The Lowest of the Low
Some stories keep coming around no matter how much you try to avoid them. This happened yesterday when it was reported that Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto tested positive for COVID-19. Being that the reporter suffers from multiple sclerosis, you’d imagine that he has already been fully vaccinated against the virus.
Fox News is a deep dive of depravity and contradiction all by itself. There has always been a schism between the hard news division and the commentary division. Cavuto comes from the hard news division. When you look at only the news division you see some examples of bias, but it doesn’t outwardly appear to be all that bad.
Then comes the commentary. Their prime time hosts rail against vaccine mandates, mask mandates, and safety protocols as if the Gestapo were marching in and strapping everyone down to the chair. Yet, news has been oozing out about Fox News themselves. Seems their corporate policy says something else entirely.
We start with the usual disclaimers and statements of concern for people like Cavuto. Like Colin Powell yesterday, he represents the moral gray area where most people reside. Sometimes it’s light gray and sometimes it’s charcoal. Yet, this gray area exists for people that know the truth, don’t outwardly speak against it most of the time, but also don’t speak against those that would distort the truth. Powell made a career of selectively speaking truth to power. His critics would say he let far too many things go in the service of gaining more power.
I don’t know Neil Cavuto. I don’t know what makes him tick. I’m guessing he enjoys cashing his paycheck every couple of weeks and that is understandable on a certain level. Yet, it is hard to take anyone seriously from a news agency that doesn’t consider itself a news agency legally. They have been taken to court before for reporting and commentary that has been less than accurate. Each time they’ve thrown out the defense that they are an entertainment company.
There is something to be said about people that know the truth, follow the truth in their own personal lives, and then speak the opposite in public. We can most assuredly add more to those that say these things for the mere purpose of garnering ratings and cultivating an audience for profit. Judas famously got his 30 pieces of silver for betraying Jesus. I suppose Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity have simply done a good job of negotiating on their own behalf.
In the old days, scholars asserted that heresy was the worst of sins. In that case, it was people preaching the absence of God. Yet, one wonders how horrible a sin it is to simply believe something different than the majority. In the case of COVID, an idiot can be forgiven his idiocy if that idiocy is his natural condition. In other words, if he really believes his rhetoric he is to be pitied and pat on the head.
What Fox News does is somehow worse than heresy. While it may be implied, the definitions of heresy do not overtly say whether the heretic actually believes the lie. Fox News definitely doesn’t. They all bask in the glow of their own vaccinations and somehow peddle “freedom” to the masses like rancid red meat you wouldn’t even feed your dog.
I haven’t read Dante lately. Perhaps he could tell us which concentric circle of hell that gets you into. There is no greater sin than to know the truth, live the truth, and then to speak against the truth for your own personal gain. There is no greater evil that exists in the world. There should be no greater punishment than what awaits you at the end. I’d love for that punishment to be on a Biblical level, but I’ll settle for a class action lawsuit.
Cavuto is a scumbag. The fact that he occasionally refrains from lying doesn’t lessen his essential allegiance to an anti-democratic propaganda outlet.
1Leviticus 19:11
2A couple of minor points, Nick. Roman Catholic scholars defined heresy more broadly than just asserting the absence of god. They pursued many “heresies”: arianism, manicheanism, gnosticism, etc. The old and disgusting Army Airborne quote from Vietnam (Kill them all, let God sort them out) first appeared centuries earlier when the church sent soldiers to wipe out the Cathars in southern France. That version involved the reply a commander made when they were killing infants: God will know his own.
I don’t know if the church teaches that history, or tries to gloss over it. The closest I ever came to a Catholic education was in elementary school, being chased off by nuns when playing baseball on the lawns of Our Lady of Victory School. That kept me safely away from any catechism.
Also, your link about the Fox News defense of being an entertainment company goes to a subscriber only Business Insider article. There’s other sources that report the same thing … but I don’t think anyone here will argue about that claim!
3“There is no greater sin than to know the truth, live the truth, and then to speak against the truth for your own personal gain.”
Amen, brother. It is a sin of which Fox News and all its ilk are guilty, every single day. There is something terribly wrong when Fox can call itself news, until there ought to be consequences for their lies, then hide behind the shelter of “entertainment.”
4There is no hell, except here on earth and it is manmade. Otherwise there would be sinkholes opening up in specific places for rapid depopulation. Would the Pentagon or Fox HQ be the first to go? Perhaps the RNC HQ and The Leadership Institute that produced Moscow Mitch and the former Vice Poodle. Some say everything the ***king moron** touches turns to unusable compost. Others say he’s the “symptom not the disease.” Neither would be incorrect. But for those of us geared toward eradicating the disease, focus should be on Morton C. Blackwell; https://www.leadershipinstitute.org/
“Follow the money” is another tried and true. Regarding the media/social media disinformation noise machine three names pop: Rupert Murdoch, Koch and Zuckerberg. Obvious others too, of course. https://www.nolabels.org/
One might ask why an investigative journalist isn’t on this. If such a beast as an “investigative journalist” still exists their reluctance is appreciable. Open the second link. Lord and hellfire, the truth goes down numerous conspiracy rabbit warrens of wtf that would make any reasonable person question whether they’ve fallen into conspiracy theory paranoia or if they’re pulling out the truth thread by thread.
