Fox News is So Desperate They’re Hyping an ‘Implausible’ Discrimination Lawsuit Against CNN

The current news cycle is jam-packed with stories that reflect badly on Donald Trump and the Republican Party. Trump is bumbling his way through an embarrassing junket to Asia. Among other things, he has already flipped on his hard-line stance against China trade deals. In fact, he insulted American leaders and praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for taking advantage of their “incompetence.” In addition, The GOP’s candidate to fill Jeff Sessions’s senate seat in Alabama, Roy Moore, is mired in a pedophilia scandal. And last Tuesday Democrats swept the elections in Virginia, New Jersey, Washington, and more.

Fox News Lies

This puts Fox News in a difficult position. They have virtually nothing positive to report about their Dear Leader in the White or his flailing party. They’ve already been swinging wildly at bogus and irrelevant Hillary Clinton hogwash to the point where it’s just tiresome. And the must-pass Republican tax bill is faring no better than their much despised attempts to kill ObamaCare.

So Fox News is hitting the shelves for some ripe fiction they can disseminate. What they found was a lawsuit against their arch rival CNN for racial discrimination. Fox News giddily latched onto that and posted a wholly dishonest article on their website. The headline is a brazen lie that screams “CNN faces another racial discrimination lawsuit.”

The first thing to note is that CNN is not facing “another” lawsuit. The first paragraph reveals that it is the same lawsuit that was filed previously and thrown out of court for being inadequate. The judge ruled that “it doesn’t meet a plausibility threshold.” He also said that it was “unsupported by factual allegations sufficient to support the inferences claimed by Plaintiffs,” and that it was “littered with conclusory assertions, rank speculation, confusing statements, and generalized allegations.”

However, in the Fox News story the attorney for the alleged plaintiffs is confidant that the suit will prevail the second time around. He claims that he will refile sometime this year, ignoring the judge’s admonition that “any amendment would be futile.” So Fox News based the entire story on a failed lawsuit that has not been, and might never be, refiled. Fox didn’t bother to interview the plaintiffs to try to validate their claims, or do any thing else that resembles journalism.

What Fox News did do was was plant this totally unrelated landmine in the article: “The news comes as CNN continues to cause problems for parent company Time Warner as it tries to complete an $84.5 billion deal with AT&T.”

For the record, CNN isn’t causing any problems with regard to the merger. It’s Trump’s Justice Department (and possibly Trump himself) who are threatening to prohibit the merger unless the new company divests of CNN. There are plenty of reasons to oppose this merger, but CNN isn’t one of them. AT&T has no news division that would raise anti-trust concerns. This is clear case of abuse of power as the Trump administration seeks to punish a media outlet they despise.

If any news operation is causing problems for their parent company, it’s Fox News. They are making it unlikely that Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox will be able to acquire the European SKY satellite network. The U.K.’s Ofcom regulatory agency is studying whether Murdoch’s business is a “fit and proper” owner, and whether it would comply with local rules on broadcasting standards. Given the history of Fox’s overt political biases, it’s tight embrace of Trump, and the terminations of multiple senior staff (Roger Ailes, Bill, O’Reilly, etc.) for sexual harassment and abuse, that’s gonna be a high bar to hurdle.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Finally, for some reason the Fox News article left out any mention of the lawsuits against Fox for racial and sex discrimination. Over two dozen current and former Fox News employees now suing the network. These are actual suits that are proceeding, not imaginary ones that were previously tossed out of court. But why would Fox include these facts in an article that was only published as a diversion from all of the bad news that is currently staining Trump and the right-wing cabal he is leading? As noted above: Desperation.

And remember: Racism is an integral part of the business model of Fox News. So this hypocritical and false story is almost funny (almost).