Can Fox News Still Be Trusted?

by Roger L. Simon

Since its defenestration of Tucker Carlson, Fox News is appearing increasingly to be a “false flag” operation.”

Maybe it always was to some degree, but it has a more “in-your-face” aspect recently, with a consequentially thinner veneer.

Most know by now the meaning of “false flag,” but just in case, here’s one definition:

“A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term ‘false flag’ originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misrepresentation of someone’s allegiance.”

That’s from Wikipedia, itself something of a “false flag” operation. (It gets dizzying, doesn’t it?)

Fox, which pretends to be conservative/libertarian, is largely owned by an amalgamation of entities that are anything but. That includes the Vanguard and BlackRock investment giants that have been leading the way in what Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy calls “WOKE, Inc.”

As the journalist A.J. Liebling famously wrote, “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”

We can see that playing out at Fox in a manner resembling the plot of the Agatha Christie mystery “Ten Little Indians,” once called “And Then There Were None.”

First Tucker goes. Who’s next?

Most recently, Steve Hilton, an outspoken libertarian-ish thinker who once worked with Margaret Thatcher and is, or was, one of my personal favorites. His “The Next Revolution” show has been stopped because, according to Fox anyway, Hilton decided to step back “to focus on his new California nonpartisan policy organization.” No time to do a once-a-week Sunday night show, I guess.

Rumors say the often-courageous Maria Bartiromo is next on the chopping block. Sense a pattern?

Meanwhile, with its post-Carlson audience dwindling and trying to play both sides against the middle, Fox has shuffled its evening lineup to Laura Ingraham at 7 p.m. (a small demotion), followed by Jesse Waters in the coveted Tucker slot, then Sean Hannity, and then Greg Gutfeld (in a promotion).

No matter what you think of them individually, all four are basically “made men” in the mafia sense, trapped in non-compete contracts, one can assume, similar to Carlson’s.

This gives Fox managers extreme control over them, lest they be canceled. Viewers, those who still watch, should be wary of this. There are rules—written, unwritten, and changing with events—about what they can or can’t say.

This is particularly dangerous and manipulative toward the audience. If I were the “spiritual advisor” of the four, which I obviously am not, I would advise them to leave, even though they would be effectively silenced, at least for a while.

The statement that would make would have power. It would also be better for their mental and emotional health.

Working to improve things from within is almost always a self-deluding mistake and, in this case, without ownership positions, fruitless. If they could do it to Carlson—the most popular star in all of cable news—they can do it to anyone.

I’m sure everyone at Fox knows that. It was likely the first thing they thought when they heard about what had happened to Carlson.

Frankly, despite their extraordinary levels of remuneration, I feel sorry for many of those still at Fox, some of whom I know as friends. It’s not hard to imagine what they are feeling.

Nevertheless, the potential for subtle, but ultimately substantial, thought control over our body politic in a situation such as this is immense and dangerous.

Apparently, Trump Derangement Syndrome is at play, but it’s more than that.

The situation lends yet more importance to the necessity for promulgating the ideas of some of the newer candidates in the 2024 presidential campaign, not only of Vivek Ramaswamy but perhaps even more of those of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy has said that almost everything we have been told since the assassination of his uncle, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, on Nov. 22, 1963, has been more or less a lie.

Who would want to believe that? Unfortunately, recent events, such as the incredible levels of prevarication from our Justice Department and intelligence agencies lend a great degree of credence.

Now more than ever, we need cable networks and online media dedicated and aspiring to the truth.

Fox is no longer that, if it ever was.

First published in the Epoch Times.