#2: 2020 Election
Despite having taken place almost three years ago now, Americans seem to remain partially divided over the results of the 2020 election. Though we have President Trump and his cohorts to blame for the widespread misinformation that followed the election, partisan media companies had a large hand in inflating election lies and unfounded rumors of election fraud.
A lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against the Fox News corporation revels new insights into the spread of misinformation surrounding the 2020 election. Court documents and testimony revealed that many Fox hosts and executives did not believe that the election had been stolen from Trump, they doubted the validity of the claims. Rubert Murdoch was quoted on email stating "really crazy and damaging stuff" to another executive in regard to Rudy Gulianis claims of election fraud broadcasted on the Fox News network.
Despite numerous sources discrediting the rumors, Fox News continued to push election lies. Fox holds 44% of cable news viewers in America and averages 2.3 million viewers per day. The views being broadcasted continued to help in the radicalization of Americans who believed the election was stolen. Host Tucker Carlson was quoted as stating "it is unbelievably offensive to me. Our viewers are good people, and they believe it" in newly released court documents just weeks after the election. Despite this admission, Carlson continued to push the lies onto his audience night after night.
This type of reporting is not partisan media, it is simply false. Fox is not able to blame this on lack of information, they knew good and well that what they were reporting was misleading, and likely straight up false, but they still they continued. This is not just an instance of partisan media siding with their party, this is propaganda at its finest. Many other news channels, including MSNBC, ABC, Huffington Post, CNN, and more reported that there was no election fraud and continuously fact checked the claims that were coming out. The viewers of those programs were able to see the whole truth and create their own opinion based off of fact. Fox News viewers formed opinions that were based off of lies told to them by their preferred television network.
Years ago, Fox, CNN, and MSNBC reported similar stories, with similar content, unless the piece was specifically designated as politically opinionated. Now, we see partisan media becoming increasingly polarized. Every reader of news deserves to know the whole truth. We can expect that smaller news media companies may push certain agendas or spread false news to their viewers, this is manageable when the company is smaller. When a mass media giant such as Fox begins partaking in these games, it becomes incredibly dangerous. Regardless of political party, citizens deserved to be rightfully informed.
Heres a link to some of the articles that referenced election fraud on Fox. These articles rarely, if ever, mentioned the evidence discrediting election fraud that other major media outlets were circulating at the time:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-doj-missing-in-action-alleged-election-fraud
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/live-updates-election-11-26-2020
Resources:
Smerconish: Fox News hid truth from viewers | CNN Business
https://www.npr.org/2023/02/20/1158223099/fox-news-dominion-wackadoodle-election-fraud-claim
Day,
ReplyDeleteI agree entirely that Fox News has been spreading false statements about election fraud. Moreover, it's extremely concerning that a news outlet with such an extensive reach would use its platform to spread information that is not based on facts. This undermines the trust that viewers have in the news, and it has the potential to cause serious damage to the integrity of our elections. Furthermore, this irresponsible reporting can lead to dangerous consequences and has the potential to incite violence and unrest. News outlets must be held to a higher standard and are held accountable for their reporting.
Hello Day,
ReplyDeleteI thought you did a great job highlighting fake news in the media. It does not surprise me that Fox news was spreading false information or did not tell the whole story has I have witnessed it from them in the past on numerous occasion. The media used to be very trustworthy, in a perfect world the media would broadcast news without taking a stance on it, and would provide its public with all of the information so that they can make their own opinion on it. But lately, the media has been so opiniated, they know their audiences and use tactics that sometimes hides the whole truth in order to make people agree or disagree with it. This is dangerous, and it is very important that people fact-check their news or use multiple news outlets when getting informed.