What’s in it for the liars promoting conspiracy theories, knowing that they abuse the truth? Are they committed fascists or greedy opportunists whose lust for filthy lucre exceeds any principles?
“Fox News star Sean Hannity – one of former President Donald Trump’s strongest allies on the air and one of his closest advisers off it – admitted under oath that he never believed the lie that Trump was cheated of victory in the 2020 presidential election by a voting tech company,” according to David Folkenflik of National Public Radio.
“As part of a deposition in the Dominion Voting System $1.6 billion defamation suit against Hannity’s Fox News and Fox Corp, the direct quote was, ‘I did not believe it for one second,’ Hannity testified, according to an attorney for Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems, who was offering it as a precise quote.”
Maybe the professional liars like the power of manipulating fools to believe their delusions. The liars believe themselves to be above the consequences they encourage and certainly beyond guilt.
Folkenflik’s story continues: “Meade Cooper, Fox News’ executive vice president, ‘confirmed under oath she never believed the lies about Dominion,’ the Dominion attorney, Stephen Shackelford, Jr., also said.”
Dominion’s suit, Folkenflik says, alleges that Fox’s continued lying was “a concerted effort from the top to bottom of Fox to win back viewers after the network was the first to project the key swing state of Arizona for Biden. Trump denounced Fox and millions of his supporters abandoned the network that month.”
That Fox allowed its faux news team to keep lying indicates the motivation might have been money. But this is the same outfit that tried to blame Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for the Southwest Airlines holiday debacle, ignoring Southwest’s $5.6 billion spending on stock buybacks in recent years instead of upgrading infrastructure that might have averted the disaster.
Still, knowing the truth, Hannity gave air time to Trumpista liars to push such outlandish lies as rigged Dominion voting machines.
And, as Folkenflik explains, “Fox Business star Maria Bartiromo promoted the lies in an interview with Trump, his first on television after the election. Lou Dobbs returned to the topic repeatedly.”
Folkenflik adds: “The brief insights into what those key Fox figures said during recent depositions echoed an earlier disclosure, first reported by NPR: A junior producer had emailed colleagues shortly after the 2020 election begging them to keep Fox star [Jeanne] Pirro from repeating lies she had pulled from crackpot conspiracy theory websites.”
Yet, the lying continued – and continues.
Knowingly and stridently, they pushed the stolen-election lie, stoking the stochastic violence that Trump unleashed with his attempted coup on Jan. 6, 2021.
Others perpetuate this abuse of the political dialogue by claiming “some people” think there were election irregularities – without adding the truth that only a few random voters, including some Republicans, have been cited.
“Some people” continue to believe these lies because those in positions to proclaim the truth would rather coddle the goodwill of Trump’s base than demonstrate a modicum of integrity and speak honestly.
Donald Trump told more than 30,000 lies during his presidency. Others continue to abet him.
