D.S. Dexter Tarbox, Jr.: Is It Time to Stop Watching Fox News?

On April 18 Fox news settled the bogus defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million. Two days later the network failed to renew the contract of Unfiltered host Dan Bongino. Finally, on the 24th, it unceremoniously announced the immediate exit of their leading primetime host Tucker Carlson, to the shock and dismay of a great many people. 

Between these fiascos and their unremitting neoconservative hawkishness on Ukraine, it may be time to stop watching Fox News. 

This is an unhappy realization for many—like myself—who have long turned to the cable giant for both news and opinion. But a closer review of recent history reveals that the writing has indeed lately been appearing on the wall. On June 10, 2022, Fox shocked its audience when a story produced by correspondent Bryan Llenas vociferously praised a Southern California family who have been raising their biological female child as a male since the age of 5, invoking the justified ire of conservative commentators like Ben Shapiro and Michael Knowles (both of the Daily Wire). 

Just shy of three years before the Llenas debacle, in March 2019, Fox Corporation raised eyebrows when it appointed notorious bungler Paul Ryan (the former Speaker of the House of Representatives turned private equity hack) to its Board of Directors. Interestingly, it seems that Ryan’s principal responsibility within the company is as Chairman of its Corporate Governance Committee; a not insubstantial role for a man who notoriously failed to unite conservatives in the House against the growing tide of progressivism during Obama’s second term. 

With leadership like this, is it any wonder that Fox is manifesting obvious symptoms of decay?

While the Dominion settlement likely prevented the revelation of potentially uncomfortable testimony, the lack of resolve evinced by this tacit admission and the other bizarre decisions noted above bewrays a fundamental disconnect with the ideological bent of its audience. Right-thinking people chose Fox to confront mainstream narratives, but it now appears that the enemy at our gate may have sent us a Trojan Horse. 

Tucker Carlson was, in his own words, ever the enemy of “lying, pomposity, smugness, and group think.” It is not unreasonable to assume that this was the very offense for which he has been hung.