But for the love of dogs, heaven and hell are without merit. But we can take it on good authority that the Rainbow Bridge does exist.
5A heretic may – and usually does – believe their particular heresy. A liar knows they’re lying, and that’s the difference. Fox ‘News’ knows they’re lying, and that should be the subject of a lawsuit, or at least action by the FCC.
6I won’t watch a second of fux news except when it pops up as a story like on MSNBC. That was the case yesterday when Ari Melber aired (f)tucker “entertaining” his sheep about fully vaccinated Colin Powell getting covid and dying. Obviously he was trying to make a point about how vaccines don’t work. And then later he followed up that he had originally not mentioned Powell’s having been under treatment for cancer. He then said “and that’s the point”. That made no sense except he was going even lower by blaming vaccines for killing him because of his cancer treatment????
7As for Cavuto, he could have fled fux years ago and gone to a real news organization, but staying condones their misuse of the airwaves. He better hope karma goes easy on him.
For the ultimate FoxNews critique, y’all should look at the NewsHounds website. The gentlewomen [mostly] of NewsHounds have been slicing and dicing Fox for almost two decades.
NewsHounds We watch Fox so you don’t have to!
https://www.newshounds.us
.
The NewsHounds philosophy is much like that of JJ’s TWMDBS:
“About the News Hounds:
Like many projects, this one started out as something else. In early 2004, eight citizens from different backgrounds and locations around the USA teamed up via MoveOn.org and the internet (thank you, Al Gore!) to volunteer our services for OUTFOXED, a documentary film by Robert Greenwald regarding Fox News Channel. For approximately three months, each of us watched FNC conscientiously for five or more hours a week and posted our findings regarding Fox’s self-proclaimed mission of fair and balanced reporting.
Appalled by our results, we, who would not meet in person until months later, banded together in cyberspace in concern and outrage over the failure of American media, and Fox News in particular, to relate the news properly. Rather than serve as the public’s eyes and ears, Fox and other media conglomerates have become echo chambers for the rich and powerful with whom they have become all too cozy. This blog is an attempt to counter that alarming condition. We believe that a viable democracy depends upon viable media. We invite you to join us in our efforts here and elsewhere to make a difference in the future of our country.”
8I think it’s just money. The lies sell, I.e. make Cavuto money. It’s just like Manchin not wanting the environmental part of Biden’s plan because it might hurt his coal interests. Heresy is a gray area for me, but I do think that the love of money is the root of all evil.
9Sort of surprising but NewsHounds’ Ellen is sympathetic to Cavuto here [they’re usually not, editorially].
10https://www.newshounds.us/neil_cavuto_tests_positive_for_covid_101921
Sandridge @8, if one wasn’t familiar with Newshound Ellen’s writing style, one might suspect she was trolling. She’s not. Just one of those befuddling people who mistake phony manners for decency. If “kill them with kindness” was real, Ellen would have succumbed years ago. She lacks the killer instinct as do most centrist Democrats. Reason #1001 Democrats are so good at snatching defeat from he jaws of victory.
11Jane & PKM: you’re right that the main stream media won’t bite the hands that feed them. There are some good investigative news sources – just not enough of them, and they’re not well-funded. Here’s my list of links in case anyone is interested:
https://www.propublica.org/ [they also actively solicit ideas for investigation]
https://publicintegrity.org/ : the Center for Public Integrity
https://theintercept.com/ : broad-based international investigative reporting
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/ : tips somewhat towards opinion, but still worthwhile
https://www.icij.org/ : International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
https://revealnews.org/
https://www.motherjones.com/topics/investigations/ : I have subscribed to MJ magazine since it first started and always have a soft spot for it. The uber-link at
https://www.motherjones.com/
is a good place to start as well
I also prefer to read news without all that newfangled stuff like videos and pictures. Although not investigative, these are good for plain text:
https://text.npr.org/ : good ol’ NPR
http://lite.cnn.com/en : CNN. Don’t throw things at me, please.
http://68k.news/ : organized by news item, with multiple links for each story
And now I’ve got a link for Newshounds – thanks!
12Jane & PKM @8, Yep, the genteel NewsHounds and Ms. Ellen seldom exhibit ‘the killer instinct’ or go for the jugular [which peeps like you and I do in an instant], but I’ve known them since they began and admire them greatly.
13They’ve done excellent journalism all these years, exposing the lies and propaganda of FuxNooz long before, and more thoroughly, than any others have. A most welcome cleanup service to the nation and world.