Thread by @davidfrum

Short thread ...

In 2004, Fox News' then supreme star Bill O'Reilly published a book that urged Americans to identify "who really cares about you as a person - and who does not."

O'Reilly self-presented as a TV champion of his people. Not all people obviously - not the eggheads, not the snobs, not ungrateful minorities - but *his* people. He self-presented as not beholden to anyone, least of all any politician, Republican or Democrat.

That O'Reilly self-presentation was a contrivance, obviously, and largely a fiction. But it contained enough truth - again, not for all people, but for *his* people - to sustain a whole cable news network.

O'Reilly's question, "Who's Looking Out for You?" now indicts his own former network. Even Fox viewers now get that their network's top priority through this crisis has been the protection of President Trump's ego and political chances - at the risk of Fox viewers' lives.

Sean Hannity, the Fox & Friends crew: they are obviously NOT "looking out for you." They are willing to sacrifice the health and lives - not only of the eggheads, of the snobs, of the ungrateful minorities - but of YOU, you the Fox viewers.

That kind of revelation is not knowledge that a TV viewer absorbs all at once. Betrayal is not an easy truth to accept. These TV presences were the viewers' friends, their champions against a world changing in frightening ways. For many older Americans, TV was their best friend

And nobody likes to admit to having been deceived. It's embarrassing.

And yet ... the truth does eventually break, not on all, but on many. Your TV friends were willing to get you killed first by a disease, then by quack medicine. They were not your friends at all.

When an ice cube melts, nothing seems to happen for quite some long time. Then the edges begin to shrink. Then the surfaces soften. And then it's gone. So it is with trust.

I don't imagine Fox News will abruptly vanish. Everybody is consuming more information media these days, audiences are up, and the Fox audience is no exception.

But ... the memory will linger.

"People you trust ... have spent weeks minimizing this problem," said @TuckerCarlson on March 9. That moment of truth briefly jolted the network and the Trump administration. But the moment of truth proved fleeting.

@TuckerCarlson By end March, the network resumed cannibalizing its own viewers. It promoted Trump's "liberate the virus!" reopening campaign. But this time as the newest @NavigatorSurvey results indicate: they failed to move their audience. Viewers are still watching. They are not believing.

"Most people will not tell you the truth," O'Reilly said in 2004.

But over the past weeks, Fox did tell its truth. It urged older Americans to die to boost retail sales and the S&P 500.

That was as honest a statement of values and priorities as any company has ever revealed

"Who's Looking Out For You?" It's still a haunting question.

As the ship sank, the Fox crew threw the passengers out of the lifeboats to save themselves.

Their loyalty was to Trump - and to the multi-millionaire hosts' depleted investment portfolios.

Will the viewers remember? I think so. But even if the viewers do not, those viewers' children will. The dialogue will be repeated for years to come.

"Ma, where'd you hear this?"

"Fox last night."

"Ma, Fox wanted you to die to save the economy."

QUIET.

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