Push Back Against the Big Lies: UnFox Your Cable Box
The GQP’s future is based upon the premise of altering people’s perceptions of reality by telling Big Lies, over and over, and over again. Today’s column is about taking a first (and likely symbolic) step to stop their spread.
The Biggest Lie of all is the claim about the 2020 election results being hijacked. Not only the the former occupant of the White House repeating it often, his legions of toadies are getting airtime pushing this hooey. And there are more than 100 laws being proposed in state legislatures to combat ‘voter fraud’ by disenfranchising broad segments of the electorate.
Other networks are influenced by Fox’s programming out of a misguided “both sides” approach to news shows.
https://twitter.com/MattNegrin/status/1363530812759678979?s=20
Even when confronted with indisputable evidence contradicting their Big Lies, GQP talking heads will simply repeat them endlessly, as Rep. Steve Scallise did on ABC on Sunday..
California Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney sent letters to various carriers including AT&T, Verizon, Roku, Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Charter, DISH, Cox, Altice and Hulu asking about justifications for carrying Fox News, One America News Network and Newsmax.
From Politico:
“Right-wing media outlets, like Newsmax, One America News Network (OANN), and Fox News all aired misinformation about the November 2020 elections,” Eshoo and McNerney wrote. “These same networks also have been key vectors of spreading misinformation related to the pandemic.”
In a nod to Congressional anger about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, members of the Energy and Commerce Committee say the right-leaning outlets are serving as “misinformation rumor mills and conspiracy theory hotbeds that produce content that leads to real harm.”
This, of course, has the right wing propaganda outlets in a tizzy, crying about “Cancel Culture” and the First Amendment. They’re probably right about the Bill of Rights stuff, but wrong about the irresponsible content of the newscasts.
The Constitution says “Congress shall make no law...” and I haven’t seen any legislation proposed that would impose on Newsmax’ right to yell “fire” in a crowded theater.
The House Energy and Commerce telecom subcommittee will hold a hearing on Wednesday devoted to what it calls misinformation and disinformation hosted on cable and broadcast networks. And that’s where this will end. They just want to do something to raise awareness about the moral rot coming through people’s cable connections.
You can have a role in pushing back against the purveyors of misinformation.
This year Fox News contracts with various big cable providers are expiring. The (roughly $2) “subscriber fee” baked into your monthly provider bill going towards Fox content amounts to 65% of the network’s subscriber fee revenue, totaling $1.8 billion annually.
(In the three years since I cut my cable and signed up for Roku I have unknowingly sent Fox $87.)
While advertiser boycotts have resulted in small changes in Fox programming, as long as they’re getting twice the fees per subscriber for CNN and triple what MSNBC collects, they really have no incentive to look at themselves in the mirror.
Fox News gets those high fees in part by leveraging its loyal audience of 3.5 million households to put pressure on the providers during negotiations. There are 86.5 million other users of cable, streaming, and satellite TV that DON’T watch Fox.
Traditional cable companies have lost 25 million homes since 2012, and there are predictions they’ll lose another 25 million by 2025.
If enough people say “I don’t want to buy a package that includes Fox” they have an incentive to start listening. It never hurts to ask. Note that I'm not asking you to request that they drop Fox News; I'm just saying you shouldn't have to pay for it.
There is ONE provider who doesn’t carry Fox News (Philo). However, they don’t carry any news channels. All the rest are sending money monthly to pay Sean Hannity’s hairdresser.
Another alternative is to just pay your choice of the various streaming services and hook up a high tech version of a TV antenna for broadcast stations. (I live in a cement canyon --buildings all around--so the TV antenna idea is a non starter for me.)
There is now an organized effort to get the super-duper majority of non-Fox fans to stand up and be counted. If you want to stop paying the Fox News “tax,” now is the time to act.
In a perfect world, content carriers would give consumers the ability to opt in (or out) of programming that doesn’t suit their tastes. Since their business models are based on getting content providers to pay for all kinds of content that most consumers have no interest in, I’m afraid the days of ala carte bundles are not coming anytime soon.
The folks at Media Matters (who watch Fox News so you don’t have to) have organized the #unfoxmycablebox campaign. (Click on the hash tag for more info.)
They are aiming to make enough noise to make providers stop paying Fox such exorbitant amounts of money.
Sign up, stay updated on Fox News’ negotiations with cable and satellite providers and they’ll let you know if they’re trying to raise the price of subscriber fees in your area.
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Privilege personified. Go to the back of the line.
https://twitter.com/TUSK81/status/1364016239811551233?s=20
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Lead image: Street artist Mogul