In a forthcoming book, a pair of New York Times reporters and CNN political analysts report that President Joe Biden "assessed" Fox News "as one of the most destructive forces in the United States."
The reporters, Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, say that Biden was even more critical of Fox Corp patriarch Rupert Murdoch. According to the book, Biden told an unnamed associate in mid-2021 that Murdoch was "the most dangerous man in the world."
I sure hope Biden really said this. I only wish more people were willing to say it in public and to treat Murdoch as the amoral civic toxin that he is.
amoral civic toxin
Nice turn of phrase. Couldn't agree more.
Fox News' repeated promotion of vaccine/mask-skepticism is almost certainly why 10,000 are dead from COVID (1% of one million).
Kevin has written about the Fox/Murdoch menace off and on, but in January 2021 alone, he had 11 posts that should be read by everybody at the NYTimes, WaPo, ABC, CBS, NBC (I'm looking at you Chuck Todd).
1) Tucker: “It’s not your fault. It’s their fault”
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2021/01/tucker-its-not-your-fault-its-their-fault/
2) When Will Republicans Finally Disown Fox News?
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2021/01/when-will-republicans-finally-disown-fox-news/
3) Forget Social Media: Fox News Is Still the Real Problem
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2021/01/forget-social-media-fox-news-is-still-the-real-problem/
4) At Fox News, It’s Always About Scary Threats to White People
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2021/01/at-fox-news-its-always-about-scary-threats-to-white-people/
5) What Can We Do About Fox News?
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2021/01/what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/
6) Why Did Trust in Government Plummet? The Answer Below!
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2021/01/why-did-trust-in-government-plummet-the-answer-below/
7) Fox News Is the Source of All Evil
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2021/01/fox-news-is-the-source-of-all-evil/
8) It’s Time to Crush Fox News
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2021/01/its-time-to-crush-fox-news/
9) McConnell Denounces Trump, But Not Fox News
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2021/01/mcconnell-denounces-trump-but-not-fox-news/
10) Fox News Decides It’s Not Right-Wing Enough
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2021/01/fox-news-decides-its-not-right-wing-enough/
11) Here’s How to Fix What’s Wrong With the United States
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2021/01/heres-how-to-fix-whats-wrong-with-the-united-states/
So many of my progressive friends are oblivious about Fox News' influence. They don't watch the channel. Maybe they watch MSNBC or listen to NPR, but those outfits don't go hammer and tong against Fox. I think there's misguided institutional solidarity that causes them to pull their punches. Plus, Fox is not above unleashing the populist hounds on individual reports they disdain.
Did you repost this or did it come out of moderation purgatory? Not sure I’ve ever seen that if it has. Either way, nice to see with the links.
I agree that Murdoch deserves being drawn and quartered on international television with microphones all around him to broadcast the whimpers and screams. But "the world's most dangerous man?" He doesn't have any nukes, so there are at least three others WAAAAAYYYYY ahead of him in that contest.
You don’t need nukes yourself if you can get somebody with nukes to act stupidly with them. If Rupert gets Trump installed in the White House again, and then Trump offhandedly decides to nuke somebody, setting off another world war or merely just millions dead and millions more with radiation poisoning… well, Rupert may not have been THE most dangerous man in the world, but he’ll still rank pretty high on the Dangerous Asshole List in that scenario.
Do you really believe a US President can indeed “offhandedly decide” to launch nuclear weapons?
Do you really believe a US President can indeed “offhandedly decide” to launch nuclear weapons?
Legally, no. Practically? It's an open question. If you think we have sufficient controls countering the ability of a US president to end human civilization as we know it, I'm all ears. But it's abundantly clear that the contemporary US military doesn't wait for a congressional declaration to wage war. It obeys its commander-in-chief. And the United States (and its NATO allies) still has not adopted a "no first use" policy.
"Offhandedly" may be overstating things. May. But probably not by much.
But "the world's most dangerous man?" He doesn't have any nukes, so there are at least three others WAAAAAYYYYY ahead of him in that contest.
Joe Biden may have the nuclear button. But he doesn't want to use it. You could probably say the same thing about Xi Jinping. Hell, even Vlad Putin likely doesn't want a nuclear war.
Rupert Murdoch operates a propaganda outfit that for a couple years now has been actively trying to get as many Americans killed as possible. Think about that. Said network is also robustly committed to ending American democracy. Think about that, too.
Reasonable people's calculus on this topic can differ, but Joe Biden's not being crazy here.
In short, you've given this WAAAAAYYYYY too little thought.
