Fox News has stepped over the line and damaged America far more than imagined

By Ken Tingley

The damage the Fox News network has done to our country is far worse than I ever imagined.

Last summer, former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that Rupert Murdoch has done more to undermine American democracy than any individual alive. Strong words, but Turnbull is well-versed in how Murdoch runs his newspapers in Australia.

“Fox News has played, by far, the largest single part in the polarization of American politics, in the amplification of political hatred,” he said during an NPR interview. “I would challenge anyone, any of your listeners, to nominate which individual alive today has done more to undermine American democracy than Rupert Murdoch.”

The degree to which Murdoch and Fox have poisoned political conversations is now clear.

One professional woman I know told me recently her elderly parents watch Fox and they are still convinced the presidential election was stolen. She cannot convince them otherwise even when presenting them with irrefutable facts.

What Fox has done in marketing itself as the conservative voice of America has gone far behind taking a political position. It has relentlessly demonized Democrats, liberals and other mainstream networks as untrustworthy and evil. The argument is often they are trying to destroy America.

When a news network has disregarded the facts to this degree, it steps over the line into propaganda. That is clear now.

While preparing to speak to a group about newspapers this past week, the person arranging the visit wrote me, “I know partisan newspapers have a long and `rich’ tradition but the moves by Fox (anti-Democrat, anti-Biden) and MSNBC (anti-Republican, anti-Trump) concern me. I think TV news had a stronger public perception for being less biased…”

I pushed back strongly because that was not my experience during my 40 years working for five different newspapers.

I told him being partisan in the world I worked would get you fired.

Being fair and unbiased was always the goal and we bent over backwards to achieve it, often arguing over not only headlines, but the choice of a single word.

Most newspapers have a firewall between advertising and editorial.

It was not unusual for advertising employees to deliver requests to cover events or stories an advertiser was having. I often told the latest advertising director we would evaluate requests for coverage on their merits and if deemed newsworthy, we would cover the event. Whether or not an advertiser was involved would have not impact on the decision.

That often rubbed advertisers - and some of our salespeople - the wrong way and cost us money. It allowed us to do our job fairly and without the monetary influences.

I remember a car dealership pulled its advertising for several years after we published a story accusing it of unethical practices. It cost the newspaper hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Our publisher never interfered.

As recently as 2019, Glens Falls Hospital not only pulled its advertising because of our coverage of its financial problems, but refused to let us provide free newspapers for patients at the hospital.

This was my experience not only with the newspapers I worked at, but with my competitiors.

There was no tradition of partisanship.

What we learned this past week from legal filings by Dominon Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox was that there was no separation of church and state at the TV network. It was the opposite. Its editorial decision-making process was tied in with whether the stories it covered might drive away viewers and hurts its bottom line. It reported what its readers wanted to hear rather than what it knew to be true.

Its hosts and biggest stars continually allowed information to be aired they new to be untrue. Its defense is that it was just covering the news.

This is unprecedented.

When members of the news media have been caught plagiarizing stories or embellishing tales from the front lines - like Brian Williams at NBC - it has cost them their jobs and reputations.

Without credibility, a news source has nothing.

Fox no longer has credibility.

But most Fox viewers have probably heard little about the revelations from this lawsuit against Fox. This past weekend, Fox News media reporter Howard Kurtz said on the air he was told he was not allowed to mention the story on the air because of the ongoing $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit.

“My theory is that those who regularly watch Fox News aren’t going to be impacted by this one way or the other,” said Tom Jones of the Poynter Institute. “Fox viewers might not even be aware of what’s going on because Fox News has refused to cover the story.”

And because Fox has spent years demonizing other news sources, most of its viewers will not believe what they read or hear either.

At my newspaper, we regularly talked about our “credibility” as our most important asset. We had to report the news accurately and fairly to keep our readers coming back.

Fox has managed to overcome that problem.

Back at CIA

When I entered the Cool Insuring Arena on Tuesday to see some sectional basketball, I could not remember the last time I was there. But it was good to be back.

The arena was especially electric with Glens Falls playing in a 3:30 p.m. game Wednesday and Hudson Falls following afterward. Glens Falls won by two and Hudson Falls lost by two.

Glens Falls plays for the Class B championship Saturday at 12:45 p.m.

Greenwich event

Hoping you can make it out to the Greenwich Free Library Thursday, March 9 at 6:30 p.m. for panel discussion about newspapers and journalism.

I will give a short presentation at 6:30 p.m. about the value of newspapers in their community and will be joined at 7 p.m. by former Schenectady Gazette Editor Judy Patrick and Albany Times Union reporter Wendy Liberatore.

There is never any shortage of conversation when three newspaper people get together.

PBS interview

For those who receive Mountain Lake PBS, I will be appearing on the “Mountain Lake Journal” show on Friday at 8 p.m. The interview will also be aired on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 10 a.m.

It was a great discussion with host Thom Hallock.

Once it airs, I will make the interview available with a link here.