Fallout from the billion dollar defamation lawsuit against Fox News by Dominion Voting systems continues to rain down on Fox with some notable consequences. In recent weeks Dominion has filed motions in court that have revealed the brazen dishonesty of Fox executives and hosts in their own words.

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Dominion was able to acquire internal communications from Fox News that show how they have been outright lying to their audience in support of Donald Trump and his phony election fraud lies, while privately acknowledging that they knew that there was no truth whatsoever to his baseless allegations. And their lying was deliberately intended to stay in Trump’s good graces, despite the fallaciousness.

RELATED: In Dominion v Fox News, Network Cries ‘We Can’t Make People Think We’ve Turned Against Trump’

The purposefully deceitful remarks that Fox personnel made privately included…

• Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch: Really crazy stuff.
• Tucker Carlson: What [Trump is] good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.
• More Tucker Carlson: I hate [Trump] passionately [and he is] a demonic force.
• Rupert Murdoch to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott: We don’t want to antagonize Trump further.
• Suzanne Scott: You can’t give the crazies an inch right now […] The audience feels like we crapped on [them] and we have damaged their trust and belief in us.
• Laura Ingraham: Sidney [Powell] is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy {Giuliani].
• Sean Hannity: That whole narrative that [Sidney] Powell was pushing, I did not believe it for one second, [and that] she’s a f*cking lunatic.

Now a new poll has measured the impact that these revelations have had on Fox News viewers. and the results are disturbing, to say the least. Here are some of the surveys highlights…

• While 21% of viewers say that they now trust Fox News less, 45% say that they continue to trust the network.
• 13% say they no longer believe the 2020 election was stolen, but 50% still believe Trump’s “Big Lie.”
• 16% say they have a less favorable opinion of Fox hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, but 52% still have favorable opinions.

It’s somewhat encouraging that some of Fox’s audience have embraced reality and backed away from their prior blind acceptance of everything Fox says. However, most of their viewers remain firmly attached to the Fox doctrine even after learning that they have been lying to them. That’s the behavior of a cult.

Some good news in the poll includes that Fox News viewers have about the same awareness (60%) of the Dominion lawsuit as the general public (56%). And yet they still largely trust the network. However, they must be exposing themselves to other media, because Fox News has a near total blackout on the subject.

RELATED: FOX News FINALLY Reports on the Dominion Lawsuit and is Predictably Dishonest and Biased

Not surprisingly, there is a significantly greater awareness of the lawsuit among viewers of MSNBC (82%) and CNN (71%), where reporting on it has not been suppressed. Also notable is that 10% Fox News viewers who were aware of the lawsuit say that they now watch it less. But 75% say their viewing has not changed. Inexplicably, 16% say they watch Fox News more after finding out that they are dupes being mislead by propagandists.

That’s some pretty powerful cult programming right there. They actually prefer being lied to, and they reward their deceivers. Those poor souls must now be regarded as lost and irretrievable. It’s a good thing that there aren’t very many of them (16% of Fox’s highest rated program = about 500,000, which is about 0.15% of the U.S. population).

UPDATE I: Another new poll found that “Nearly two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) think Fox News should be held accountable after … spread[ing] false information about the 2020 presidential election.” That includes 41% of Republicans. Although 47% of the GOP cult do not think Fox should be held accountable.

UPDATE II: In a March 31 ruling on summary judgement, the judge found that “The evidence is ‘CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements [made on Fox News] relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.'”

UPDATE III: The judge in the Dominion case has sanctioned Fox News for withholding evidence. He also made several other rulings that hamper Fox’s ability to deflect from the issue of defamation.

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