As far as Fox’s heretofore winning ratings seasons are concerned, removing Tucker Carlson from their lineup has to be a worse decision than the Falcons giving up Brett Favre to the Green Bay Packers, even worse than the Red Sox giving up Babe Ruth to the Yankees. At least those personnel changes supposedly involved trades. But this seems to be a convulsive brand defeating débâcle by the contemptible jerks that run the show that will only enhance the competition. It will takes years to recover from, if ever.
That is why it is also like the Anhauser-Busch (AB-InBev) Dylan Mulvaney debacle. Self induced and the result of corporate culture that does not seriously appreciate those who pay the bills.
Our opinion is that the Murdochs who are in charge of Fox, in settling with Dominion for lots of money after Fox was sued for commentary about voter fraud mechanisms and vulnerabilities implicating Dominion, and reports of the full settlement’s permutation of getting rid of Tucker Carlson — was not just a payoff to Dominion (earned by them or not because “settlements” are just that, settlements not judgements) and a reflection of the corporate culture the Murdochs are imposing.
The settlement was signaling a mea culpa by the Murdochs to their friends in the left and in essence an attempt at a payout to them by removing a very popular and effective challenger to so much of their agenda. And of course they are using corporate money and disparaging the company’s product and freedoms in the process. It does not make business sense or legal sense in our humble judgement, only the sense of a continuation of imposing their culture on the organization.
The corporate cash along with the “kick me” sign on the company’s ass, inviting every person or outfit who does not like a commentary to make a claim is very bad for the freedom of the press. There is no freedom of speech if you can be successfully sued or easily intimidated to settling for voicing questions or opinion even when offering to issue a clarification or correction. But then Fox corporate does not apparently care about freedom of speech so the most devastating part of the settlement for them is the inescapable damage to the trust their audience had as to Fox’s claimed independence (exception perhaps being Greg Gutfield who may not be long to their world?).
The tipping point has been met. The reporting and other commenters at Fox no matter their pedigree we predict will be seen as compromised . . . avoiding something . . . every utterance just something first OKed by the Murdochs or whomever.
Fox culture is then in some ways like the Anhauser-Busch (AB-InBev) corporate culture which took one step too many going woke — in their case denigrating the cultural sensitivities of their customer base by becoming associated with the cultural degeneration inherent in the normalization of transgenderism (see previous posts herein). The two decisions were tipping point decisions. Both decisions were assaults on their audience/customers, their bread and butter. In both cases it was like the curtain being pulled back exposing the ugly truth about the new bosses.
Reading into the matter one gets the distinct impression the Murdochs really didn’t like Tucker Carlson in spite of all the money he made them. The sons in particular, who are in charge at Fox are devotees of climate BS and must have gone into high dudgeon when Carlson addressed the issue (and no doubt other matters like Jan 6 and voter fraud).
Tucker Carson’s approach to climate change seems to be ~~ it happens, . . . it is not necessarily bad, warmer can be good and the proposed “green” cures are worse for humanity than the supposed disease ~~ the rational school of thought we appreciate. We also think the controlling elements of the green movement are made up of evil one-world government subversives, commies, grifters, and liars but that is just us.
We do not think it mere coincidence that the wife of James Murdoch (Rupert’s son) works for the Clinton Climate initiative and that the couple are big supporters of environmental causes. The Murdochs must have considered Carlson an embarrassing denier, they being in the sky is falling camp (and perhaps a fondness for the “need” of one world government by elites to control climate change).
Was the settlement what they needed to rid themselves of Tucker Carlson (do we know it was not an offer they made?)? We wonder if the Dominion suit was used to give them cover to deal with the rest of their board as to the separation of Carlson: “YOU DID WHAT!? Oh I see Dominion wanted it to basically gut our potential for staying competitive, and a lot of cash besides. Seems like an astute agreement. We should indeed go along with it. Can I short my stock?
Settling as they did, giving up the First Amendment, freedom of the press and their own integrity, severely damaging their standing in competitive viewership gives us the idea that if “Fox” is so willing not to merely settle but self-immolate then why wouldn’t they be easy marks for those aggrieved by their unfairness and distortions now regarding election fraud and climate change?
As a commenter to a Victor Davis Hanson article (see link) wrote “Using the Dominion suit against Fox News as precedent, the Republican Party should sue NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Twitter, Facebook and You Tube for damages caused by the deliberate and repeated slander involved in stories of Russian Collusion, the Steele Dossier, Russian Disinformation, the Hunter Biden Laptop, etc. that damaged the party.”
