Thom Hartmann: Why Fox News has the Right to Lie to Us

[thomhartmann]

Run time: 06:56 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDKLFn0pty4   Posted on YouTube: July 25, 2011 By YouTube Member: TheBigPictureRT Views on YouTube: 112   Posted on DU: July 25, 2011 By DU Member: thomhartmann Views on DU: 2108

 
Ever wonder why it is that Fox News can lie over and over again - yet continue to call itself “News”? It’s because Fox News is a corporation - and ever since that 1886 Supreme Court case of Southern Pacific Railroad versus Santa Clara County when a rogue court reporter named JC Bancroft Davis slipped corporate personhood into the legal record - the courts have ruled time and time again that corporations - since they have all the rights that actual people have - could also lie just like people can.

Except for one time. Back in 1998 - a political activist named Mark Kasky sued Nike alleging that Nike was lying to its customers by publishing in the San Francisco Examiner a letter assuring everyone that the corporation’s workers around the world enjoy basic labor rights like a minimum wage - health and safety regulations - and equal opportunity employment. Kasky knew this claim wasn’t true. A 1996 audit of the Nike revealed that workers in Vietnam were routinely exposed to cancer-causing chemicals that were illegal in the United States. And a Mothers Jones article later cited a Nike-funded study that found, “evidence of physical and verbal abuse and sexual harassment at nine of its contract factories in Indonesia.” After realizing he and thousands of other Nike customers were lied to and were buying Nike products under false assumptions - Kasky took the corporation to court. And in 2002 - Kasky won his case before the California Supreme Court which ruled that Nike did indeed break laws against unfair competition and false advertising.

But rather than paying the fine - Nike appealed and took the case to the Supreme Court. The high court agreed to hear the case in 2003 - and Nike claimed that as a corporate person it was entitled to freedom of speech - which meant freedom to lie. Kasky’s lawyers shot back - and even referenced my book, “Unequal Protection” to the Supreme Court Justices, in an effort to prove that the 1886 corporate personhood case was a sham - that the Supreme Court never ruled corporations are people - that instead a rogue court reporter hoodwinked the nation.

That’s when something strange happened. After hearing the argument against corporate personhood - taken from my book - by Kasky's lawyers - Chief Justice William Rehnquist suddenly dismissed the case - basically saying the high court made a mistake in agreeing to hear it in the first place. So the lower court’s decision was upheld - Nike lost the case - and settled up with Kasky - agreeing to make a seven-figure “gift” to help sweatshop workers around the world. It was a rare win against corporate personhood - but it was short-lived. Because just as Nike was coughing up the cash - Fox News was about to mount its own defense of a corporation’s right to lie that very same year.

In 1998 - two investigative reporters - Jane Akre and Steve Wilson - working for a local Fox affiliate produced a series on how a synthetic hormone known as Bovine Growth Hormone or BGH - routinely given to cattle - could be causing cancer in America - and not in Europe where it’s banned. But since the local Fox station - owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp - forced Akre and Wilson to re-write the story several times until finally it was just an outright lie that was pretty much consistent with Monsanto’s PR. Even though Europeans have banned the stuff, here we should "don't worry, be happy." But Akre and Wilson refused to tone it down - they believed as journalists it was their job to tell the public the truth about what’s in their milk…so the Fox TV station fired them. And Akre and Wilson fired back by suing the Fox TV outlet for wrongful termination - and a jury of 6 of their peers unanimously agreed with Akre and Wilson and awarded them $425,000. The jury found that: “ acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plaintiffs' news reporting on BGH."

Case closed?...not so fast.

In 2003 - just as the Supreme Court was dismissing the Nike case - Fox News was appealing its own case. And sure enough - that year - an appeals court reversed the lower court’s ruling - and claimed that - as a corporation - Fox News has the right to lie - and not only that - it has a right to force its reporters to lie with the threat of firing them if they don’t comply. That decision still stands today. Which means right now - Fox can tell it’s reporters to lie to protects corporate and political friends and interests - and those reporters MUST comply or else they’ll get fired. And as we’ve seen in the recently-leaked emails uncovered by Media Matters that show Fox News executives telling anchors to call the Public Option a “Government Option” instead, because it sounds better for Republicans - and to also inject skepticism in every report about global warming - Fox News is up to their ears in the lying game. And yet they can still call themselves “news." Everyone knows - well ALMOST everyone knows - that Rush Limbaugh isn’t news - and Rush Limbaugh himself doesn’t call his program a news program. Heck - everyone knows the Big Picture with Thom Hartmann isn’t news - and I don’t claim to be either - I do opinion. But Fox News is in the same business as Rush Limbaugh - carrying the water for the Republican Party and corporate interests - yet it still calls itself “news."

Historically from the 1930s until the 1980s - when a media organization called itself news - it had to be free of bias - it had to be real news. Then Reagan blew up the Fairness Doctrine - the rule that required self-proclaimed news outlets to report straight news - and opened the floodgates of distortion and infotainment. And the courts piled on by ruling media corporations have the right to lie to viewers. Now can you see why our news media in America is in complete and utter disrepair? And why nobody believes what they see or hear anymore?

But that’s not what America needs. As I speak - Republicans are pushing for a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. Our nation needs a constitutional amendment stripping corporations of their personhood - and thus their right to lie to us. Then maybe we can once and for all force Fox to drop the word “news” from its name - and call the network what it really is - GOP TV

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check
www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings

[democracy1st]

1. K & R

[The Doctor.]

2. The issue of corporate personhood needs to be brought to the SCOTUS again and again.

If for no other reason than to make sure that the names on the court go down in infamy.

[tclambert]

4. If the Roberts Court gets to rule on it, they will say that corporations are better than people.

Roberts would give them more rights and fewer responsiblities. Like maybe, they have freedom of speech, so they can lie, but you can't sue them. Oh, wait, didn't they just rule that way in the Wal-mart case?

[Enthusiast]

3. That's a thing of beauty, Thom.

Wish all Americans could hear it. It would ring true for millions about now that otherwise would have dismissed it before.

[pam4water]

5. Great piece. I think of The Big Pictures more as news than as op ed :D

[90-percent]

6. Thom

In my one call to his live radio show, I asked him about the fact that news corporations can knowingly lie legally, he explained the Florida case to me.

Thom brought up a good point here about what will happen when we all realize that our news media is all corporate propaganda that the presenters know is false, yet can legally tell you it's true!

Yet another totalitarian fascist police state brick in the wall.

-90% Jimmy