GOP now a 'dime-store front for a terrorist group': MSNBC host
Standing in for MSNBCs Chris Hayes, Dr. Jason Johnson addressed the ongoing litigation from Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News for knowingly attacking their company, claiming that they somehow stole the 2020 election.
The revelations discovered in court filings and depositions showed that not only did the 2020 conspiracy go to the top of News Corp., but there were conversations with Fox executives about the network making them more money.
Johnson admitted in a conversation with Media Matters president Angelo Carusone, "this stuff infuriates me. ... Can you think of another instance in the last 15 or 20 years where there has been such obvious, obvious lying, not by a particular anchor, not by a particular show, but a conspiracy by an entire network to lie and knowingly lie about an issue that affected the public? Can you think of any examples in the last 15, 20 years?"
Carusone suspects that it happens all the time at Fox but there has only been evidence about it recently, saying it requires clear-cut evidence.
"It was about 12 years ago. There was a series of leaked internal communications from Fox News that we were able to acquire, that actually showed Fox executives telling producers to lie about the temperature record, because if they actually told people what the temperature record was, it suggested that global warming was real, and that their audience didn't want to hear that," he recalled. "But that was only three emails. And it was explosive back then. But what we didn't see, three months of internal communications where they were saying that all those things and they're also saying, 'oh, we know that none of these things we are saying is true.' But we're doing it not just for profit, but also power. And I think that power has been left out of this discussion. And I think that's partly what makes this so disturbing, getting all this discussion, is that it's scary. It's not just about money for Fox News. They're also doing it for power. Power that they use and operationalize to drive change, not just in policy, but in our culture, and in our country."
He went on to say that it's just another example of a corporation where the ends justify the means.
"They sort of know what the goal is, and so sometimes, you have to lie and fib," continued Carusone. "That's why the power part of this conversation is very important. Why the audience doesn't backlash against them when they are being derided, or that their hosts are admitting that there are lies, because they all know that lies are done to serve a larger objective."
He closed by saying that people should treat Fox the way they treat Alex Jones and other outlets that are known for misrepresenting the truth.
"I think everyone needs to change their behavior around Fox because they are no longer masquerading as a news operation," said Carusone. "They are a destructive, dangerous political operation, and that's the part where we all have to act accordingly. Start treating it like enforce, and a lot less like we've been tweeting Fox News before we saw the recent revelations."
But it was Johnson that dropped the mic on the conversation.
"I've been saying the same thing about the Republican party there, they are no longer a party. They are a dime-store front for a terrorist organization called MAGA."
See the exchange below or at the link here:
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