A Pox Upon your Fox

 

The Germans have a word for it: Schaudenfreude. It means "shameful glee". That's a pretty good translation of how I'm feeling on this glorious afternoon of April 20, 2023. as a matter of fact, I'm danged near giddy bearing witness to what is happening to Rupert Murdoch, an Australian-born owner of a publishing empire who has done more damage to the United States than probably any other "human being" in the history of the nation. That his organized criminal enterprise (Fox Noooz) is facing many billions of dollars in lawsuits that may very well put it out of business forever is a dream come true. Somebody pinch me please.

Here's a clip from a piece I wrote sixteen years ago (the first of many) about Murdoch's dreadful "news" organization:

"It was not like this in our parent's day. In that bygone, lost era, before the "Triumph of Mediocrity" (as Norman Corwin put it twenty years ago in the subtitle of his well-written book "Trivializing America" ), the greatest generation went to the polls with - at the very least - a remedial knowledge of the issues important to their country. Today we are so susceptible to political propaganda and corporate media influence, the main talking point of the last presidential campaign was John Kerry's innocent gaffe during the primary season: "I voted for the eighty-seven billion before I voted against it". A statement as innocuous as that one would not have made so much as a blip on the political radar screens of 1960 or 1972 or even 1984 for that matter. Mah! Mah! The ol' plantation sho' has changed!"

After spending almost two years trashing a voting machine company called Dominion, they blasted Fox with a 1.5 billion dollar lawsuit. Two days ago, Murdoch and his right wing SCREAM machine were forced to settle the case for over seven-hundred and eighty-million dollars (only slightly over seven-hundred and eighty million dollars, mind you). They are also being sued by another voting machine company out of merrie olde England called "Smartmatic". This time the suit is for 2.5 billion dollars. The nice folks over at Smartmatic give every indication that they have no intention of settling with the hideous swine. A spokesman for the company has said that everything that wasn't revealed in the Dominion case will be revealed in this one. In a posting on the Fox website yesterday (and what has to be seen as a masterpiece of nonsense and stupidity) some silly bastard stated that the very fact that Fox settled the lawsuit for over three-quarters of a billion dollars is proof of their integrity and "high standards of journalism". As Jack Parr liked to say in his day: "I kid you not".

It all boils down to one sentence: Rupert Murdoch is in a boat-load of trouble.

While Donald Trump spent the final year of his disastrous presidency downplaying the dangers of the most devastating pandemic since 1918, Fox Noise (for reasons only they know) felt compelled to parrot The Donald's talking points on their evening talk shows. Since Fox (at that time anyway) had the highest ratings of any other cable news outlet, many Americans were tragically naive enough to innocently take those talking points at face value. A lot of those same Americans lost their lives. I long ago lost count of the exact number, but I know that it is well over a million souls. Although the research has yet to be done on the subject, I'd be willing to bet everything I own on my assumption that most of those one-million-plus casualties were habitual viewers of Fox.

Call it a hunch.

If you have been a dedicated viewer of Fox Noise since it's inception, I am here to cheerfully inform you that you have wasted the last quarter century of your life. You're welcome.

In addition to the Dominion and Smartmatic suits, Fox is facing legal action from other firms (and even their own shareholders) seeking many more billions of dollars in damages. I would hope that cable television companies across the nation would finally see this mediocre misinformation provider for what it is and remove it from their rosters. Were you aware that Fox charges everyone $2.50 a month through their cable companies? You may not watch it but - if you have cable TV in your home - you're paying Rupert Murdoch thirty bucks a year. Stew on that for a while.

Ed Murrow

And finally, a quote from the legendary broadcast Journalist, Edward R. Murrow, from a speech he gave at a broadcasters convention in Chicago on October 28, 1958:

"This instrument [television] can teach, it can entertain, yes it can even inspire. But it can do those things only to the extent that men and women are determined to use it to those ends - otherwise, it's nothing more than wires and lights in a box."

Fox Nooz: "Wires and lights in a box".

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

Carol Swanwick

AFTERTHOUGHT, 3:40 PM:

I must take note of the passing of Carol Swanwick, a beloved, life-long friend and the mother of my old chum and traveling companion, Kevin. She was one of the kindest and loveliest people it has ever been my joy to know. A number of years ago I transferred all of her 8mm films to videotape. I was completely blown away by what a stunningly beautiful 1950s bride she was - with a smile that an entire school for the blind could read at midnight by. I am a better human being for having known this gentle angel who walked among us.