(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Making Sure FOX Finds Out: After the Dominion Settlement: Do Something [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: 2023-04-23 Hello, friends! This is your weekly reminder to do something, anything, to kick fox news when it’s wounded. Even if you have done something before, this is the perfect moment to do more! And if you haven’t done anything at all, write, call, complain! The biggest thing to complain about is the fact that fox collects fees from so many cable subscriptions. That means, even if you don’t watch fox, even if you hate fox, you’re paying for fox. You can always use arguments: Why should we have to fund fox news when it’s being sued for lies? Why should we have to fund it when a judge found its claims to be false? More ideas below. Now a few words on… RECENT DEVELOPMENTS Feeling down about Dominion settling? Your expectations may have been built on the many law and order shows we have seen on TV: compressed criminal trials that end up with the guilty person going to prison (fiction! fiction!). But this was never going to happen. Not in real life, and not in a civil trial. Here are reasons to be pleased with the Dominion settlement: You may be disappointed in the number of 787.5 million instead of 1.6 billion. Well, 1.6 billion was always unlikely. Lawyers always start much higher than they can expect. A settlement means money paid out RIGHT AWAY, instead of money being chased for years through courts. And even if Dominion won on the merits, the award could have been seriously reduced by the jury or a judge (or even overturned on appeal). Why? Dominion’s revenue — not profits, revenue — is only about 40 million per year. They’re getting nearly 20 times that, which is a pretty high valuation for a company. You may be disappointed in the fact that we didn’t get to watch Rupert and Tucker testify. We weren’t going to anyway, as cameras and recording devices were not going to be allowed in court. Besides, thanks to the depositions, we have already learned a lot – probably all the juicy bits. In fact, I can’t imagine anything juicier. You may have been hoping for apologies on FOX. It wasn’t going to happen, and even if it did, it would be prefaced with something like “According to a settlement, I have to say this: …” with a wink and a nod and some complaints about not respecting the first amendment. The money, however, is the equivalent of a guilty plea. A great benefit for the Dominion employees is that they won’t have to testify and re-expose themselves to danger. I think it also benefits the jurors, because they get their time back and they are also safer. FOX may not change. Or it might. Some of their shareholders and their insurance companies may demand more accountability. You may be mad that FOX still exists. So am I. But one company can’t be expected to take them down. Dominion inflicted serious injury, and provided ammo for the rest of us. Thank you, Dominion! The lawsuits are not done. And other outlets may suffer lethal blows. Justin Baragona, The Daily Beast Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, currently has the financial strength to absorb the impact of the massive check it will cut to Dominion. The media conglomerate has a market cap of $17.3 billion and an enterprise valuation of $20.6 billion. Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch recently claimed that the company has $4.1 billion on-hand. Of course, Smartmatic is seeking nearly twice as much as Dominion did, and legal experts feel their defamation case over Fox’s 2020 election coverage is at least as strong as Dominion’s. Fox is also staring down a lawsuit from former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg, who claims network attorneys coerced her into giving false testimony in the Dominion case. Additionally, the Murdochs and other Fox directors are looking at legal action from Fox shareholders who feel the executives damaged the company by allowing Trump’s election conspiracies to fester on Fox airwaves. Still, Fox’s resources provide them the opportunity to negotiate huge settlements in these cases and attempt to sweep away the issue without any public apologies or overt admissions of guilt, all while operating as business as usual. Newsmax and OAN, however, almost certainly do not have that same luxury. “There is still the possibility of corporate bankruptcy, which could be a reorganization,” University of Tennessee journalism professor Stuart Brotman told The Daily Beast, referencing the tactic used by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones after losing a massive defamation case. In the meantime, we should use the advantage this settlement gives us. Because, no one pays three quarters of a billion dollars when they believe they’re innocent. If you are contacting the FCC, or your cable provider, or any politician, whether local or national, you can use phrases such as: “I don’t want to fund FOX’s lies.” Repeat, and Repeat Some More Repetition is good. Repetition is good. The other side knows this. They know that if they repeat things, even false things, people start to believe them. Even when they don’t believe them, they sink in, to the point that they feel true, even when people know they’re bullsh*t. Think of all the things you know are false but also know are accepted arguments, because they’ve been repeated so often (trickle-down economics, only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun, etc). The left is different. We don’t like to repeat things, because it seems rude. And it can seem redundant to repeat truths, because they are self-evident. This puts truth at a disadvantage. Anyway, I’m repeating truths here. And asking you again to take a few steps to take down FOX News. Have you already taken some steps? Tell us about them in the comments. Have you already taken some steps? Maybe you can do them again. No reason not to contact the FCC more than once. Or your representatives, local, state, federal. Have you not taken any steps? See if there’s anything you can do. Have you encouraged others to take steps? Do that some more. The funny thing is, although many viewers are addicted to FOX and the right-wing lies, once it is stopped, they do recover. At least some of them. WHAT WE CAN DO ➡️Visit this website, Unfoxmycablebox. From their website: Pay for cable or satellite TV? You’re subsidizing Fox News whether you watch it or not. Your cable or satellite TV provider pays a subscriber fee to carry Fox News. That cost is passed directly on to YOU. Every network charges cable and satellite providers a small fee per subscriber; the one for Fox News is extraordinarily high. A typical household pays Fox News almost $2 per month—about $20 per year— via their cable or satellite provider, regardless of whether they actually watch the channel. In 2023, a wave of big contracts between Fox News and TV providers for subscriber fees are set to expire. These contracts make up a major source of Fox News’ subscriber fee revenue. If we want to stop paying the "Fox fee," now is the time to act. From Progressive Muse: “AntennaWeb can tell you what channels you can pick up over the air with an antenna. I have an