Fox News sees its own viewers as 'uninformed simpletons': former right-wing operative

Fox News believes that its own viewers are "uninformed simpletons" — and is constantly working to pander to them, but powerless to truly control them, argued former right-wing media consultant and The Young Turks contributor Matthew Sheffield in a Twitter thread on Thursday.

This comes as new revelations in the $1.6 billion lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News showing that Fox News figures knew their claims about the 2020 election being "stolen" from former President Donald Trump were untrue.

"Despite what some have theorized, Fox and Donald Trump are not actually in control of the Republican base," wrote Sheffield. "The frantic text messages and emails from Fox leaders & anchors show that Fox's business is monetizing mob outrage by running to the front of the crowd."

"We've seen this already with Trump's base refusing to heed his calls on candidate endorsements and Covid vaccinations, but now we see that Fox executives and hosts are terrified of losing their deranged cash cow. Fox is the ultimate 'safe space,' in other words," wrote Sheffield. "The Dominion documents have revealed that Fox views its audience as uninformed simpletons who are so wrapped up in their own hatred of fellow Americans that they cannot bear to hear about inconvenient facts. Suzanne Scott, Fox CEO pretty much states this repeatedly."

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Fox News is also having to explain why their own internal fact-checkers who clearly debunked election falsehoods at the time were marginalized and retaliated against — and why Fox CEO Suzanne Scott attacked them in internal communications because they don't "understand our viewers."

Fox has continued to deny all allegations that their coverage was defamatory, asserting that they were simply covering a controversy and their activities were protected press activity.

“Dominion and its private equity owners join a long line of public figures and corporations across the country that have long tried to silence the press and this lawsuit from Staple Street Capital-owned Dominion is nothing more than another flagrant attack on the First Amendment," said the network in a message to Raw Story. "FOX News will continue to fiercely protect the free press as a ruling in favor of Dominion would have grave consequences for journalism across this country.”