The Fox News Dilemma

I don’t think anyone with any sense or decency wants to “ban Fox News.” Here are some things that really must be done, however.

Fox should not be allowed to promote itself as a “news” source and, at the same time, defend itself against lawsuits on the basis that “no one with even a feeble level of intelligence accepts that its programming is truthful.” This is the basis on which Fox has consistently prevailed in court against litigants who accuse it of libel.

This idea is not my own; the Canadian government doesn’t permit Fox to broadcast, but only because the network refuses to replace the word “news” with something honest, perhaps “opinions” or “entertainment.”

Having said all this, the FCC actually should revoke Fox’s license to broadcast if it’s shown that it deliberately spread COVID disinformation that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.