amplified antenna which helps with more distant channels. No subscription required.” From tallen387: “Even if you don’t subscribe to cable, you can still tell your local cable company that one of the reasons you don’t subscribe to cable at all is because you don’t want your money going to Fox News or any of the other somewhat odious channels you find in the so-called ‘basic package’ (I was against televangelists — another species of pig that has been feasting at that particular trough for a long time — long before Fox News was even on my personal radar). And of course, now that your money is basically helping Fox News pay off an almost certainly onerous judgment against it, you're basically in the position of bailing out the people who should be paying the judgement: Fox News management and the stockholders. The same message should be sent to advertisers: why should consumers buy your product when part of the money they spend is helping to bail out Fox News and insulate Fox News management and stockholders from the consequences of their actions?” ➡️Complain to your cable company. If you have a cable subscription that makes you pay for FOX News, then complain to them now. Tell them you don’t want to pay for a media outlet that lies all the time. Here’s some suggested text: I’m writing to you to let you know I don’t want to have any of the money I pay you go to FOX News, which is lying to the American public, as determined by Judge Eric Davis. I expect you to reduce my bill by $X. Even if you don’t have cable for your TV pleasure, but you use a cable company for your internet, you can let them know you’re not pleased if they’re supporting FOX. ➡️ Contact government. If you feel as if that’s not enough, then contact those who have influence on the contract. Contact your governor, contact your mayor, contact your senators and your representatives. The House, with the Rs in charge, will not help, but the Senate could. Demand hearings, especially the lies exposed by Dominion. Also, some R senators are not pleased by those lies these days. They hate tRump with a passion. Suggested text: Dear Senator: FOX News is pumping poisonous propaganda into the public. Lies should not be tolerated. Judge Eric Davis even found that they are full of lies. ➡️ Write letters to the editor talking about how we’re being forced to subsidize lies that hurt us. Let other people know. Tell them on FB, Twitter, Instagram. ➡️ Afraid no one reads your stuff? Then freewayblog (thanks, freewayblogger) ➡️ Complain to the FCC (thanks, dadadata) You should contact the FCC if you have complaints or questions about the following issues: Cable Consumer Complaints . File complaints at https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us Suggested text: Dear FCC: I strongly object to being forced to subsidize FOX News via my cable subscription. They are pumping propaganda for the Republican party. Judge Eric Davis has even found that they are lying. I want my bill to be reduced by these fees. Also, if you could get them off the airwaves altogether, that would be great. ➡️Do you have connections in the military? The Pentagon should pull the plug on FOX news. (Mike Lofgren, Jen Senko) At least as recently as a year ago, FOX News was the most popular cable news on the military. From the article: There is a whole library of information about how Fox News influences mom and dad to become rabid right wingers. This is hardly surprising, because Republican operative Roger Ailes teamed up with media baron Rupert Murdoch for the specific purpose of a purported "news" channel to hype Republicans and malign Democrats. Less is known about how the network propagates incitement to sedition and refusal to follow lawful orders to members of the military, the very persons charged with upholding the Constitution and national security. And the Pentagon is abetting it. As to the seriousness of the problem, a former Marine has told the authors: "Right-wing society has captured the military . . . If you walk the Pentagon halls there will be not one TV tuned to anything but Fox." Another source told us that at their Air Force facility, Fox News is always blaring in common spaces during duty hours. Far from always being a service member's choice, the situation is often as at an airport lounge, where everyone is subjected to it like it or not. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has spoken of the need to prevent political extremism in the military. Indeed, the high percentage of service members and veterans among the Capitol rioters is alarming. How do we get it out of the military? VoteVets has tried, without success, but there seems to be more opportunity now. It may not be easy. There is the first amendment. Many of the people in the military really like FOX News. On the other hand, people do recover, at least somewhat, when no longer exposed to the toxic propaganda. ➡️ Go after advertisers (thanks for the reminder, Progressive Muse) Fox News gets way too much money from cable fees, but it also gets bucks from advertisers. Boycott their advertisers. Sometimes advertisers are unaware of where their ads are going, as they work through third parties who place their commercials. But one place is tracking this: “The group is called Check My Ads and they have been profiled by media like NPR and Fast Company” (Progressive Muse). You may find helpful information there. ➡️ Turn off the station (thanks Wolvie) Apparently, there’s something called “TVBGone” — a sort of remote that allows you to turn off the station in public places. I have never used this, and it does seem kind of rude. Maybe some military personnel should get this... ➡️Use the divisions between FOX and tRUmp. This is attacking FOX from the right, or rather from the crazy, but it is one way to weaken them. If you are speaking to tRump lovers who love FOX, let them know that the hosts all hate him. x 2/And, Tucker continued, speaking of Trump’s presidency: “We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There really isn’t an upside to Trump.” — Jill Wine-Banks (@JillWineBanks) March 8, 2023 Even if your FOX-loving acquaintances refuse to believe you, the message sinks in. 👢 Let’s kick FOX “News” when it’s down, so it stops being an existential threat. ➡️ Do you have other ideas? Please post them down below. ➡️ Have you already done something? Please, tell us your story! 🐦 I do a lot of other writing. A recentoffering: Hunters of the Feather, a story about a thinker-linker crow who wantsto save birdkind from extinction, and sequels, Scavengers of Mind and the brand-new Familiars of the Flock (They’re really good! They’rereally cheap! Buy and review or rate positively! And Hunters is also availableon Audible!) Other stories, based on Jane Austen novels — including a new one forlovers of Pride & Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet’s Advice to Young Ladies — and others on Greek mythology, can be found here. All titles are available through Kindle Unlimited, but I only get paidif you turn the pages. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/23/2164833/-Making-Sure-FOX-Finds-Out-After-the-Dominion-Settlement-Do-Something 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/