Usually, I try to stay pretty apolitical on my blog. There are enough political opinions on the web, and most of them probably do less to persuade and more to convince those who already agree just how right they are. When I see politics dominating a social media timeline, I typically see a bunch of pile on posts. It hardly seems conducive to changing someone’s perspective. You’ve typically got some would-be Robespierre — waiting to behead someone as soon as their imagined revolution comes. They ratchet up the stakes of the conversation, with vows never to forget, like poorly sketched comic book villains. The mobs form around these rabble-rousers. Soon, it’s understood that the worst thing you can do in those situations is to acknowledge the humanity of your political opponent, or that they could have a perspective worth considering.
Having said all that, and emphasizing an overall commitment to mostly stay away from the political scene, I can’t help but feel something like joy at the recent turn of events for Fox News. As the case of Dominion Voting Systems against Fox picks up steam, Fox is scrambling to rationalize their dishonest behavior in promoting conspiracy theories. In the latest turn of events, Fox chairman, Rupert Murdoch, has made admissions of such malfeasance.
Mr. Murdoch’s remarks, which he made last month as part of Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox, added to the evidence that Dominion has accumulated as it tries to prove its central allegation: The people running the country’s most popular news network knew Mr. Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election were false but broadcast them anyway in a reckless pursuit of ratings and profit.
The Fox News network has done tremendous damage to discourse in the US by pushing misinformation and lies. When those behind the network knew the right thing to do regarding the last election, they chose the path they knew to be wrong. To put it in Judeo-Christian terms, they bore false witness against their neighbors. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. Schadenfreude isn’t a particularly Christian thought pattern, but it’s hard to avoid in this situation. When you’ve watched wrong being done so often, with such malignant effects on the body politic, and with so little accountability, it’s difficult not to feel some sense of justice at this turn of events.
