Of course, it's mostly about the money, but after all this is the Capitalistic States of America and with the dissolution of any kind of Corporate Social Contract, it seems that money is the only language mass propagandists understand.
Ever since the Reagan administration overturned the Fairness Doctrine and unleashed the Oxy addled sex tourist Rush Limbaugh on the airwaves to spew unchallenged, unfiltered conservative lies and rage bait; conservative media has been adding media outlets, dominating the AM/FM talk radio space and has the most watched television "news" shows. Now, "Social" media's amplification of misinformation and hate speech is reaching additional millions. All this occurs with little or no accountability. It seems like no one dares or has the political will to take on the Right Wing Industrial Media Complex.
Veteran Professional Left Blogger Driftglass succinctly lays this phenomena bare: "By simply refusing to speak of the long, wide, clearly-marked road down which GOP has traveled that led us to this moment -- and media's deep complicity -- and by alibing everyone in their media Club, by insisting that history began in 2016, by relentingly "Both Sidesing" the ruin the GOP has brought down upon us, and by leading endless snipe hunts in search of Reasonable Republicans and Sensible Centrists, the mainstream media continues to do what it has always done best: reinforce the Potemkin façade of "journalism" behind which they all hide and protect the Big Lie of Both Sides Do It on which their entire industry depends."
So the Mainstream Media status quo machine chugs along and the right wing propaganda machine trots out whatever lies it wants with impunity until finally one company had had enough. Dominion Voting Systems, a leading manufacturer of voting machines, challenged the Trump/MAGA Big-Lie that the 2020 election was "stolen" and filed multiple lawsuits against Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, and others for promoting a conspiracy theory that Dominion's voting machines were designed to rig the election in favor of Joe Biden.
Here we are over two years later and Dominion's Court battle, (Smartmatic has parallel lawsuits with many of the same actors), has wound it's way through the system and now these huge money (how huge? $1.6 Billion) lawsuits can move forward. Forbes has an excellent rundown of the principals and where the suits stand. Plaintiffs include: OANN (already shunned by DirecTV and Verizon), Mike Lindell, Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Newsmax, Patrick Byrne (former Overstock CEO), and last but not least Fox News and Fox Corporation - which includes executives Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch specifically.
Which brings us to my favorite part:
Is Dominion’s $1.6bn defamation lawsuit a death blow for Murdoch and Fox News?
One can only hope
It seems like this challenge to the Right Wing Media Complex in a meaningful effective way could possibly give pause to the purveyors of nationwide unfettered hate speech and misinformation who have operated their propaganda channels without consequence for decades. Negative Advertiser reaction to Elon Musk's right-wing Twitter devolution may hurt enough for Twitter to either adapt or fail as well. In Capitalist America the Wallet Vote seems to be the current vehicle for positive change.
