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John,
The data is clear. If you watch FOX News, you are more likely to believe the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, the January 6 insurrection and attack on the Capitol was carried out by 'Antifa,' and vaccines and mask mandates aren’t effective in reducing the spread of Covid-19.
Every time FOX News spreads misinformation, their programming puts viewers' lives at risk.
How many of the more than 2,000 people dying every day of the Coronavirus[1] on average over the last month could’ve been saved with the truth? How many died because of FOX News’ lies, which continue to perpetuate the spread of this deadly virus?
Twitter banned Donald Trump for inciting the violent insurrection at the Capitol. Facebook permanently banned Alex Jones and his InfoWars network for Covid lies and disinformation. DirecTV dropped the right-wing One America Network and YouTube permanently banned FOX News host Dan Bongino. None of these corporations did it because it was the right thing to do. They did it because they knew they could be held financially -- and possibly even criminally -- responsible if they didn’t.
That’s why we can win this fight. That’s why we must use our leverage to get FOX News off the air.
Comcast, Charter, AT&T, and every other cable company that allows FOX News on their platform is making a profit from helping FOX News put more lives at risk. Join me in sending a message to the big cable companies: Deplatform FOX News and take dangerous disinformation and lies off the air now.
You may not realize it, but if you pay for cable or satellite TV, you’re subsidizing FOX News whether you watch it or not.
That’s because your cable or satellite TV provider pays a subscriber fee to carry FOX News, and of course, that cost is passed on to you. According to a report by Media Matters, a typical household pays FOX News almost $2 per month -- about $20 per year -- via their cable or satellite provider, regardless of whether they actually watch the channel or not.[2]
This is big business for FOX. They make approximately $1.8 billion per year from hidden subscriber fees -- twice as much as CNN and three times as much as MSNBC.[3] These extra-high fees now make up most of its revenue, and have protected it from the massive amount of lost revenue caused as advertisers abandon the network.
It’s depressing, but it should also give us hope and here’s why: FOX News was able to get such high fees in part by leveraging its loyal audience to put pressure on the cable companies during negotiations.
That’s right, public pressure on cable companies got FOX News a great deal. Now it’s time to turn that public pressure around and make sure cable companies hear from us. Demand cable companies -- including Comcast, Charter, and AT&T -- deplatform FOX News and take dangerous disinformation and lies off the air now!
We can win this, but only if we stand up and work together to make it happen.
Thank you for taking action today,
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
P.S. Please share this petition far and wide. Let’s keep the pressure on.
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109281/covid-19-daily-deaths-compared-to-all-causes
[2] https://unfoxmycablebox.com
[3] https://deadline.com/2019/10/fox-news-cable-news-network-ratings-1202749534
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