Carnes: Gullible deniability will sadly continue
Remember back when Vail.com announced the mountain had a foot of fresh powder overnight when in reality they received barely a dusting but the masses drove up from the Front Range based solely upon the online claim yet stuck around to ski and spend money on food and drink anyway chalking it up to, “They won’t sucker me next time”?
Me neither, as that would be industry suicide for our overlords, with the general snow sporting public vowing to never trust them again.
And this is why, to the best of my very limited knowledge, I am shocked — shocked I tell you — that there are those among us still insisting the white noise machine known as Fox News did nothing wrong during their two-year campaign to appease their viewers by repeating what they knew were falsehoods out of fear of losing said viewers and thus advertisers, leading to lower stock prices and no longer having a seat at the big boy table of journalistic integrity.
What’s even funnier is they thought they had one of those seats to begin with, as that entire table — along with every seat — was tossed out the window back in the 90s with the advent of the internet, crashing to a million pieces far below, with the scraps being retrieved by the thousands of wannabe news sites that take turns nowadays simply copying one another while collecting every advertising dollar they can just to stay afloat long enough for their IPO to be released.
But enough overly long sentences.
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Local affiliates, such as Fox31 in Denver, are not any more complicit in this nonsense than the ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates, as they all pump out pretty much the same news, weather and sports each day, complete with all the nauseating banter and fake laughs.
But CNN and MSNBC are just as guilty when it comes to making choices to entertain and pander instead of simply reporting the news. All are respectable news agencies oozing integrity in the same way urinal cakes ooze sugar for little Johnny’s birthday.
I know of a few locals who now eschew Fox for Newsmax and OAN, think the courts that threw out the over 60 lawsuits about the election were each and every one of them corrupt and that Dominion election machines will do the same nefarious thing in 2024 because they have perfected the software so the fraud cannot be detected. And yes, in case you are curious, to the best of my knowledge most of them are still capable of breeding.
In other words, Fox forked over almost $800 million because they are innocent, reminiscent of their savior who famously said, “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the 5th?” prior to pleading the 5th over 400 times.
Talk about Musk’s “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
Anyway, Fox News will continue to call themselves “Fair & Balanced” (just like the 2020 election, but they don’t have to admit such blasphemy) and their propaganda-for-profit will continue unabated with ads for painkillers and medicines for people on Medicare and pitching reverse mortgages and investment advisors for people barely surviving on Social Security while using Fox-speak to tell their viewers what they wish to hear instead of simply reporting the daily news.
Meanwhile, real Americans will focus on kids getting in the wrong car or pulling up the wrong driveway or ringing the wrong doorbell and having their lives ruined or simply snuffed out, among other things.
You know, reality.
All because a Florida hotel owner and former game show host’s inability to take his loss like a grown-up.
Bigly sad.
Richard Carnes, of Avon, writes weekly. He can be reached at poor@vail.net.
