over immediately without Biden. On the same program he stated that Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, gave the Taliban all the equipment left during the American withdrawal. Sarcastically, he also noted Austin was the first SECDEF to shoot down balloons with rockets. (For the record it was Trump who surrendered to the Taliban and Biden actually delayed the timing.)

Regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine, notably, Trump has stated that he could end the war in 24 hours, a claim so ridiculous that no rational person would believe it. But no one thinks Trump, or most of his supporters, are rational. But there is GOP support for such nonsense as evidenced by, "Joe Biden, you need to call Donald Trump. Donald Trump will call Vladimir Putin and end this war," Nehls, R-Texas, said on Fox News. "We must stop this war, and Donald Trump can do it."

Tucker is but one example of the abominations facilitated by Murdoch on Fox News. Previously, I have written articles about the outlandish notion that he provides useful news content. Seemingly forgotten (or never known by the audience) in the defamation suit against Carlson, the federal judge, Mary Kay Vyskocil, found in part “This ‘general tenor’ of the show should then inform a viewer that he is not ‘stating actual facts’ about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in ‘exaggeration’ and ‘non-literal commentary.’ … Given Mr. Carlson’s reputation, any reasonable viewer ‘arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism.” That’s right, his lawyers, and the FNC lawyers, argued no reasonable person should believe Tucker. And that was before the 2020 election.

That begs the question as to why Murdoch, and the FNC executives, continued his employment. As the highest rated performer on their mainstream lineup, Tucker is a cash cow. The notion of any sense of ethics or morality on the part of Murdoch, or FNC, are completely specious. That they are totally willing to trash democracy, and America, is obvious to anyone willing to observe.

The point is that Rupert Murdoch is far more concerned about the FNC bottom line than democracy or the continuance of the American experiment. His organizational fixation on money at the expense of truth always has been at his core. To better understand him, I highly recommend the CNN series titled, “The Murdochs Empire of Influence.”

These knowingly lying FNC personalities hold considerable sway over the MAGA-base of the GOP; ones who are among the small percent of voters who turn out for the primaries. That was on display in the 2022 cycle in which a number of rightwing crackpots became the GOP nominees in numerous races. That was a disaster for the general elections as the anticipated “Red Wave” ever materialized. As conservative columnist George Will noted, “for the first time in American history, a major political party is terrified by its own voters.”

Remember, much of this chaos is either being orchestrated, or facilitated, by an Australian immigrant who is devoid of a moral compass. Murdoch is an international scavenger, as destructive as the Hindu Goddess Kali. While calling Trump, “a very capable man” in 2016, Murdoch was a proponent for “wonderful” Brexit, which has been a disaster for the UK. Like the Trump Big Lie promotion, the Brexit campaign was also a case study in lies and deceit. In Australia his media enterprises were called “a cancer on democracy.” With an estimated net worth of $18B, we can only hope Dominion gets every penny they asked for.

Yes, we do have an immigration problem beyond the southern border. And then there is Elon and Twitter.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/18/2153786/-Rupert-Murdoch-A-Threat-to-Democracy

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/