Commentary

‘It was an opportunity too good to pass up.  Fox had been good to me for a decade, but what the heck, I don’t owe them my allegiance. 

‘I can’t sit back and allow Tucker Carlson and Fox Nation get away with their attempt to clear Trump from inciting the January 6, 2021 riot and breach of the Capitol. It was an insurrection dammit.

‘I’ve tried to subdue my anti-Trump obsession, even to the extent of blaming my colleagues for that, but this is my chance to renew my hate.  Friendships be damned.‘

So, in newspapers across the country that carry Jonah Goldberg’s syndicated column, he wrote that Carlson’s special series, “Patriot Purge,” was the last straw. “It’s a perfect example of propaganda,” he wrote.

“I quit Fox News after more than a decade as a contributor,” he wrote, as he mentions that his business partner and long-time Fox contributor, Stephen Hayes, had quit, too.

The pair wrote of their decision in their outlet, The Dispatch, a week ago, but obviously decided to use Goldberg’s syndicated column to broaden the reach, not possible with the niche circulation of Dispatch.

Regular readers of this blog may recall that I recently wrote about the two long-time political writers, Goldberg and Hayes, often seen on Fox News Channel as contributors, though they had established their own online news entity.

Despite their well-known opposition to President Trump, Fox put them on air to provide balance. I must admit that I am occasionally disappointed by Fox’s “fair and balanced” motto, but know it to be correct.

Goldberg and Hayes believed in this too, writing, “most of the time, we were proud to be associated with the network.  We believed, sincerely, that the country needed Fox News. Having a news network that brought different assumptions and asked different questions, while still providing real reporting and insightful conservative analysis and opinion, was good for the country and journalism.”

Conceding that “Fox News still does real reporting, and there are still responsible conservatives providing valuable opinion and analysis, but the voices of the responsible are being drowned out by the irresponsible,” they assert, and point to Carlson and his Patriot Purge series as a case in point. 

The series was carried on Fox Nation, the network’s subscription streaming service, and only promoted on Fox News.  Goldberg viewed it as “a collection of incoherent conspiracy-mongering, riddled with factual inaccuracies, half-truths, deceptive imagery, and damning omissions.” 

Goldberg and Hayes have a right to their opinion. It’s what Fox hired them to provide as contributors in 2009.  Opinions that they gave as panelists on programs like Bret Baier’s Special Report.

But, to Fox’s credit, it saw the coverage of the events that took place on January 6, slanted in reporting by the so-called mainstream media, from the New York Times and Washington Post to CNN, MSNBC and NPR.

Much has been written about January 6, Capitol protest; much of it fabricated.

I found the research paper, “An Analysis of Misinformation and Sentiment in the Wake of the Capitol Riots,” published by Daniel Robert Walsh of West Virginia University quite compelling.

“The Capitol riots of January 6th, 2021,” he wrote, “was a signature moment in the history of the United States and a testament to the power of misinformation.”

Walsh devoted some of his research to the subject of misinformation and disinformation, noting that information fabrication is not new, misinformation has been featured in human communication throughout history.

“Before the riots took place, information was swarming online and on social media sites which engulfed people and led them to storm the Capitol building,” Walsh wrote. “The media worked to forge connections between disparate camps to incite participants toward violent activity, and to legitimize this attack as moral or even spiritual.  It was found that violent rhetoric and misinformation on social media ramped up in the weeks right before.”

Wait a minute.  I thought it was President Trump who incited the riot with his suggestion that “everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

However, Walsh’s report wasn’t without its own misinformation.  Like much of the media, he said the riot resulted in the deaths of five people without mentioning that four of them died of natural causes or the result of suicide.  Just one person, Ashli Babbitt, was killed unnecessarily by an out-of-control Capitol police lieutenant.

Pundits Goldberg and Hayes have lost their television platform.  If they turn up on MSNBC or CNN you will know how serious they believe in avoiding merchants of propaganda.

NEEDLESS TO EXPLAIN why Goldberg and Hayes are my obvious choices to share my December Fool’s Day recognition.

Now, more than ever … may God continue to bless the United States of America.