Just a short diary.
Today’s revelations about the relationship between Sean Hannity and Michael Cohen working together to smear left-leaning groups like Media Matters are just another reminder that Fox News is not a news channel.
It’s the propaganda arm of the Republican party and it must be treated as such.
I strongly believe that the biggest mistake Bill Clinton ever made as President was allowing Fox to have White House press credentials back when they launched during his presidency. Yes, even a bigger mistake than having sex with an intern because the decision to treat Fox as a legitimate, if conservative, news station had consequences so severe that they directly led to Trump becoming President.
Seriously, because Fox is treated as legitimate by the rest of the traditional media, the right wing is able to totally control the media narrative on CNN, on MSNBC during the day, in the NY Times, in the Washington Post, on Sinclair, and on other media outlets.
It’s because Fox’s outrage-fests that Hillary’s emails were the most covered story in mainstream sources during the campaign. It’s because of Fox’s ability to control the narrative that the right can and does lie with impunity. It’s because of Fox that a Supreme Court seat can be stolen, that hordes of misinformed right wing nuts chant lock her up at a political opponent, that Putin controls the White House. Without Fox being treated as legitimate, Trump would never be President.
All of it is only possible because of the right-wing weaponizing misinformation — which all leads to Fox “News” and the fact that the rest of the media treats them with legitimacy rather than just look at them the same way they look at dumb press releases from the RNC.
I know Fox will not lose it’s press access under this white house, but the next time a Democrat becomes President they MUST revoke Fox’s press credentials. It makes no more sense to let them be inside a Democratic White House than it would to allow the RNC communications shop to do the same — and Fox is worse because they get to pretend to be news with a conservative bent rather than just flat-out propogandist misniformation and smear merchants.
I know what will happen when a Democratic president does this. The right will cry censorship and the traditional media will defend Fox. But the next President MUST spend political capitol to de-legitimize Fox and redefine them for what they are — the propoganda arm of the Republican and not a news channel.
Seriously, the future of our Republic depends on combating right-wing misinformation, and that means confronting Fox.