How Fox Chased Its Audience Down the Rabbit Hole. Rupert Murdoch built an empire by giving viewers exactly what they wanted. But what they wanted — election lies and insurrection — put that empire (and the country) in peril.

 Rudolph W. Giuliani was giving a news conference at the Republican National Committee. With Sidney Powell, the right-wing attorney and conspiracy theorist, at his side, Giuliani, sweating profusely, black hair dye dripping down the side of his face, spun a wild fantasy about Joe Biden’s stealing the election from President Donald J. Trump. Dizzying in its delusional complexity, it centered on a supposed plot by the Clinton Foundation, George Soros and associates of Hugo Chávez to convert Trump votes into Biden votes by way of software from Smartmatic and voting machines from Dominion Voting Systems.

Murdoch wasn’t pleased, but he knew it was exactly what his audience wanted, true or not.

And when he found it wasn’t true, he had a dilemma. He chose to continue to sling the bullshit his audience wanted, in spite of knowing he may be fueling an insurrection. BUT, his ratings were up, and rising, and profits are what fuels his empire, and ‘facts be damned’, cuz his audience doesn’t care anyway.