Crap is King

Back in the early 1980s, the musician and songwriter Don Henley was disturbed by what he saw as the death of journalism and the rise of infotainment. His song, “Dirty Laundry,” mocked a media culture obsessed with spectacle over substance. One of the stanzas said this: We can do “The Innuendo", we can dance and sing. When it's said and done, we haven't told you a thing. We all know that crap is king. Forty years later, that prophecy has played out, and it's done real damage to our nation.

Consistent with Henley’s song, you might hear me refer to “Fox News” as “Fox Entertainment.” It’s not just Fox; I use the same label for CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and the rest of the big six corporate media outlets. For profit, they’ve blurred the line between informing the public and manipulating it. I’ve cut the cord on all of them.

Is it fair to call “news” “entertainment”? I argue that it is.

Check it out. In 2003, two investigative reporters at a Fox affiliate in Florida uncovered disturbing facts about a growth hormone used in beef production. Monsanto, the manufacturer of the hormone, didn’t like what the reporters found and pressured Fox News to kill the story, and Fox complied. They knew what side of their bread was buttered. When the reporters refused to go along, they were fired.

Well, one of the reporters sued Fox News. She initially won, but an appellate court overturned the decision, ruling that no FCC rule explicitly requires news to be true. That’s right: while commercials are legally required to be truthful, news broadcasts aren’t. Welcome to the upside-down world.

From Sunday morning “news” shows to prime-time panels, much of what passes for “news” is scripted outrage, designed to divide and distract us, but ultimately keep us watching. They don’t want us to think; they just want our outrage. Why? Because outrage sells soap, insurance policies, and erectile dysfunction pills.

So, if you feel like you’re being played, you are. Big time.

Democracy depends on facts. Disagreements may seem disruptive, but it’s part of the deal. It’s how we roll in America. But when the facts themselves are fiction, or more commonly known as “alternative facts,” we’re not arguing our way to solutions. We’re just arguing our way into more arguments, dividing ourselves and taking our eyes off the real problems of the day. And for helping to kill our democracy, media corporations laugh all the way to the bank.

So do yourself a favor. Don’t call it “Fox News.” Call it what it is: “Fox Entertainment.”