Fox News Should Be Banned for US Troops?

Camilo Concha / shutterstock.com
Camilo Concha / shutterstock.com

It’s no secret that Fox News is a fan favorite; ratings alone show it consistently outperforms its more liberal counterparts. And that is why hellbent leftists like California Democrat and US Representative Eric Swalwell are proposing that it be banned for US military members.

Yes, you read that correctly.

According to an MSNBC interview with the leftist politician, the best course of action to prevent misinformation just might be to ensure that those who are actively serving in our nation’s military don’t have access to so-called fake news like Fox.

The discussion began on Saturday when Swalwell appeared for MSNBC’s “The Katie Phang Show.” Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of it, most of the country hasn’t. After all, as I mentioned before, Fox, and not MSNBC, dominates most rating charts.

But I digress.

Naturally, the politician and Phang were talking about the ongoing defamation lawsuit lodged against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems. Apparently, in reporting that there might be a problem with the voting machine company, Fox stepped on some toes and hurt some feelings.

Phang, as a loyal liberal and therefore solidly against anything Fox-related, asked Swalwell what he thought the repercussions for Fox’s supposed wrongdoing could be – and more specifically if the federal government might get involved.

Phang said, “I’m worried a lot about Americans, and the disinformation and misinformation (as if there’s a difference) that was pumped out of Fox News. Has there been any discussions in Congress about maybe congressional oversight, regulations, maybe the FCC getting involved? I know we all respect the First Amendment congressman, but shouldn’t there be some type of gatekeeping that happens, so that this doesn’t happen again?”

Now, there are several problems with this question.

One is that Phang, along with being a cable news host, is also a lawyer and therefore is supposed to know and understand our Constitution rather intimately.

And secondly, her mention about us all “respect(ing) the First Amendment” doesn’t really sound like she does. In fact, it pretty much sounds like she’s asking how we can do away with it.

But then there is Swalwell’s answer, which is even worse than Phang’s un-American question.

What he proposes doesn’t exactly answer the possibility of whether or not Congress will or even can get involved. Rather, it highlights the ideas of a radical organization of veterans and their families known as VoteVets, which is focused on electing politicians who will promote their “progressive values.”

As they tweeted on March 6, they think Fox hosts should be “removed from all TVs on military installations NOW.”

And Swalwell says he doesn’t exactly “disagree” with the plan.

According to him, someone who’s had the opportunity to travel the world and see our troops in a number of “harsh” places, seeing American TV programming is one of the quickest ways to make those far-from-home individuals feel closer to home.

Unfortunately, as Swalwell puts it, far too many of them see networks like Fox supposedly “perpetuating dis- and misinformation.” So maybe VoteVets idea to ban Fox for our troops is a good idea.

Or at least it might be a good “incentive for Fox News to clean up its evening hour, you know, starting with Tucker Carlson and going on later in the evening with Laura Ingraham.”

Now, of course, Swalwell staged this by saying that he didn’t want to tell troops “what they can and cannot watch,” but… Well, that’s just it; he does.
It’s clear neither he nor Phang wants our troops, or anyone, for that matter, watching Fox News and possibly believing the narrative they are telling. After all, it quite clearly contradicts what CNN and MSNBC are saying.

Just take the recently released January 6 videos put out by Tucker Carlson, for example. If the world sees those and is encouraged to believe them, all the Democrats have fought for these past few years, and their power will be lost.

So, of course, the only option is to dismiss the First Amendment as rubbish. And there goes democracy…