For FOX, lying *is* the business plan
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1648512370933923843.htmlCaroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D Profile picture
Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D
Fox News deserves the fine (it should be higher, IMO), obviously. But will making it expensive to lie deter powerful media corporations like Fox from lying? I don’t think so, because lying *is* the business plan — not a deviation from the plan. It’s how they make their money. 1/
Fox News will continue to lie. If needed, they’ll get more creative about how they lie, but they won’t stop lying.
Today’s fine is essentially a lying tax — for them, it’s just the cost of doing business. Their business is not “news with some lies.” Their business is lying. 2/
Fox News can eat this fine. They’d rather not, sure, but it’s not going to bankrupt them. This isn’t even the first time Fox News has reached a settlement with someone who suffered harm due to their lies. And the last one changed … nothing. 3/
Seth Rich's killing was exploited on Fox News and online. His parents are fed up
Seth Rich's killing brought incalculable loss to Joel and Mary Rich. Baseless conspiracy theories on Fox News made it even worse. They're speaking out for the first time since settling with Fox.
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/15/1104511732/fox-news-seth-rich-murder
Alex Jones was ordered to pay **half a billion dollars** for his Sandy Hook lies, and it had no observable effect on the media ecosystem, despite putting a VERY high price on lying. The problem is that the profit from lying is even higher than the price. 4/
Think of a bar that suddenly has to pay an alcohol tax for the first time. The bar owner is not going to be deterred from selling alcohol just because there’s a tax on it. Bars are in the alcohol business; without alcohol, there is no bar.
Fox is in the lying business. 5/
The deterrence model just doesn’t work with Fox News. If Fox stops lying, they will cease to be Fox — and even if they have to pay a massive lying tax, they know they’ll make up for it in profit. By lying. 6/
I think this is the most accurate take I've seen. I agree 100%.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Every hate-filled conspiracy theory. Every victim of a mass shooter. Anyone who's ever been bullied or harassed at school because they're LGBT. Anyone who's been the victim of a hate crime. Any black person who's been shot by white supremacist police officers just for going about their day. Every public school teacher that's been harassed by insane Christian conservative parents. Anyone who's ever been evicted because of out of control home owner's associations. People that are homeless because of policies that benefit billionaires and not the working class. Every family that's been divided because of hate-filled partisan rhetoric. Anyone who's had to get an abortion for health reasons. The list goes on and on.
And now Fox News looks like it's making moves towards committing genocide. The concentration camps weren't built in a day. It started with draconian legislation and discrimination. We've seen how this movie ends. It's a damn shame that America is engulfed in such hatred because of this piece of shit network. 
