1933: “The best propaganda is that which, as it were, works invisibly, penetrates the whole of life without the public having any knowledge of the propagandistic initiative.” Goebbels’ Wikiquote
“Unless you can fake sincerity, you’ll get nowhere in this business.” Roger Stone Quote
I am regrettably not an attorney. But I am curious: If an entire staff agrees to tell easily proven false stories and portray them as truthful news, isn’t that Conspiracy to Commit Fraud? I get the first amendment issue and I agree: Yes. people have the right to say anything they want. I would be sad, for example, if the Onion and every other source of clever and funny satire were to disappear. But the Onion has not claimed to be anything but satire. Fox claims not just to be non fiction, but in fact to be the only legitimate source of facts, despite its contestable relationship with the truth (except for at least some of Chris Wallace’s work).
Of course if somebody used whatever power in the Justice Department to go after Fox for Conspiracy to Defraud the public, CNN, and MSNBC, and other stations as well as the NYT and Wapo, etc. would have to make sure they were legally covered as well, which would improve news value everywhere. It is reasonable that if the FCC shakes its collective rump and call out ALL of the news programs when they present or perpetuate false stories, news in America would have to improve. At this time, it seems like nobody, except news geeks like me seem to care. In fact, it is part of the FCC’s job to act on complaints of news distortions. According to the FCC website, “it is… illegal for broadcasters to intentionally distort the news, and the FCC may act on complaints if there is documented evidence of such behavior from persons with direct personal knowledge.” FCC Website
There has to be documented evidence “such as testimony from persons who have direct personal knowledge of an intentional falsification of the news” in order to act. FCC Website II What the FCC can truly do is unclear on the website. I think that the actual process of having to publicly justify questionable articles may go some distance to create more accurate and credible news. And all of this, of course, will have to wait for the Dollar Store Tyrant to leave office. This is an idea of what has happened to the FCC lately: Sinclair, or better known as the Billionaire News Corporation
Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Josef Goebbels
Trump confidante Roger Stone describing himself in INTIMATE detail.
Will McAvoy from HBO’s Newsroom, the best newscaster that never existed.
By the way, watch Will concisely and accurately describe why American News is such epic livestock waste:
Bittersweet Abattoir 