Staffers fleeing the Trump-soaked alternate universe of right-wing media write solemn words, but that does nothing to repair the damage they’ve already wrought.
On Nov. 21st, Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg announced they were leaving Fox News over the production and broadcast of Tucker Carlson’s Patriot Purge. Their sense of integrity is laudable, as is others in the right-wing media who have hit their limit for how much bulls__t they’re willing to enable, such as Shep Smith of Fox News and Robert Jacobson of InfoWars, both resigning last October. All took principled stands that were fully justifiable given what they write.
The problem with their resignations however is two-fold: First, they leave behind media organizations that are still pumping out their poison; and second, there does not appear much acknowledgement or responsibility taken for the harm caused during the time they were actively engaged with these organizations.
For example in the case of Hayes and Goldberg, they clearly see Patriot Purge as a bridge too far, but Fox News didn’t produce a piece like that all of a sudden and in a vacuum. Its creation and its audience were made possible through a decades-long process of building resentment and building a false narrative that plowed a furrow that would eventually accommodate a work as egregious as Patriot Purge. Hayes and Goldberg admit this: “… Patriot Purge wasn’t an isolated incident, it was merely the most egregious example of a longstanding trend.” Only by consistently promoting numerous smaller-scale falsehoods over years would it be possible for Fox News to turn out a work like Patriot Purge without losing its viewers.
Each writer/commentator may have hit their limit, but the organizations they leave behind have wrought a terrible cost on this country. Such as:
- A pandemic continues to hospitalize and kill thousands in the US daily due to a large portion of the population refusing to vaccinate or wear masks.
- A growth in the belief of the Q-Anon conspiracy theories and the acts those beliefs inspire.
- “Why Sean Hannity's claims on QAnon aren't adding up”, Brianna Keilar, CNN, Feb. 5, 2021
- In October, 2020, Senator Ron Johnson is interviewed by Maria Bartiromo on Fox News and baselessly alleges a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden contained child pornography, a claim meant to support the accusations made by “Q” that Democrats are operating a child exploitations ring.
- A story from Bellingcat, “The Journey of Ashli Babbitt”, details how she transformed from an Obama supporter into a Q-Anon follower and eventually Capitol insurrectionist. The story describes that as she became more radicalized, she would share material from (among other sources) Fox News and make statements in her tweets based on their premises.
- A democracy that’s in danger due to normalizing a cycle of political violence and the turning of the citizenry against their own government.
- ”Fox News hosts sow distrust in legitimacy of election”, Oliver Darcy, CNN, November 5, 2020
- ”Fox News and Republican lawmakers push new false flag conspiracy that FBI orchestrated US Capitol attack”, Marshall Cohen, CNN, June 17, 2021
- ”Trump supporters could be incited to future violence by his continued promotion of 2020 election lies, DOJ and judges say”, Katelyn Polantz and Marshall Cohen, CNN, April 24, 2021
- “Fox News gave Capitol rioter the hero treatment”, Brianna Keilar, CNN, June, 25, 2021
Yes, there are other factors at play in all of these issues, but as the links below each demonstrates, their media organizations played significant roles in exacerbating each of them. While these writers conveniently leave their posts, the rest of the country is still suffering the consequences of their respective networks’ journalistic malfeasance committed during their tenures.
These dissenters' indignations would ring far less self-serving if they were willing to take actions to help diminish the harm that’s been done, rather than simply washing their hands of it all and saying “not my problem anymore”. While the progressives and Democrats are throwing what political and financial capital they have behind dealing with many of these problems, there's only so much one side can do on its own.
Efforts to stem the pandemic and restore confidence in the electoral system would benefit greatly if more conservative politicians and commentators were willing to put their considerable voices and gravitas behind those efforts and work with the progressives and Democrats in the cause for the common good. As Miles Taylor and Christine Todd Whitman said in the New York times last month, “… the best hope for the rational remnants of the Republican Party is for us to form an alliance with Democrats to defend American institutions … including [electing] a strong contingent of moderate Democrats.”
Would these conservative journalists be willing to openly support Democratic candidates in races as a bulwark against Trumpist Republicans as Taylor and Whitman have?
Would they be willing to acknowledge the legitimacy of progressives’ intents – that they aren't “trying to destroy the country” or some such?
Would they be willing to produce a counter-documentary to Tucker Carlson’s, titled perhaps “You Were Duped!”, and put their reputations behind it?
Would they be willing to support legislative efforts to put legal and financial disincentives in place against publishing blatantly false or inflammatory material, such as the Foreign Agent Disclaimer Enhancement Act and perhaps a domestic version of it?
Would they be willing to support laws that promote fair and equal access to the ballot box, such as the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, or the dismantling of congressional districts mangled by partisan gerrymandering, even if it means the Republican party’s chances might be harmed by it?
Would they be willing to contribute to the efforts to fight the anti-science message that's driven their fellow conservatives to leave themselves unvaccinated and the country vulnerable to a resurgence of the virus?
Would they be willing to disarm the anger and dismantle the false narratives that cause their followers to send death threats even when they vote for even the most sensible legislation?
More to the point: Clearly they have chosen to remove themselves from the problem. Now, are they willing to make themselves part of the solution?