Not sure if anyone here has read "The Fountainhead", but there is an analogy between the Gail Wynand character and Rupert Murdoch.
In the book, Wynand panders to the lowest aspects of human nature, and in so doing, builds a media empire that he believes gives him control of popular opinion, and makes him extremely wealthy.
One example of this method was to repeatedly attack and condemn a prominent architect, causing the public to reject his buildings and his work, even though they are excellent designs.
Then to prove to the architect that he controls the public, he reverses his criticism and directs his publications to praise the work, believing that the public will follow along with his whim.
But he learns instead, that the public actually controls him, when his readership turns on him and threatens to destroy his empire, and his wealth. Thus he faces a dilemma, in that he must either sacrifice his wealth, or submit to the control of the public he trained to refute the truth.
This presents an excellent character study on the value of integrity, and the loss that occurs without it.
Murdoch is essentially Wynand, except rather than falsely tearing down an architect, he falsely built up Trump. But when Trump became too crazy even for him, and Fox called Arizona for Biden and said the election was legitimate, the same backlash against his empire occurred. The public that he had trained to refute the truth, abandoned him when he tried to be truthful, and threatened his empire.
This is clearly laid out in the Dominion legal brief.
Also on November 9, the impact of Fox's Arizona call became more evident to Fox executives. Carlson told Scott directly "I've never seen a reaction like this, to any media company. Kills me to watch it."
Scott separately noted, "The audience feels like we crapped on [them] and we have damaged their trust and belief in [us]. We can fix this but we cannot smirk at our viewers any longer".
Scott immediately relayed the email to Lachlan Murdoch. She said executives did not understand the impact to the brand and the "arrogance" in calling AZ, which she found astonishing given that the top executive job was to protect the brand. And on that day one, as Scott termed it, Fox executives made an explicit decision to push narratives to entice their audience back.
Fox executives also began to criticize Fox hosts for truthful reporting. On November 9, Fox anchor Neil Cavuto cut away from a White House Press Conference when Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany began making unsubstantiated allegations about election fraud. The brand team led by Raj Shah notified senior Fox News and Fox Corporation leadership of the "Brand Threat" posed by Cavuto's action. Other reporters were also chastised.
The viewer backlash that Fox Executives had hoped would fade, only became worse. Rupert Murdoch to Suzanne Scott, "Getting creamed by CNN! Guess our viewers don't want to watch us." And reality began to set in. An executive wrote on the evening of November 7, "our viewers left this week after AZ".
Carlson also texted his producer: "Do the executives understand how much credibility and trust we've lost with our audience? We're playing with fire." The response was "for real, an alternative like NewsMax could be devastating to us." Carlson agreed.
While the Executives were waking up to the "war footing" with NewsMax by November 10, key Fox hosts had understood the crisis immediately after Election Night. On November 5, Tucker Carlson texted regarding election coverage, "We've got to be incredibly careful right now. We could get hurt."
By November 11, Sean Hannity recognized the critical role the Dominion fraud narrative would play in winning back viewers. Hannity told Carlson and Ingraham on November 12, "In one week they destroyed a brand that took 25 years to build and the damage is incalculable." Tucker responded: "It's vandalism." By November 12, Dominion became a focal point of discussion within multiple shows at Fox.
The key difference between Wynand and Murdoch, is that in the book, Wynand went down with the ship, exhausting his resources before finally giving in to his readers, as a broken man. Whereas Murdoch & Fox immediately caved to viewer pressure, and in so doing preserved their own wealth and well-being. Absolutely zero integrity or regard for the truth, within any of them.
