Rather than Fox hosts having to come clean live on air and tell the Big-Lie-­believing faithful that they were repeatedly lied to by them, Rupert Murdoch has paid a $787 million (ouch!) settlement in the defamation case brought by Dominion.

I’m reminded of that old movie “A Face in the Crowd,” where Andy Griffith plays a charismatic television performer who begins pushing a power agenda on a mush-minded audience debased by advertising jingles and political jingoism. Privately, he crows: “I’m not just an entertainer. I’m an influencer, a wielder of opinion, a force! … This whole country’s just like my flock of sheep. I own ‘em! … I’m gonna be the power behind the president.”

But then his public hears the truth when he thinks the audio has been cut off at the end of a broadcast: “Those morons out there? I could take chicken fertilizer and sell it to them as caviar … . They’re a lot of trained seals. I toss them a dead fish and they’ll flap their flippers … . Good night, you stupid idiots.”

With more litigation looming, Murdoch has cast off Tucker Carlson as a sacrificial viper. But at Fox, another snake will always rise to the top of the pit.

David Ninehouser

Ambridge

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