“Ha, funny, but not that big a deal.”

This would probably be any Biden supporter’s thoughts upon seeing a headline indicating that amidst Trump’s speech to CPAC-Dallas on Sunday, Fox ran a chyron that said: “Voting system companies have denied the various allegations made by President Trump and his counsel regarding the 2020 election,”

It is actually a pretty weak pushback all in all but that is missing the point. The chyron was placed below the frame the moment Trump said:

“And now, it’s also because I got more votes — 75 million — than anybody in the history of the presidency, and far more than Clinton, far more than Obama, and a record 12 million more than 2016,” he said. “Think of it, in the history usually they go down a little bit second term and they win, but they go down a little bit.

 “I was told by a great pollster, really somebody great, John McLaughlin, ‘Sir, you got 63 million votes if you get it up to 64 or 65, nobody can beat you. Can’t lose.’ Thank you, John, very much. I got it to 75 and I lost, in quotes, ‘I lost.’ It’s a disgrace.”

It was only 38 seconds of television, but those 38 seconds could prove extremely costly to anyone who televised such obvious tripe. It also inflicts huge costs against a nation as they continue to add up. Mediaite helps us with the numbers lined up against Fox:

The network currently faces a $1.6 billion defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems (that Fox has asked to be dismissed) for their role in promoting baseless election fraud claims. Another voting systems company, Smartmatic, also filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox News earlier this year. Back in December 2020, Fox News aired a fact-check rescinding comments made by some of their on-air personalities on shows hosted by Lou Dobbs, Judge Jeanine Pirro, and Maria Bartiromo.

Fox News adds disclaimer to its chyron during Trump’s speech at CPAC basically saying everything you’re hearing from him is a lie. pic.twitter.com/JbIztEFUEz

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) July 12, 2021

We and many others have repeatedly reported on the increasingly intense propaganda smacked aside Right-Wing viewers’ frontal lobes. But the United States does have one very effective tool that probably isn’t being used enough to combat propaganda, libel lawsuits, something not available in countries that previously fell under Right-wing nationalist dictatorships.

It must be used. And imagine the mind-bending nature of the inconceivable, a former U.S. President gives a speech at a conference and lies his ass off. Okay, fine, nothing new regarding Trump about that. But now the lies have gotten to the point that they’re dangerous to the station airing that president. Theoretically, airing the former president could bankrupt a company.

The single most disappointing thing about Fox’s new “need” is that they didn’t feel obligated to actually put “there is no evidence of significant election fraud,” because it’s too general, for now. Fox protected itself from the companies that are in the middle of taking billions from it and it only did so while Trump himself was speaking.

Lawsuits need to be filed by other plaintiffs. Joe Biden might personally be able to bring about a lawsuit, perhaps one of the most important ever, and put the issue to a head, fact for fact, or at least get to the point where – again – Trump and the Trump campaign must lay their facts out or lose billions.

We are too far behind the curve in using this tool, it should’ve started much earlier, but it’s one of the few tools left that differentiate this country from the former that have fallen. If the nation falls into despotism (and that is the direction with new election laws) the ultimate cause won’t be Trump, it will be propaganda. Propaganda must be fought on its own terms and it requires different tools.

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