Quick show of hands, please. Who among us did NOT expect what we got from the proven liar Tucker Carlson and the sleazy, lying Fox Not-News? Anyone? No, of course not. We ALL knew the reason House Kinda-Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave Carlson the security footage was so Carlson could twist the truth and re-start the whole “debate” about 45’s coup attempt and the assault on the Capitol building. Carlson, lying sleazeball that he is, did not disappoint.

In case you missed it, Carlson and Fox Not-News cherry-picked a few, seemingly peaceful moments from the January 6th insurrection and then pretended those carefully curated, isolated moments represented the entirety of the event. People from across the spectrum have been calling out, condemning the fraudulent commentary. Even some Republicans in Congress have dismissed Carlson’s crazy claims as misrepresenting the day.

NOBODY but MAGA cons believe any of the narrative anymore – but because of McCarthy, Carlson, and Fox Not-News, we get to start that fight all over again. How obnoxiously boring. At some point, one must admire the chutzpah, though.

I’m currently reading a book called ‘The Book of Vice’ by Peter Sagal. It’s an interesting little tome about the kinds of vice people engage in – and how. I’m currently on the chapter about lying. Appropriate, considering the topic at hand. The author provides a helpful list of the steps needed in a successful lie. (He also points out that, no matter what, sooner or later, the lie tends to be found out but if you lie successfully enough, it could be some time before that happens and you might well, essentially, get away with it.) Here are the steps, without his more detailed explanations:
1) Affect a reasonable and neutral demeanor.
2) Teach the “controversy.” Ignore the fact that one side – the liar’s – is completely made up…
3) Project your motives and methods onto the other side.
4) Your arguments are specific and seemingly verifiable; the opponents’ are broad and assertive.
5) NEVER GIVE IN. EVER.

Any of that sound familiar? Have you ever had to sit through a segment of Fox Not-News? You’ll recognize the steps with perfect clarity. It’s exactly what Carlson is doing right now with…well, with everything he says, really, but in this case, that’s his exact playbook for his lies about January 6th and what happened when the cons attacked the Capitol based on a whole slew of other lies.

It’s no surprise that people will lie for money and Fox Not-News has now been caught red-handed and dead-to-rights doing exactly that. They admitted it in their deposition. They knew they were lying about the election but did it anyway because they didn’t want to alienate their base and lose viewers. Keep the ratings up, keep the money coming in. They were free to admit it because they know their own, loyal viewers might well never even know they admitted to it under oath. Fox Not-News is certainly not going to tell them. They’re going to focus heavily on the “social controversy” about whether the green M&M is sexy enough to be using Hunter Biden’s laptop to read to children during gay pride week. Or whatever.

Even if they do find out, the author also happens to mention that, oftentimes, when people discover they’re being lied to – they go along with it anyway for fear of looking like they had been deceived by a liar. In other words, they double down on their pretended belief rather than confess they got conned.

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I don’t know if Dominion is going to win their suit or not. They’ve certainly laid out a convincing case and proven to thinking people everywhere what thinking people already knew. But Fox uses a technique that allows them to slither out of these things with a bit of ease. They simply pretend they’re not a news operation, at all. Whoever told you that? No, these are just actors, playing a part, reading a script.

Was Carrol O’Connor a bigot because he played Archie Bunker on television? Of course not. Could Sally Field really fly if she put on the right nun’s habit? Don’t be silly. No reasonable person assigns the actor playing the part with the character a person plays and if the actors on Fox Not News engage in the Method and just stay in character at all times when visible, well, that just shows their dedication to the craft.

I’ll tell you this: I wish I knew more about the law so I might have some idea about how a good lawyer might address that. I really would like to see these evil little dogs pay a price for the damage they’ve inflicted – and continue to inflict – on our once-great nation…