The truth will out…

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on it’s shoes… – Charles Spurgeon

Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth… – Buddha

The truth seems to be making something of a comeback in this once-great nation, despite the best efforts of conservative media. With Alex Jones being ordered to pay over One Billion dollars to the people he lied about in the Sandy Hook shooting to the impending challenge to the lies of Fox “News,” there seems, finally, to be a way to combat misinformation that is having an effect: defamation lawsuits. The latest? Why, that would be Rupert Murdoch – chief evil leader of Fox “News.” When the broadcasters take their lies too far, they can be sued. It isn’t easy but it works when it can be used and I think people who CAN sue for defamation, should sue for defamation.

Oh, and before the cons all start in with, “well, two can play at that game,” no…you can’t. Since you can never prove your lies (being, you know, lies) you can’t prevail in a defamation suit. You don’t have any evidence supporting your claims and trying to only opens up your company to further scrutiny. As it happens, the truth is a one-way weapon. Because of conservative mendacity, facts really DO have a liberal bias, these days…

People who understand things know that Murdoch’s “Fox” has been broadcasting mostly lies for something like 26 years. They’ve had such a huge megaphone, very little has been able to slow them down and certainly no one has stopped them. But now? Murdoch tied his fortunes to America-hating Donald Trump. Like most things Trump-associated, the relationship has left Trump intact but Fox “News” facing impending destruction. (Fingers crossed.)

Dominion Voting Systems took exception to Trump’s lies about the so-called “stolen election.” When Fox “News” decided to support the lie and trumpet the fraud, Dominion decided to sue for defamation. According to the Guardian, they’re building a pretty solid case. They’ve been deposing one lying piece of…um, failed human being after another. The next on the list is old Rupert, himself. They’re slowly exposing each and every operating piece of the internal workings of Fox.

I’ve spent years fretting over Fox “News.” I’ve been stunned, over and over, as they broadcast some obviously stupid lie, only to have their consumers start repeating it just a little later that day. The daily Fox talking points became fodder for one lying right-wing broadcast and/or publication after another. It became fashionable among the people who don’t understand things to pretend they never watch Fox “News” the minute they realized citing Fox hurt and didn’t help their credibility. At some point, I realized it might even be true that they don’t watch but that didn’t mean they weren’t citing Fox “News.” Just because that person hadn’t watched, didn’t mean other people hadn’t watched then picked up and repeated the talking point. It’s been very frustrating.

Fox is pretending it’s presenters are protected by journalistic privilege. The problem is, at least one of their presenters, one Sean Hannity, has said over and over again that he’s NOT a journalist. He’s just a talk-show host. He’s blatantly saying he doesn’t have to tell the truth since he’s not a journalist while Fox is arguing that, as a journalist, Hannity is protected in his lies. It can’t be both and I accept Hannity’s own statement of his position over Fox’s. Meanwhile, most of the people who stuck to the truth have been purged from Fox. (They just really hate the truth over there. It never, EVER helps conservative causes…)

I don’t know how this will play out. The sensationalist headline in the Guardian reads, ‘Is Dominion’s $1.6bn Defamation lawsuit a death blow for Murdoch and Fox News?‘ Murdoch is worth billions. Even after paying over a billion dollars (and still counting) in the UK related to another of his scandal rag’s wrongdoing – in this case the hacking of private phones – he can lose the Dominion suit and STILL have billions of dollars available to finance Fox so I doubt it will be a “death blow.” Still, it’s going to hurt.

I’ll tell you this: I’d like to see Fox have to broadcast, over and over, a complete retraction and apology for the misinformation on each show that supported the lie, for as many times as they told the lie, with a proviso that they can NOT dismiss it as “error.” I doubt such a legal remedy is available but it would be fun (and honestly a bit weird) hearing Fox “News” hosts telling the truth for a change…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of lying liars, Kari Lake – who ran a losing campaign for Governor of Arizona – is trying her hand at the trump technique of whining about the election and begging for a do-over. (The United States doesn’t DO do-overs.) She’s pretty sure she’d have won if only so many Democrats hadn’t come out to vote against her and she has the “fix” in mind. She thinks it would be great if the courts would just throw out all the democratic votes and leave only the Republican votes intact – because she’s “concerned” about improper elections. I guess we’re not supposed to noticed that arbitrarily tossing away votes against you is the very definition of “improper.” It seems Lake is just fine with that kind of tampering.

I’ll tell you this: I’ll be very happy when this “they stole the election” bunk is finally laid to rest. It’s tiresome…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m pretty excited to see what Brock Purdy can do with the Forty-Niners today. He’s the seventh round pick taken to run a practice squad and not really expected to need to do more. Now, because of injuries, Purdy is thrust into the role of starting Quarterback on a team making a playoff run. There’s been much talk (speculation) about how Purdy will do, being a seventh round pick and facing off against Tom Brady, the most asterisked player of all time.

Brady has regularly been associated with the stink of cheating since his early days in the league but nobody can question his talent and skill. (It’s one of the main reasons all the cheating has been so frustrating. He doesn’t need to and never has.) People often dismiss Purdy’s chances because he’s a seventh round pick. They seem to forget that Brady, himself, was a sixth round pick, also never really expected to do much and who, coincidentally, also got his opportunity because of injuries. If the story gets framed as sixth rounder vs seventh rounder, it sounds like it will be a much more balanced game.

I’ll tell you this: I’m pulling for Purdy. Yes, partly because he’s running my home team but also, I like the underdog story and Purdy could be it…in spades. (Fingers crossed…)