"Fox has admitted to lying."
Those five words should be the new mantra for President Biden and all Democrats, used relentlessly to completely sideline the sham "news" organization.
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Whatever you think of the Fox-Dominion settlement, there is no question that Fox has now given the White House, Democrats, and all actual news media a golden opportunity to wholesale dismiss anything—anything—Fox claims to report.
Democrats should grab on to this opportunity immediately and completely brush off any charges, allegations, or claims that emanate from Fox or are perpetuated on the channel. Actually, they should just say it over and over again—“Fox News has admitted to lying," or some variation of it—even when not responding to a Fox allegation. Throw it into every discussion about right-wing conspiracy theories or every exposure of a lie perpetuated by Reps. Jim Jordan or Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Fox, after all, is either the source or the echo chamber for every single GOP lie and conspiracy theory. Whether fabrications, wild distortions, and smears originate on Fox or elsewhere, Fox promotes them ad nauseam to its audience. And now it has admitted to doing so about something that has been established by a court to be a Big Lie.
The right-wing propaganda network—no one should ever call it a news channel, by the way—just agreed to pay out three-quarters of a billion dollars for engaging in defamation. They promoted what they knew were lies, aired with malicious intent. Fox admitted to paying the money because it aired "false" information.
"Fox has admitted to lying," should be White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s response to Fox’s Peter Doocy’s questions in the White House briefing room about Hunter Biden and his laptop or China or whatever, just before she swipes away the fabrication and moves on.
"Fox has admitted to lying," should be stated by President Biden time and again, peppered into his speeches the way he throws in “the extreme MAGA Republicans."
Democratic senators should open their speeches on the floor with that statement as they go on to rebut GOP claims about climate change, voting rights, and judicial nominees. Yes, it will seem opportunistic and random. But no one can deny that it’s true, and the vast majority of Americans will be glad it is stated over and over again.
The Republicans have their many mantras, from "open borders" and "the Russia hoax" to "the Biden crime family" and "the danger of woke indoctrination." They consistently use them and don’t care about appearing opportunistic. That’s the entire point. The difference is that their mantras are empty platitudes based on hate or conspiracies. "Fox News has admitted to lying”—or just "Fox lies”—is absolutely 100% true, as underscored by Fox itself in its settlement.
House Democrats, who’ve done an enormous job combating GOP political theater in recent months, should state "Fox has admitted to lying" during every response they offer in the unhinged hearings Republicans are orchestrating. These hearings are television events made for Fox so that Republicans can get on TV. It will mess with their scripts, annoy the hell out of them, get aired on the other networks, and may even get slipped onto Fox itself during a live hearing.
Democrats should dismiss any question from Fox's so-called reporters by saying, "Excuse me, Fox admitted to lying," and walking off. Or just, "Fox lies. I don’t talk to them." This has to become so common and consistent that it frustrates Fox, which will be faced with a dilemma as to whether it should report the responses—and somehow hit back, which will be feeble—or run away. Whatever the case, Democrats will be on the offensive and Fox and the GOP on the defensive. Liberal political pundits should do the same on TV talk shows when responding to conservative pundits.
This is a better strategy than barring Fox from the White House briefing room or other events, which turns them into victims and martyrs. Let them come, but treat them for what they are: a propaganda outfit. Democrats have a mantra they’ve used to great effect: The “Big Lie.” It’s become shorthand, is reported as such by news organizations, and is known to millions of Americans.
Now they’ve got to do the same with "Fox lies," "Fox admitted to lying," "Fox acted with malice," and every other iteration of what the Dominion-Fox settlement has now established. Say it because it’s the truth.
Agreed!
Next up for Fox is the Smartmatic case. Mike, my understanding was that Fox Corp had between $3-4 billion in the bank before the lawsuits. And Smartmatic is asking for more....$2.6 billion. And then a former program director is suing them for harassing her, and coercing her to give false testimony in the Dominion case. Any chance that lawsuit payments could run them out of business? I guess My Pillow guy is facing lawsuits, too. He's one of their few remaining pillars of their advertising, other than Big Pharma.
I must say, I'm much more enthusiastic about the news these days than during the reign of 45 and all the grifters he brought with them. May they all go to Hell (or Guantanamo) forever! And take the Murdocks, Tucker, Hannity and the rest with them!
Loved the rebuke that MTG got on the floor of the House yesterday! Love that Ralph Yarl is already up and around! Love that the Kansas City mayor is Black, and he watched his prosecutorial staff diddle around with the Yarl case. We all know that if it was a young white man who walked up to the wrong door by mistake he wouldn't have been shot.
I see your contributor, Mark Joseph Stern, one of my favs, is getting more face time on CNN and MSNBC. I can always cheer for more of Mark's excellent discussions of our legal system, along with Elie Mystal - Elie is the quentissential Angry Black Man!
One other thing - if the Supreme Court comes down all wrong about the Mifepristone case, then we should chip in for a funeral for the Supreme Court, because they will lose all, ALL, credibility with Americans. Inserting judges into the work of medical/pharmaceutical specfialists is just crazy, and should have people thinking, what might the Far Right go after next? (We know it WON'T be Viagra, right?!) Will we see statins, or diabetic drugs, or anti-depressants end up in some courtroom? Judge Roberts may go down as the worst Chief Justice.
You know, Mike, it's kind of sad for us 'first wave' feminists that having more women in Congress has brought us the likes of MTG and lauren Boebert - the're both such a waste of space and genetics.
Even if Biden or Karine Jean-Pierre don't use the "Fox lies" mantra every chance they get, there are plenty of other Dems and pundits who will. The problem is that many of them don't get enough air time, especially on CNN or even MSNBC. Rep. Jackson from NC is using TikTok to his advantage, so he will probably be one of the Dems using social media to get the message out about the Fox propaganda channel, along with AOC and others.