Fox News Is Afraid of the Monster It Made

Behind the scenes, everyone at Fox knew that claims of election fraud were "total bs"—but it couldn't afford to offend its viewers by telling them the truth. TKTKTK

It's the epidemic of stupidity that keeps on giving. The story behind the “Stop the Steal” movement that led to the January 6 attack on our Capitol, has a new revelation: Fox News knew there was no evidence of election fraud—but kept airing the false claims of people they privately referred to as “idiots”, “lunatics,” “nuts” and insane people described as “so full of shit”.

Those are the words of Fox News talking heads and executives describing attorney Rudy Giuliani, My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, and attorney Sidney Powell, among others. These opinions were expressed in messages sent between Fox hosts and other staff, all the way up to CEO Suzanne Scott. The internal messages are included in the redacted court filing of Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News. The maker of voting machines is suing Fox for defamation because the network repeatedly and knowingly spread false rumors about the company's software, alleged ties to Venezuelan crooks, and various other brain-damaged musings.

In addition to revealing the low opinion Fox personnel had of their insane guests, the internal messages also reveal an internal backlash against a news reporter who exposed the lack of evidence of election fraud (which pissed off Tucker Carlson, in particular). Fox News couldn't give up the fantasies of paranoid sore losers. Why? Plain and simple: Money.

TV ratings equal money, and Fox viewers wanted anger-inducing conspiracies to explain their inexplicable political loss. In November 2020, when Fox News correctly called Arizona (and thus the presidential election) for Joe Biden, it pissed off its viewers. Ratings dropped. Some of the audience peeled off in favor of further-right upstarts like Newsmax, who were willing to more forcefully cater to election fraud conspiracies and entertain their misplaced anger at an imaginary injustice.

So, Fox News followed suit. It ignored the obvious truth they all understood in order to bring election fraud believers back into the fold. The court filing reveals Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson all knew the election wasn't stolen and that the claims of fraud and voting machine tampering were completely without merit. Did that stop them from hosting crackpots on their shows? Nope.

The redacted court filing from the Delaware Supreme Court in Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News is a treasure trove of idiocy—or, if you prefer, the compromising of intellect in service to a propaganda machine. As is, it's 192 pages of “wackadoodle”.

For example, attorney Sidney Powell's assertions on Fox on November 6, 2020. Powell falsely claimed on Lou Dobbs Tonight that voting irregularities were due to a secret CIA program called “Hammer and Scorecard”. Two days later, on November 8, Powell appeared on Fox again. This time, on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Powell asserted that Dominion voting machines were used to steal the election from Trump, and that Dominion's software contained an algorithm that was used as part of a “massive and coordinated effort to steal this election” from Trump.

Where did Powell get her inside information? From an email sent by someone who described her own views as “pretty wackadoodle”—including a claim that Justice Scalia was murdered at the annual gathering at Bohemian Grove. The author goes on to say “I've had the strangest dreams since I was a little girl … I was internally decapitated, and yet, I live...The Wind tells me I'm a ghost, but I don't believe it.” Doesn't Fox News vet its guests? Is there not a sanity clause? The court filing follows with this assessment: “The full force of the email's lunacy comes across by reading it in its entirety.” This email was sent to Bartiromo the day before Powell appeared on her show, yet the host invited her guest to peddle conspiracy theories from a dreamer of internal decapitation who gets messages from "The Wind".

Deranged emails are the types of source documents that fueled the conspiracy—whipped up by six months' worth of Trump setting the stage with paranoia and distrust in our elections. The night of the latter Powell appearance, Tucker Carlson texted, “[t]he software shit is absurd...Half our viewers have seen the Maria clip.”

So this is what Fox watchers want. They don't want facts that contradict their conspiracies. They can't handle losing. Basically, they want lies ("Great job! You won!") and participation trophies—the very definition of a snowflake. Here's a fact: On Monday, November 9, Maricopa County, Arizona, completed its hand count audit of paper ballots, and showed a 100 percent match with ballots counted by Dominion machines. How much coverage did Fox News give that?

Still, despite overwhelming evidence of no election fraud, sore losers continue to be a staple of the Republican party. It's now fully baked into the party's DNA. Take for example, candidate for Arizona governor Kari Lake, who has never conceded her election loss (which she blames on fraud, of course) and became the next Republican sore loser to sue unsuccessfully when she didn't get her participation trophy.

Fox News helped create this monster. And now, it must feed it—or get fed to the wolves. There is no higher calling than ratings, such as “fair and balanced” journalism. As if winking at a foreseeable future, Fox dropped its “fair and balanced” slogan in 2017, adopting instead “Most watched. Most trusted.” And therein lies the rub.

To be the most watched, Fox has to maintain its viewers' trust by telling them lies. It's bald-faced idiocy. We are judged by the company we keep. At Fox, on-air hosts and producers described their own guests, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell, as an “idiot”, “nuts!”, “acting like an insane person”, “F'ing lunatics”, and “on the crazy train with no brakes”.

John Fawcett, producer of Lou Dobbs Tonight, said, “Giuliani is so full of shit”. Even Tucker Carlson saw culpability in his fellow show host: “Lou was reckless”. Two separate producers called Fox host Jeanine Pirro “nuts” and “crazy”.

Fox has created a product that calls itself news, but won't report inconvenient truths because its viewers are too thin-skinned to handle them. Selling fear and paranoia, Fox is a balm for sore losers, conspiracy theorists, and lunatics. It's a reality unto itself. As the Dominion court case filing amply demonstrates, Fox personnel from top to bottom know they're selling snake oil. Fox host Dana Perino called the Dominion election fraud allegations "total bs," "insane" and "nonsense". You’d think a state supreme court filing about a major media company would be news on Fox. But four days after the filing made news everywhere else, Fox News remains free of any mention of the findings in the lawsuit. This makes the “most trusted” name in news look a lot more like shills for the lunatic fringe. Unfortunately for us all, that lunatic fringe is now mainstream.