Of course Biden doesn't want to use the nuclear button. But if Xi or Putin believed that he could pull off a successful decapitation strike, neither would think about it a minute longer. Nor would Kim but he has no possibility of doing so.
Xi and Putin almost certainly have ants in their pants about when they have enough hypersonics in sub torpedo tubes to pull it off.
Oh, I just realized you thought I was including Joe Biden in the three nut cases. As my previous reply makes clear, I was not.
My first submitted comment is now in moderation purgatory probably b/c I had several complete URLs.
So here’s one where the user should prepend each with motherjones com/kevin-drum/2021/01/
---
Fox News' repeated promotion of vaccine/mask-skepticism is almost certainly why 10,000 are dead from COVID (1% of one million).
Kevin has written about the Fox/Murdoch menace off and on, but in January 2021 alone, he had 11 posts that should be read by everybody at the NYTimes, WaPo, ABC, CBS, NBC (I'm looking at you Chuck Todd).
1) tucker-its-not-your-fault-its-their-fault/
2) when-will-republicans-finally-disown-fox-news/
3) forget-social-media-fox-news-is-still-the-real-problem/
4) at-fox-news-its-always-about-scary-threats-to-white-people/
5) what-can-we-do-about-fox-news/
6) why-did-trust-in-government-plummet-the-answer-below/
7) fox-news-is-the-source-of-all-evil/
8) its-time-to-crush-fox-news/
9) mcconnell-denounces-trump-but-not-fox-news/
10) fox-news-decides-its-not-right-wing-enough/
11) heres-how-to-fix-whats-wrong-with-the-united-states/
So many of my progressive friends are oblivious about Fox News' influence. They don't watch the channel. Maybe they watch MSNBC or listen to NPR, but those outfits don't go hammer and tong against Fox. I think there's misguided institutional solidarity that causes them to pull their punches. Plus, Fox is not above unleashing the populist hounds on individual reports they disdain.
Well organized, sir.
At what point do we decide that our constitution isn't a suicide pact? Fox News is basically yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded movie theater every day.
Wide-open propaganda is destroying us and we really need to figure this out fast.
Sorry, but Justices Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch & Kavanaugh have ruled the Constitution is a suicide pack.
Could be ----- Mr Murdoch behind Putin to take over America .
Almost thirty years ago (thirty!), the great British playwright Dennis Potter said in an interview that he had named the pancreatic cancer that was killing him "Rupert" - after Murdoch - because it symbolised everything wrong with mass media.
It's only got worse since then.
This is actually easy to prove. If you look at the English speaking world, in the US, the UK and Australia (to a much lesser extent) the right wing has gone insane. In NZ, Canada, Ireland much much less so. The difference is the former have Murdoch press, the latter don't.
(before some pedant jumps on me yes I know there is more to the English speaking world but I know nothing of the politics of, for example, the Bahamas...)
The right wing in Australia and the United Kingdom aren't in the same league as America's. Not. Even. Close.
Lots of observers thought Brexit would wreck the EU. That was probably the hope of Putin, Farage and Murdoch. Putin’s and Murdoch’s creature Trump failed to wreck NATO. So I’d say the US and UK rightwings are about in the same place, each won a big battle, each lost a bigger one.
Brexit didn't destroy the EU, but I think it harm the UK to a greater degree than anything that Trump did harmed the United States. So in terms of shear destructiveness, UK conservatives have beat out US conservatives, at least so far.
By the way, I'm not sure that “lots” of observers thought that Brexit would destroy the EU. An internet search shows Brexit supporters citing an article in The Telegraph (UK) headlined, “Davos leaders fear 'Brexit' may be deathknell for EU,” but the claim made in the headline does not appear in the body of the article.
“Lots” was probably an overstatement, but I did read several opinions, including at least one that speculated on the next few countries to leave the Union (IIRC, Italy was to have been next). Here’s one by George Soros: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/brexit-eu-disintegration-inevitable-by-george-soros-2016-06 And: https://www.jstor.org/stable/90012623
Good point about the damage done to the UK by the conservatives/nationalists.
So I’d say the US and UK rightwings are about in the same place
I was referring to your use of the world "insane." The other political right wings in the English-speaking world mostly aren not: full on climate change denialists; full-on anti-vaxxers; full-on committed to violent overthrow of the government and/or elections nullification; full-on embracers of the Qannon batshittery; full-on committed to open carry of assault weapons at Walgreens and Target; full-on cheerleaders for Putin's genocidal war. And so on.
I take no pleasure in "bragging" about America's fucked up politics. And indeed I understand the temptation for Americans to think: We'll we're not going through anything other countries aren't.
