It seems that the folks at Fox are at least a bit worried that they might have some legal liability for spreading disinformation about COVID-19. For a number of reasons I think the chance of such a suit being successful is low, given the First Amendment. I seem to recall that Fox defended a suit in Florida by arguing that it had a constitutional right to lie, and I believe it won. Oh, here’s a link. Looks like the court ruled on narrower grounds, because the judges were probably too ashamed to put their names on a decision that out and out said it was okay to lie, but they basically green-lighted it.
As I’ve mentioned before, I keep a daily journal. Samuel Pepys and Anais Nin, among others, rest easy as they perceive no threat to their reputations from this quarter, but, putting my literary deficiencies aside, what the app does do is show me what I wrote on “this day” in years past, and just recently one of my entries reminded me of how effective the Parkland kids were at hitting Fox where it hurts the most: advertising dollars.
I haven’t seen that anyone with a national audience has suggested that Fox advertisers be targeted anew for supporting a network that is literally lying to us about a plague. The fact that they are repeating presidential lies is of no moment, because everyone else at least points out those lies (labeling them anything but “lies”, of course), while Fox both amplifies and endorses them.
I don’t have much of an audience, and, as I have no television, I can’t even identify the offending advertisers, but here’s hoping someone with some national oomph will take the lead on this.
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