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Fox News deserves the fine (it should be higher, IMO), obviously. But will making it expensive to lie deter powerful media corporations like Fox from lying? I don’t think so, because lying *is* the business plan — not a deviation from the plan. It’s how they make their money. 1/
Fox News will continue to lie. If needed, they’ll get more creative about how they lie, but they won’t stop lying.
Today’s fine is essentially a lying tax — for them, it’s just the cost of doing business. Their business is not “news with some lies.” Their business is lying. 2/
Today’s fine is essentially a lying tax — for them, it’s just the cost of doing business. Their business is not “news with some lies.” Their business is lying. 2/
Fox News can eat this fine. They’d rather not, sure, but it’s not going to bankrupt them. This isn’t even the first time Fox News has reached a settlement with someone who suffered harm due to their lies. And the last one changed … nothing. 3/
npr.org/2022/06/15/110…
npr.org/2022/06/15/110…
Alex Jones was ordered to pay **half a billion dollars** for his Sandy Hook lies, and it had no observable effect on the media ecosystem, despite putting a VERY high price on lying. The problem is that the profit from lying is even higher than the price. 4/
Think of a bar that suddenly has to pay an alcohol tax for the first time. The bar owner is not going to be deterred from selling alcohol just because there’s a tax on it. Bars are in the alcohol business; without alcohol, there is no bar.
Fox is in the lying business. 5/
Fox is in the lying business. 5/
The deterrence model just doesn’t work with Fox News. If Fox stops lying, they will cease to be Fox — and even if they have to pay a massive lying tax, they know they’ll make up for it in profit. By lying. 6/
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