It must be comforting to think this! But it's also, I'm afraid, happy talk. America really is a significant outlier right now. YMMV.
Fox News is a civic toxin. The democrats are going to lose control of congress. Nothing any of us want from government will ever be realized. In fact, government is going to become a threat to our well being more than ever before. It’s over. They won. It’s kind of a shame democrats didn’t put up more of a fight, but it’s not in their nature.
Respectfully, I have to disagree. To be clear, I do not like nor approve of Fox News content.
Rather, I see Murdoch/Fox News as opportunists. In the same way Tucker Carlson is an opportunist: recall be previously worked at MSNBC. The Fox News audience exists. If Fox News disappeared tomorrow someone else would serve the same audience.
The problem is not Murdoch/Fox News. Rather, the problem are the people who want to believe this BS.
These people have always existed but could never reach a critical mass absent right wing lie media.
The fact that somebody is an oportunist does not ansolve them of anything. If you have an opportunity to kill someone and somehow earn a lot of money from it and you actually do it, then you are an opportunist, but also a murderer that need to be treated as such.
So Murduch is an opportunist, but he is also an evil person that mkes fortunes by misleading and encouraging people people to do bad things.
I think you're seriously discounting the power of relentless propaganda. Nazis weren't just always there... Germany a couple decades prior to WW2 was an epicenter of refined culture.
With widely broadcasted propaganda and enough time any population can be transformed into rabid right wing crazies capable of awful things.
Unless we can do something about it assessing doesn't matter.
Why is joebiden trying to cancel Rupert Murdoch instead of engage him?
Another amoral toxin…. Rod dreher.
“Make no mistake: #ViktorOrban is the leader of the West now -- the West that still remembers what the West is.”
I do hope the transgender folks are enjoying their brief moments of liberation. These folks are coming for them soon enough. And the rest of us too.
Sending a message in song,
Putin is a Dick,
https://twitter.com/NJGuitarBoy/status/1511038428523159554
and the White House staff hasn't "walked it back" yet? Wow!
I can't document all the atrocities, but the media is deeply corrupted and Fox is only a part of the problem. Complaining about Fox is like complaining about the weather. Do something to kill it (defund it!) or ignore it or find a better way to defend against it. But don't pretend the rest of the media isn't the BIGGER part of the problem.
Why are many Americans in a panic about gas prices? Were they worried when prices were ostensibly higher in the Obama and Bush years? Were they worried when Trump pressured Saudi Arabia to cut oil production in April 2020, thereby boosting prices? They're panicking now because media has been on a 24/7 endless loop telling people to worry about soaring gas prices.
On the flip side, why do more Americans believe the economy lost jobs than gained jobs in the past year, according to a new poll? How odd, considering record gains of 400,000 jobs per month are unprecedented.
When the public believes up is down and down is up, it's not the fault of Fox. It's a massive failure of media like the New York Times*.
If the Times (et al.) did its job and informed the public -- and didn't let Fox set the agenda -- we would be in much better shape to defend ourselves against the misinformation and propaganda of Fox, the right-wing, and other Putin allies.
Media has constitutional protections but no constitutional system of checks and balances to rein in excesses. We need a better and more robust news media to fight misinformation and report the truth of what's happening in context.
* Media malpractice is nothing new for the Times. It holds a special place in American journalism and is the voice most listened to for everyone else in the news biz. Its influence far exceeds that of Fox. What the NYT chooses to report, chooses not to report, or chooses to misreport has had enormous impact on public sentiment, American policy, and our history. Too often, its record ranks somewhere between subpar and shameful. A short list of just recent history:
--Coverage of the Al Gore campaign
--Judith Miller's WMD reporting
--Under-reporting of Wall St. malfeasance (in its own backyard) prior to GFC
--Her emails
--The normalization of Trump & the radicalized GOP
--The new red scare of anti-wokeism
The world would still have problems to solve if the NYT had done its job. But it would be a better world indeed.
Let's not forget "Whitewater" , the White House Travel Office, Wen Ho Li, Vince Foster (may he rest in peace), and of course the Great Clinton Penis Hunt. Times reporters flooded into Arkansas and the locals took them for a ride. Big city yokels in action.
Well, yet another "Biden Gaffe." Now Fox News may start saying bad things about him and the Democratic Party.
/snark
Murdoch is old, very old.
Only the good die young.
Saw this -- https://osf.io/jrw26/ -- haven't read it yet, but the summary suggests that FNC viewers who were paid to watch CNN for a month saw the world differently afterward.
Deprogramming!