SACRAMENTO, Calif. — If you’re an opinion journalist, a cardinal sin is to express a view you really don’t believe — or stoop to fabrication. In short, blatantly lie.
It’s unforgivable.
I’m referring particularly to so-called journalists who sound off when they don’t believe their own words. They lower themselves just to be provocative, feed listeners what they want to ingest and build viewer ratings.
Someone like fired top-rated Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who trumpeted former President Trump’s lies about the 2020 election being stolen when he apparently didn’t believe the claptrap himself. Some other Fox News stars fit into the same dark corner of deception and hypocrisy.
It all came out in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox for smearing the company’s reputation during 2020 post-election reporting. Fox settled the suit by paying out nearly $800 million to Dominion and issuing a statement conceding that it had aired falsehoods about the company.