Fox News is selling its viewers on a fantasy

Published 1:30 am Friday, March 24, 2023

Neither Stormy Daniels nor any of her colleagues in the sex industry can compare to Tucker Carlson and the Merry Band of Dissemblers at Fox News when it comes to prostitution. Sex workers don’t have to get on national TV and declare their love and admiration for their “Dons.”

But that is the essential element of Carlson’s and others’ “product.” They have sold their credibility, their integrity, and their self-respect to a person they know very well neither has nor deserves any of those things. They have chosen to publicly back a person they privately believe to be a contemptible fraud and a genuine danger to America. For the sake of the almighty dollar they interview obvious charlatans and endow them with the credibility of a national “news” company. Have they no decency? (The envelope, please.) And the answer is: “Obviously not.”

So, why does anyone watch them? It is a testament to the power of the media and the comfort of delusion. The channel feeds its viewers a constant stream of pleasant fantasy in which a beneficent “strong man” magically creates what they see as a Norman Rockwell-like world in which there is no climate crisis; racism and sexism are OK; everyone is Christian; and Father knows best. Every remaining problem is directly caused by Democrats and “the Biden crime family.” The solution is obvious. Their world view is simple and comforting, but untrue and dangerous.

A little poem says it all: Rupert Murdoch and his boy Tucker see their viewers as Fox suckers.

Ken Dammand

Tulalip