Late in August 2021, Four Corners Television of Australia presented a remarkable two-part documentary, created and reported by Sarah Ferguson, that explains how Rupert Murdoch, paterfamilias of a vast entertainment corporation in Australia, conspired to erect a Potemkin news network, one devoted to airing Murdoch’s fascistic point of view. This part is fairly well known. Fox has done American democracy significant damage, and made wild conspiracy theories a central pane in America’s Overton window.
But in 2015, Fox threw its lot in with Donald John Trump (AAX, or America’s Asshole Ex) and went from anti-democratic fringe to flat-out lunatic. Even as the network was roiled by a power struggle amongst Kangarupe and his two sons, and a vicious series of sex predation scandals beginning at the top with Roger Ailes, the network, desperate for power and some sort of ersatz legitimacy, moored its destiny to that of AAX and went from creating vicious delusion to simply becoming a carrier for it.
This documentary is much more direct about it. In one interview, former Fox chief political correspondent Carl Cameron said, “Fox certainly has participated in the destruction of democracy by promoting the types of things that Donald Trump did. Now, that’s a pox on Fox. No question about it.”
The documentary interviews various former Fox personalities, including Gretchen Carlson (“This is all a money game. This is all about ratings. This is all about the bottom line.”) and Decision Desk Editor Chris Stirewalt, whose call on Election Night 2020 for Arizona essentially ended AAX’s efforts at reelection, and caused such a shitstorm in the White House that Fox ended up firing Stirewalt for doing his job properly. That event signalled Fox’s utter surrender to the Big Lie of AAX.
Fox became entirely a creature of AAX, to the extent that they repeated the slanders uttered by AAX and his corrupt lawyers and now face some four billion dollars in defamation suits from the voting machine companies they smeared.
Stirewalt told Ferguson, “The secret that Trump knows is, if you’re going to lie, go big. Right? Don’t waste your time on niggling little, tiny prevarications. Go big. And then what you do is you wait for the obsequious toads to come along and rationalise your lie.”
Fox News interviews, which often featured some pretty strange characters from the fringe, turned into an utter freak show.
One of the most arresting moments in the second 44 minute segment is when Ferguson attempts to interview Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, (aka “the Kraken” and now facing disbarment). Powell alternates between playing with her little ratdoggie and refusing to comment on ongoing legal issues, even to questions not even close to those “legal issues.” Finally, Ferguson, clearly exasperated, asked Powell, “Do you understand how ridiculous you sound to the public?” That ends the non-interview.
It’s hard to look at Murdoch’s fascistic empire and the vicious clownishness of AAX and not laugh. But they need to be taken dead seriously for the threat that they are. Ferguson does that, as does one of the survivors of Murdoch’s journalistic carnage, Chris Stirewalt, who says, If we don’t find a way in the United States to run the news business, we’re going to fall apart. This is killing us.”
Both parts can be viewed at abc.net.au/4corners. Transcripts are also available. It is also on You Tube. It is an important piece of work, and Americans in particular should pay it close attention.