Although the Fox settlement is not judicial precedent it lights the way for two to play the game. The Murdochs have made themselves either patsies, roll over artists using mostly other peoples money, or the worst negotiators ever.
We are surprised VDH did not pick up on that and frankly also with some of his tone repeating straw man arguments. Maybe Dominion was castigated by some as responsible for manipulating data but the main accusations as regards them was that their technology was manipulatable and hackable (a different argument then that it was or that they did it) and serious observations and claims of abnormalities outside the bounds of electoral history as data rolled in.
Whether or not such observations might prove to be anomalous but innocent, or anomalous as in smoke and supportive of an investigation as to the existence of fire (or disproval of same). — that there was/ is substantial concern was newsworthy including about all voting machines including Dominion’s and therefor appropriate for comment on networks claiming to be news and commentary outlets.
Combine that with all manner of quite substantiated election law violations in various states, disregard of election laws by fiat, extreme laxities and vulnerabilities as to the integrity of mail-in balloting which many countries do not allow or substantially limit, ballot chain of custody issues and more . . . and there is lots to report and analyze without fear of being sued for reporting and commenting.
Add in the unprecedented efforts to co-opt county electoral offices using their official offices in favor of Democrat get out the vote efforts (Zuckerberg money), an activity that was illegal in at least one of the decisive electoral college battle ground states (Wisconsin) . So yes this stuff and more had and has a lot of people properly concerned and vocal about the legitimacy of the 2020 election and such is the warp and woof of news and commentary.
All of it was and is newsworthy and not merely appropriately reportable but demanding reports and real investigations if the “‘profession” of journalism stands for anything. The commentaries and opinion regarding it ought to be considered part and parcel on such important matters.
As for the Fox culture, oh journalism seeps in at times under various personages at Fox cable ( now to be less bold with Carlson’s departure) . . . but if you ever listen to Fox radio feeds on AM stations across the country, ironically the network often associated with conservative talk radio stations, they are as bad or worse as legacy liberal media in deciding what is news and parroting leftist spin. A most recent irritant is the using of the term “transgender care” a euphemism to substitute for the accurate term organ removal or even just surgery. That is a frequent case in point of late along with the ongoing leftist Tourette repetitions regarding Jan 6, and more.
Fox radio has much of the tone of the left and has amplified leftist media pack journalism frequently, all along while singing off with “we report, you decide”. Our observation is that they are part of the lefts choir even if occasionally off key.
Fox corporate (perhaps one division less culpable than another) is a frequent purveyor of leftist created disinformation parroting leftist spin and is not a victim. The Murdochs have managed to make viable the question should the right do what Democrats have done in that respect — intimidate (all of them) right back by threat of lawsuits. Who knows — there might be a return to or definitive recognition of free speech rights.
The Fox settlement is not judicial precedent and we are not in the leftist league of suit and settle because we have no actual friends in the big conglomerate media (Rupert if he ever was once, has abdicated to a couple of leftist sons). Fox’s settlement with Dominion I suspect was atonement, not to Dominion as much as a signal of mea -culpa to the left by the Murdoch controlling hierarchy and their apparat to the effect . . . Forgive us for ever in the slightest way giving any air time that might question the integrity of the 2020 election, climate change, Jan 6 . . .
Lachlan and James already give lots to Democrats and now they are in a position through any decision making influence to give if not further corporate money, to signal their fealty to the cause with policy as regards reporting. Because of that fear we are content if the cancellation of Carlson will prove to be a huge corporate fail putting Fox on track to be another CNN and ushering in new venues for objective journalism.
As for Dominion we can hope that red states have learned to favor the most secure voting processes which might make Dominion’s “victory” pyric.
It is also arguably appropriate to play the left’s game while protecting the First Amendment the left is intent on subjugating to political correctness. People have been injured by media outlets cover-up and lies about Russian disinformation, arguably in itself resulting in the devastation of the Biden regime. Search them out, isolate and target, sue the left’s actors for their lies. There has been lots of real damages.
Related reading:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tucker+Carlson+on+climate&t=osx&ia=web
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2022/03/22/wisconsin_special_counsel_zuckerberg_money_and_obamas_campaign_office_ran_the_2020_election_in_wisconsin.html#!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/tucker-guest-says-zuckerberg-funded-030228357.html
