For nearly a quarter of
American adults, Fox News is their only cable news source. It tells them what
Trump wants them to hear.
How prepared are President
Donald Trump’s adversaries to deal with the reality of a lavishly produced
state media operation? This, the most-watched cable news network, functions in
its fealty to Trump like a real-world Ministry of Truth from George
Orwell’s 1984, where bureaucrats “rectify” the historical record to
conform to Big Brother’s decrees.
I am referring, of course, to
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News. Having unsuccessfully tried to sell itself as “Fair
and Balanced,” Fox News debuted a new brand in March 2018: “Real News. Real
Honest Opinion.” Network executives apparently chose this slogan to
differentiate themselves from “fake news” outlets—and, no doubt, to dog-whistle
a pledge of allegiance to their commander-in-chief, who since being sworn into
office has decried
fake news in at least 630 tweets (as of Dec. 4, 2019).
Sean Hannity, the host of
Fox’s weeknight flagship Hannity, regularly rails against the “media mob”
and its “fake news,” terms he has used on more than 100 of his shows since Feb.
20, 2019. On Feb. 21, 2019, for example, he said, “The mainstream media, they devour, you know, any
story that just fits their radical, extreme extension of the Democratic
socialist party agenda. If it advances the narrative that Donald Trump is evil
and his supporters are bad and America is scary and racist and sexist,
homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, the media mob will shift into full gear
without … any kind of investigation.”
It seems Hannity and Trump
have studied the texts of the 20th century’s master of indoctrination, who
wrote in his 1925 autobiographical manifesto, Mein Kampf, “The most brilliant
propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle
is borne in mind constantly—it must confine itself to a few points and repeat
them over and over.”
Over and over, indeed. With
its fantastical reporting on Ukraine, Fox News is doing just that.
Evidence overwhelmingly indicates that Trump refused to release
military aid to Ukraine unless President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly opened a
corruption investigation into the Bidens and into allegations (for which there
is no credible evidence) that Ukrainian actors interfered in the 2016 election
to benefit Hillary Clinton.
In the topsy-turvy world of
Fox News, this bribe attempt is “fake news” spread by the “media mob”—while the
“real news,” Fox would have you believe, is the invented story of Ukrainian
election interference.
At Fox, where Hannity et al.
make a nightly ritual of burying the truth in “memory holes” and spinning a new
version of reality, the spirit of 1984 is alive and well.
The ascendancy of this
Trumpist propaganda mill, more blatant in its contempt for the truth than even
the pro-war corporate press in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, should
give progressives pause. For nearly a quarter of American adults, Fox News is
the sole cable news source. It behooves us to soberly assess how our prospects
for liberty, equality and solidarity are dependent on the existence of an
independent, critical press.
Here at In These Times,
we are excavating those “memory holes”—but we can only keep digging if we first
fill the holes in our own budget. We must raise an additional $52,000 before
Dec. 31, 2019 to keep from falling short.
Fox News relies on corporate
sponsors. At In These Times, we are proud to rely on readers like you.
Please, consider our fundraising appeals. A strong and independent
press has never been needed more than it is today. We are all in this together.
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