The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News - Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties

It doesn’t take long to find someone who doesn’t like The Media.

Conservatives despise CNN. Liberals hate Fox. All the while, there are a million offshoots placating everyone’s political ideologies and affirming that what they believe is right. Social media fuels the fire, allowing endless opportunities for people to share supercharged takes and baseless lies.

There was a brief break in the cycle last week, however. Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems worth $787.5 million over lies the network propagated during the 2020 presidential election. Turns out, there are repercussions when you falsely claim fiction as fact all while sowing massive doubt in the democratic process.

Star Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who fanned the flames of election denialism following 2020, was axed shortly after the settlement was announced. That came as a huge shock for folks on both sides of political spectrum – Carlson drew massive ratings and loads of revenue for Fox. While liberals celebrate his canning, they can rest assured another partisan hack will fill the void in short order. There’s money to be made and biases to reaffirm, after all.

The Fox settlement is a mere snapshot of greater issues that reside in how Americans consume news, albeit an expensive one. It spans television to other platforms like Facebook, Twitter, podcasts and YouTube – rage equals revenue, and it doesn’t pay to quit riling up the masses. Unfortunately, the big networks will never stop pumping out biased vitriol because that’s what made them rich in the first place. Equally unfortunate is that Americans will keep tuning in and logging on. There will never be any shortage of eyeballs and clicks if these media giants keep spreading garbage that makes our brains buzz. The news shouldn’t be entertainment, but that’s what it’s become.

The Dominion settlement is a disappointment for people who wanted to see folks at Fox take the stand and face their lies. Alas, the almighty dollar reigned supreme and Fox paid to make the problem go away. The bigger issue still exists though, and it’s the only reason the lawsuit happened in the first place. Americans never want to be wrong anymore and can’t face the music when things don’t turn out the way we hoped they would. Fox and the like are here to tell us that, yes, you’re right – it’s all a conspiracy and a sham; you’ve been screwed! They present the “facts,” and Americans gobble it up like apple pie.

In this case, the defendant is out $787.5 million and the plaintiff is much richer. Nothing will change beyond that because America’s media habits are all but set in stone – the only question is how much worse things will get. Fox was indeed wrong here, but as long as goliath corporations like them keep raking both revenue and ratings, they will continue to say whatever it is we want to hear.

Facts or legal settlements be damned.

Nick Pedley is the news editor and ad manager of The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News.