The exposure of leading Fox media figures, whom many in our community trust as sources of the truth, as money-driven, manipulative liars, presents an opportunity for self-reflection....

 

Overpaid Lying Rats on Fox

Fox News Lies Revealed: An Opportunity for the Orthodox Community

 Guest post  --- an anonymous member of the Orthodox community

 

Last month, we learned of deliberate, financially motivated lying by such major Fox News personalities as Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Rupert Murdoch himself. Internal Fox News text messages and emails, disclosed in a filing in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox, prove that Carlson et al were perfectly aware that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, and that on-air guests like Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani were nothing but (in their words) “crazy” liars spinning absurd tales about voter fraud.

But, Fox chose to lie about the election. Afraid of losing viewers like us to Newsmax, they decided to keep their own rational, fact-based opinions to themselves and put a great deal of effort into spreading the “stolen election” lie. They did this because they are greedy opportunists who value their wealth and status in the media world more than the survival of the United States as a country in which the government represents the will of the people.

In case you haven’t heard about this, you can read about it in the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, which still has enough journalistic integrity to report a story that is unflattering in the extreme. Keep in mind that Fox is the messaging leader in the world of politically conservative media. What we hear on the conservative talk radio is usually based on Fox headline programming.

The exposure of leading Fox media figures, whom many in our community trust as sources of the truth, as money-driven, manipulative liars, presents an opportunity for self-reflection. Let’s take a look at the assumptions and beliefs that should be up for reevaluation based on the disclosure of this systematic abuse of the truth in exchange for money and power:

• The stolen election lie itself—The claim that Trump won the election, but had the election stolen from him by dark, “sinister” forces on the left, is not a low-impact lie. People were killed and maimed at the January 6 attack on the Capitol because of this lie. Vice President Mike Pence faced assassination at the hands of a mob whose fury was fueled by this lie. Election officials received death threats because of this lie. The lie has also shaken the foundations of the American political system. It wrongly calls all elections into question and furthers the deeply corrupt idea, held by many Republicans, that, “It only counts if we win.”

• The implications of the revelations—If these Fox personalities can lie about the election, an ehrlich person might want to know what else they have lied about. If you believe that climate change is a hoax, that the QAnon conspiracy is real, that COVID was a Chinese conspiracy, that vaccines are deadly, that Hillary Clinton is a murdering pedophile, that Mexican gangs are taking over America, that Latino immigrants are job-stealing rapists… and on and on… this would be a good time to ask, “Is it possible that I was being lied to about these things, too?” Because, we probably were, and if we continue to repeat these stories, we’re complicit in the sheker—and again, these are claims that are leading to murder and mayhem that’s increasingly antisemitic. After all, the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre was a direct result of immigration lies told in right wing media. It was just one of many deadly antisemitic plots fomented by lies linking Jews to immigration in conservative media, i.e., the “Great Replacement Theory” espoused by Tucker Carlson and others.

• What this revelation says about us—As we repeat conservative media talking points at kiddush club as if they were the emes min Ha Shamayim, this would be a great time to take a look in the mirror and ask ourselves if this is what HKBH really wants from us. Now that we know that the “stop the steal” story was nothing but a lie perpetrated by non-Jews who don’t care about us, perhaps consider stopping—or at least thinking—before we open our mouths the next time we hear a story that’s too good to be true. If we don’t, then accept the fact that we’ve been played as fools. We’ve been fed a lie that’s profitable for Fox. If we repeated it, they took advantage of us by getting us to do their dishonest bidding.

The opportunity presents itself. Consider acting on it. Our rights and freedoms, including the ability to practice religion free from harassment, free speech, and our very safety—along with the future of the United States—might depend on it.