Fox News is not a legitimate organization in any way, shape, or form. But every time Democrats appear on the network to answer bad-faith, loaded questions, they acknowledge its credibility as a news organization to the audience.
We've always known that Fox is a GOP fanfiction factory, but now with the Dominion lawsuit, there is undeniable proof.
Sign the petition: Democratic politicians and pundits must boycott Fox News.
After correctly calling Arizona for then-President-elect Joe Biden on election night 2020, Fox News dismissed those analysts responsible for making that call. The network then repeatedly booked guests who spouted debunked conspiracy theories about a “stolen” 2020 election—conspiracy theories that executives knew full well were false.
RELATED STORY: Rupert Murdoch admits that Fox News hosts endorsed lies about 2020 election
But Fox News and parent company News Corp are more than just a source for active misinformation and GOP propaganda. That Rupert Murdoch gave soon-to-be-aired Biden campaign ads to Jared Kushner is likely the most disquieting revelation from the Dominion lawsuit.
Despite Fox News’ constant churn of right-wing propaganda, the Biden campaign spent a huge amount of its ad budget on Fox, ostensibly to reach "persuadable" voters. Murdoch abused the campaign’s trust by passing on the unaired ads to the Trump campaign.
On the March 14 episode of The Brief, Markos Moulitsas and Kerry Eleveld had Judd Legum of Popular Info on to talk about the Fox Dominion lawsuit. Watch the full episode here or just below.
When asked why Democrats continue to take Fox seriously by agreeing to appear on its shows—or to pay the network for TV ads—Legum replied:
“There's an issue among Democrats that they want to play fair. There is a commitment to free speech, as if ‘let's persuade some of those folks [who watch] Fox.’ What these documents show is that it doesn't operate in that way. Any information, any interaction that you have with Fox will be used—all the way up to Rupert Murdoch—to benefit the Republican Party.”
Although a small number of persuadable non-Democratic voters might watch Fox News, the payoff is not worth lending the network any more legitimacy. It is time to cut the network off completely.
Biden already took an important first step when he refused to give Fox an interview on Super Bowl Sunday. Now, Democratic politicians and pundits must follow suit by boycotting the conservative media outlet in a united assertion to the public that they reject Fox's objective legitimacy.
Sign the petition: Democrats must boycott Fox News.