Fox News takes its cues from Trump, moves closer to being state-run media

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Image by News Corpse

When polls from various sources started showing a noticeable shift in public opinion over the past several months in favor of impeaching Donald Trump, he and his army of cultists and sycophants obviously dismissed them as “Fake News.” After all, if it’s unfavorable news from media sources that Trump has identified as “enemies of the American people,” it can’t possibly be true.

Then came the release of last week’s poll conducted by Trump Pravda (aka Fox News) that showed how there was nothing fake about how a growing number of Americans (51%) want to see Trump impeached and removed from office.

True to form, Trump attacked the messenger instead of the message in a very disturbing tweet where he stated that “Fox News doesn’t deliver for us anymore.”

Rants like this are common for the man who would rather pass the buck than stop it at his desk, but this latest episode showed how fears about Trump’s disregard of the First Amendment aren’t without merit.

In a land of liberty, the press, in all its forms, isn’t supposed to “deliver” for the government. According to Founding Father and author of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson, a free press is necessary for our Republic to survive and as such, makes it a primary target of people like Trump.

“No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It is, therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.192, Rowman & Littlefield

How far is Trump willing to go in his obvious attempt to essentially build a state-run media? Perhaps we witnessed the answer to that question last week.

On Wednesday, just prior to Trump’s Twitter tirade against Fox, Attorney General Bill Barr met privately with Fox News Chairman Rupert Murdoch at the media mogul’s home in New York. The attendees and subject matter are unknown because both Barr and Murdoch have refused to discuss the details of the meeting.

In August, there was a major falling out between Fox’s chief news anchor Shepard Smith and one of the network’s most extreme sycophants next to Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson. No big deal on its own, but then came the Barr/Murdoch meeting. A few days after that meeting, Smith suddenly announced that he was resigning after working for Fox from its founding 23 years ago.

Smith had established himself as a “fair and balanced” counter to the Trumpists who dominate Fox’s prime time lineup (Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham), and that didn’t sit too well with the Narcissist-in-Chief. During the August kerfuffle, Trump openly took sides against Smith:

Was Smith targeted by Trump in the Barr/Murdoch meeting? Let’s put it this way, he didn’t look all that disappointed at the “news.”

Clearly, Trump cares more about himself than he does the Constitution and he’ll do everything within his power — or through the abuse of power — to destroy Freedom of the Press.

Fox News’ cushy relationship with Trump is nothing new; it was the primary reason former co-president Bill Shine joined the White House staff last summer. But this latest situation means Fox News continues to take its cues from the dictator-wannabe and will participate in Trump’s defacto state-run media  . . . and that’s bad news for liberty.

 

David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative.

His daily radio commentary is distributed by the Salem Radio Network and is heard on stations across America.

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