In HBO’s fictional miniseries Succession, the cynicism within the American broadcasting business is best captured in how a lead character characterizes a news tactic to pump up ratings: Open the “bigot spigot,” she scoffs. Is. After America’s Fox News made headlines with a jaw-dropping $788 million defamation lawsuit this week, it is clear that a reckless pursuit of ratings can be far more costly than unsavory comments made at a TV channel’s expense. This pre-trial payment by the News Corp-owned broadcaster would be about half the amount sought by Dominion Voting Systems, a ballot-machine supplier that sued for damages, alleging it was caused by Fox knowingly lying. It was infamous that its tools had a role in tilting the 2020 US presidential election away from Donald Trump. Biden. It’s still a heavy blow, even for Fox Corp., which had reported revenue of nearly $14 billion in 2022, with Fox News alone forecast to account for between a quarter and a third of that topline. . And then, there’s also Smartmatic, another company suing similarly, but for even more. Instead of letting its top executives be openly questioned in the courtroom, it seems, Fox opted to settle Dominion’s allegations out of court. And thus the risk of capture hangs a cautionary tale for broadcasters of news everywhere.
If Trump’s denial of the election results and apparent rant on the angry mob that stormed Capitol Hill sent shock waves around the world, what emerged from the Fox case files – from statements and internal missives – was a scandal in itself . During the 2020 race, Fox News was seen playing to Trump’s right-wing base. But once vote counting began, it didn’t hesitate to call swing states like Arizona for Biden and dismiss complaints of election fraud. However, all Trump had to do was get his supporters to tune in to clone outlets like Newsmax and One America News for Fox Corp’s share price to plummet and audiences to start shifting. The ratings loss was swift enough for Fox to seem like a panic reaction. As its records show, this was done under the guise of listening audience. Suddenly, it was playing rants on power being stolen from Trump and airing views projecting Dominion as a ballot rigger, all projections of political polarization. As noted, this week’s agreement does not require the channel to hold back anything. Still, for the sake of the world’s oldest existing democracy, let’s hope the hard lessons have been learned.
Globally, this disgusting eyeball hunt should wake up all democracies to the risk of fake news working in favor of politicians at the expense of the will of the electorate. In India, this should make news outlets that woo audiences for ratings think again, especially in the context of our own deeply polarized politics. To onlookers the ear-lobes may seem market-sensitive, but as seen in the US, it leaves any media taking such a populist path to serious trouble by taking them hostage. As in war, truth is often an early victim. And without facts, fiction masquerades as reality. Nobel laureate Douglas North once defined institutions as “the rules of the game in a society” or “the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction.” If the media counts itself as an institution and not just an eye-catching profit spinner, it must put the truth above all else. And the B-school’s misguided advice on market orientation shouldn’t serve as an excuse for a bigot.
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