Tod Lippy, "How"
Channel: Tod Lippy
Date: 02/06/2020

[This video carries a Creative Commons license [CC BY-ND 2.0], which means it can be distributed and shared freely.]

"How can you live with yourself?"

It's a question dripping with sanctimony and self-righteousness, but it's the phrase I repeat to myself when I think about the Murdoch family and their crucial role in bringing democracy in the US and around the world to its knees. Rupert Murdoch, his sons Lachlan and James and daughters Prudence and Elisabeth—and their various spouses—continue to reap billions (each) in profits from News Corp, much of it coming directly from Fox News and other propagandistic news services around the world, by sewing division, inciting bigotry, stoking hate, and enabling Donald Trump and his apologists in Congress and elsewhere to not only survive but thrive. 

I wrote this song out of deep frustration after Trump's victory in 2016,  but it was only late last year that I spent a number of weeks combing through footage from Fox News and other sources to create this accompanying video. The video was finished before the coronavirus pandemic and economic downturn and before the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, but sadly, many of the clips featured here could easily be interchanged with the twisted coverage Fox is currently providing in relation to each of these tragedies. 

If you're as concerned and frustrated as I am, there are things you can do right now:

1. Learn more about the history and malignant influence of Murdoch, Roger Ailes, and Fox News:
http://monthlyreview.org/2014/06/01/rupert-murdoch-not-silent-but-deadly/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJRyRnj1TlQ
https://www.amazon.com/Loudest-Voice-Room-Brilliant-News/dp/0812992857

2. Share your own clips of particularly egregious moments on Fox—these create a public record and will eventually serve as documentary evidence of what history will no doubt judge harshly.

3. Vote in November. And make sure everyone you know—and those you don't—votes as well. Here's a solid list of some fantastic voting rights organizations: https://bit.ly/3csqoM2 

4. Watch Fox News (and, in your local area, news programs produced by the likes of Sinclair Broadcasting). Whatever your political persuasion, it is naive and counterproductive to deny or ignore the enormous influence of right-wing media outlets such as these. Knowledge is power.

5. Contact the Murdoch family directly through their other activities to voice your concerns. For instance, James Murdoch and his wife, Kathryn, run the Quadrivium Foundation (http://www.qdvm.org/#intro), a nonprofit devoted to strengthening democracy, addressing climate change, promoting scientific understanding, and other issues directly at odds with the goals of News Corp. Write to them and ask them to use their influence to change the culture at News Corp. and its parent company 21st Century Fox Inc., an organization that has put billions of dollars into their pockets.