Fox News and MAGA Rubes

Last week’s release of Dominion’s suit against Fox News Network came as welcome news to that portion of the country still in possession of its wits, soul, and principles, irrespective of how it votes. Dominion is suing Fox News for defamation, charging that the network fanned the flames of doubt in the performance of Dominion’s voting machines in the November 2020 election, knowingly purveying lies and dishonesty in service to a cause that they believed served their business interests. US libel and defamation law is dicey, and going after the press in any way is an uphill climb, but the suit made great use of private emails among Fox News executives and senior “talent”, including the execrable Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Jeanine Pirro, in an effort to demonstrate intent.

Tucker Carlson

Why is this suit important to me? It is important because Fox News is an organization that I once respected, in the before days when it served as a counterweight to the left-leaning orientation of most major media outlets. When serving as a counterweight lost out to fluffing for the Orange Duce as a means to generate revenue, Fox succeeded in becoming a megaphone for disinformation, infamy, and flat out lies. No single media channel has been more responsible for the coarsening of public debate and the normalization of chaos than Fox.

But my friends, don’t think me naïve. Should there ever be a reason for judicial probing into the emails of analogous figures at CNN/MSNBC, we would almost certainly find the same level of perfidy in service to liberal causes including general Democratic administration/left leaning policy support, the effort to delegitimize the previous President (first as a candidate, then in office), and the newest pursuit which is finding ways to describe major GOP figures as “worse than Trump”. The difference here is that I am a conservative, and Fox News ONCE helped ensure that conservative policy and political views had a place in the news firmament. To a limited extent, it still does, and the straight “news” operation there has always been my cup of tea as far as TV networks go. (remember: it was Fox News who called Arizona for Biden first—leading to several firings in the political operation, but that’s another matter). It is the huckster personalities that dominate Fox News airwaves in the morning and in prime time that have succeeded in destroying whatever credibility existed there, and I would not be surprised to see some of the major Fox News talent begin to leave.

Secondarily, I love this story because of the degree to which it reveals how badly conned so many MAGAtes were by the personalities they slavishly worship at Fox. Carlson, Hannity, Pirro, Ingraham et al KNEW that they were lying to the rubes, and they knew (or believed) they could do it without any blowback. In other words, give the mouth-breathers what they want, and give it to them good and hard. Nick Catoggio over at The Dispatch NAILS this aspect of the story with his latest essay.

We need a strong and principled party of the right in this country. We need a news media that is—no shit—fair and balanced, but in the interim I’d be happy with an effective counter to the constant hum of center-left control. Watching the GOP get its comeuppance in a few straight elections has been good for the soul. A major lawsuit loss for Fox News would be icing on the cake.

The Repair Man

I live in fear of the built-in combo oven/convection microwave in my kitchen, having watched a repair man work on the microwave turntable a few years ago and the wrestling match he had with it to extract it from its flush positioning. So when I got an error code on THANKSGIVING DAY telling me that things weren’t right, I wondered what lay in store.

Thanksgiving greetings from my oven

A few weeks ago, a gent came out (from VIA Appliance Repair—five stars!) to have a look. The oven is twelve years old, and if my past luck held, part support would be spotty at best. I prepared myself for the surrendering of a lung in payment for a replacement combo, but figured I needed to make sure there was no way to fix it first. That fellow (Manny, I believe) came out and pretty quickly diagnosed the problem—and on the spot—ordered the replacement part. In the meantime, I experimented with using the microwave as a convection oven, and I used the air fryer to the max. Word soon reached me that the part was back-ordered (supply chain issues, natch), but last week I got an email telling me they had the part and we set up for today’s visit/installation.

Alex (as delightful as Manny, both of whom were great) arrived, wrestled the great beast from the wall and replaced the fan in no time. The longest part of the repair was lighting off the oven and making sure everything was working right.

In a million, billion years, I could not do what Manny and Alex did, and I am grateful for a world in which Manny and Alex exist. There are too few Mannys and Alexes (Alexi?), what with the youth of the country being told that they MUST go to college where they will rack up debt in service to useless majors that all seem now to have many words in their titles. I’ve got a car getting a strut replacement as I write this, and there is a Manny or Alex working his ass off on it, and I can guarantee that he does not have a BA in History of Social Conflict.

UVA Basketball

The #7 (as of Sunday AM 19 Feb) UVA Men’s Basketball team racked up two incredibly uninspiring victories this week over two of the worst teams in the ACC, and the “a win is a win” and the “road wins in the ACC are tough (Louisville)” crowd has been busy salving their fandom by mouthing/writing these platitudes. Poppycock. HOW a team wins is not unimportant (especially the WHO and HOW where metrics based rankings are considered), and if you factor the Duke win (such as it was) into this mix—this team is showing some VERY concerning signs. Tony Bennett said it himself at his last post-game news conference “don’t accept in victory what you would not accept in defeat”. This team’s shooting is of late, dreadful. All of its shooting. Missed free throws, three pointers, and most maddening of all, LAYUPS (or “bunnies”, which I prefer). This team has a puffed up record in no small measure due to the weakness of the ACC (but also because they are—when they play well—a very good team), and their season will have an unsatisfying end if they don’t get it together.

As for what a “satisfying” end is—first of all, the “non-negotiable” items are the ACC regular season title AND the tournament title. The league sucks, and UVA is likely to be favored over every opponent they have from now to the NCAA tournament. As for the tournament—I’d consider getting to the Sweet 16 to be satisfying. An earlier exit would be sub-optimal.