We Need to Talk

Democracy Requires Honest Discussions

Apr 23, 2023

The settlement this past week of the lawsuit between DominionVoting Systems and Fox makes this fact undeniable: millions of Americans get their news from a source that routinely, deliberately, and flagrantly lies to them.

For most thinking Americans the fact that Fox lies is not news.

For those whose critical thinking ability has been put to sleep by years of marinating in the manufactured outrage and lies of Fox, this may, however, land as new information.

That assumes, of course, that they have even heard about Fox’s admission and Fox’s $787.5 million settlement payout that underscores that admission. Fox sure isn’t telling them. On the day the settlement was announced, it didn’t merit even a peep on prime time Fox programing.

Even if Fox viewers did happen to stumble upon news of the settlement from an actual news source, however, there is no guarantee they would actually believe it, so thorough has the effort by Fox and its partisan allies been to discredit practitioners of actual journalism in order to make their lies easier to swallow.

That’s a time worn tactic. History shows that whether it is cult leaders or fascists trying to take control, the first two orders of business are always: (1) tell outrageous lies; and (2) convince their “marks” that only they - the cult leader or the fascists - can be trusted and believed.

Sound familiar?

That is just one of the many reasons it is important that Fox has admitted - in court, and paid $787.5 million to underline it - that Fox lies. Daily. About really big things.

Maybe some Fox viewers will finally get the message: Forget that “We Report, You Decide” nonsense. Fox lies. Deliberately. Knowingly. They admit it themselves.

This is an issue, however, that goes well beyond Dominion and Fox, and its constantly misinformed and deliberately misdirected viewers.

Honest pubic discourse is the life blood of a democratic form of government. Democracy depends on it.

Successful and effective self government - democracy - requires that the people have accurate information and hold honest discussions with each other as they deliberate on public matters. Without accurate information or honest discussions, passions and emotions rule. Rumor, misinformation and disinformation become the currencies of the day.

Without honest public discourse people and their state and federal governments waste their time chasing problems that aren’t real, arguing about things that are often imaginary, and ignoring urgent issues that can’t wait.

None of this happens by accident, by the way. The liars lie to create opportunities to divert folks from what is real and advance their own private agenda.

So America - and Iowa - we need to talk.

Let’s use the Dominion v Fox settlement as a learning and launching moment. We need to talk about a lot of things, but especially about the information we receive, how we critically think about that information, and how we talk to each other - family, friends, those we agree with and those with whom we disagree - about public issues.

After a life time of observing political communication in progress - the good, the bad and the ugly - and as someone who spent a good portion of my life as a professional political communicator, I have been thinking about this a lot. I will return to this topic periodically over the next few weeks and months to share my thoughts, but let me begin that discussion today by saying this:

Communicating honestly with each other is the first step in the process.

Our democracy is breaking. It is breaking daily and is being broken deliberately.

The good news, in my view, is that what ails democracy in Iowa and America - while very serious - is something we can fix, with even more democracy and citizens who are willing to do the hard work to save our democracy and make it work again.

Barry Piatt’s weekly column is part of the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative (IWC), which links some of Iowa’s best writers and thinkers directly with readers. The IWC, like this column, is a reader supported, so, please check out the columns listed below and consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to any or all of them.