A long, long time ago, I asked why, if a person had to lie to advance their cause, they wouldn't change sides. After all, lying takes some effort, especially some of the elaborate hoaxes done by the misnamed "Project Veritas." These people are lying, and they know they're lying.
Some light was recently shed on this question by the revelations from Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit against Fox News. Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham all passed on the unfounded allegation that Dominion's machines were changing Trump votes to Biden votes.
When certain of Fox employees actually told the truth on the air, Tucker Carlson, among others, was livid. "Please get her fired!" was his response when Fox White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich fact checked one of Donald Trump's tweets.
The reason for this apoplexy was that Fox was losing viewers, viewers Carlson, et al, have long been fleecing for big money. How do we know these talking heads are lying? Because their behind-the-scenes emails have been revealed in Dominion's complaint.
In one of the most twisted statements you're likely to hear from somebody who lies for a living, Tucker Carlson wrote, "Do the executives understand how much credibility and trust we've lost with our audience?" "Credibility" and "trust" were lost because some Fox News personnel told the truth. Let that roll around in your head for a few seconds. You have to lie to be credible.
Why are the lies necessary? When Fox was the first to call Arizona for Joe Biden in the 2020 election, protesters came out to shout, "Fox sucks! Fox sucks!" Such viewers are Fox's bread and butter. They beg to be lied to, and Fox is happy to oblige, and take the suckers' money.
So, perhaps the answer to my original question is that there are so many people who prefer the pretty lie to the sometimes painful truth. Organizations like Fox News and Project Veritas lie to them because it's to their material advantage. Because some people demand to be lied to.
