America has a serious immigrant problem.

They are eroding our values and our way of life.

They are undermining the strength of our democracy and creating chaos.

They fray the fabric of our communities and their unity.

They are Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch

No Sense of Decency

These problems became part of the U.S. when we made South African Musk and Australian Murdoch American citizens.  Daily, they reflect their gratitude by dispensing lies and conspiracies that are threats to the country they were so desperate to be part of.   

It is difficult to understand why they wanted to become American citizens since they display so little regard for our history, our norms, and our commitment to rule of law. They make our political discourse coarse, divisive, and bullying.   

Their behaviors summon up the words of Army Counsel Joseph Welch speaking to Senator Joseph McCarthy, the purveyor of Red Scare conspiracies, on June 9, 1954: “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

As much as anything, the reckless demagoguery and personal smears of others lack any hint of decency. 

In today’s political environment degraded by MAGA’s drumbeat of incendiary rhetoric, they are the fuel to the hateful commentaries and comments broadcast by Fox News and X and support for the former president’s stream of nonsensical commentaries and psychological projections.

Fox News Is Not News

Evidence of Murdoch’s version of the “news” was on full display last week.  For half a day, the talking heads at Fox News attacked Vice-President Kamala Harris for promising hurricane victims $750.  Guests railed that victims were receiving so little when their houses were collapsed and trees were blocking driveways, and when they needed groceries and gas. 

They backed it up with dishonest editing of Harris’s comments at a press briefing in Georgia, eliminating her full comment after mentioning the $750: “Today, I’m also announcing that the president has approved the governor’s request for 100% federal reimbursement of local costs… Also, we will be covering 100% of the local costs for food, water, and shelter.”

Fox News also reveled in misstating an ICE report through interviewers who said Biden/Harris have let 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide into the U.S.  Actually, what ICE said was the 13,000 covered 40 years, including the Trump Administration.  Unsurprisingly, context was absent since it didn’t hone to the Fox support message of the day for the former president.

During the pandemic, the station regularly downplayed the seriousness of COVID and spotlighted anti-science anti-vaxxer opinions.  In his deposition in the Dominion lawsuit, Murdoch said he never believed any claims of computer fraud in the 2020 election although it was claimed night after night on his own news station.

It’s little wonder that one-third of 700 Republican candidates for office still espouse false election fraud claims.

President Ronald Reagan’s administration expedited Murdoch’s American citizenship.  The law said television stations had to be owned by American citizens.  About the same time, Reagan also told Murdoch that he planned to end the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and television networks to present fair and balanced reporting.

True To Its Intent
From its beginning, Fox News was never intended to just be a mainstream news station with a conservative core.  It was always to be a propaganda machine and it has invested deeply into this role over the years.  Just as it propelled the Tea Party in the Obama years, today, it propels the MAGA movement in the Biden years.

Here’s the thing: Fox News viewers are not only being manipulated, they are being made ignorant by their own viewing habits.  Fox News is not another form of news.  It is not news at all.

Author and cultural historian Linda Hirshman said it perfectly: “Murdoch’s biggest legacy is the damage his media did to democracy around the world – from Australia to the UK and finally the USA.  From the beginning in the British tabloids 50 years ago, he unleashed the power of hate-filled rhetoric, setting the working class ‘blokes’ against the elites, a crucial step in creating a movement of right wing populism.”

She said that by the time his media machinery reached the United States in 1996, “it had the power of Kryptonite” and was “even more brutal.” “As he finally exists the scene, American democracy hangs by a thread,” she said.

The National Security Risk

Meanwhile, Elon Musk is nothing short of a national risk. 

While he wallows in the distribution of misinformation and hate posts, it is nothing short of amazing to realize that the same person who joked that no one has tried to assassinate Biden/Kamala is a major contractor for federal agencies.

SpaceX signed a $1.8 billion contract in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office which oversees American spy satellites.  The U.S. Space Force signed a $70 million contract with SpaceX to build out military-grade, low-earth-orbit satellite capabilities.  Starlink, Space X’s commercial satellite internet, is providing connectivity to the U.S. Navy.  NASA has signed contracts for billions of dollars for moon missions and $843 million to build a vehicle that will take the International Space Station out of commission.

SpaceX and its Starlink system have nearly total control of the world’s satellite internet through the more than 4,500 Starlink satellites already in orbit with plans for as many as 42,000.  It gives Musk the power to shut down a country’s access to Starlink and the internet and to gain access to sensitive information collected on the system.

Although he shares a fixation for lies and misinformation with Murdoch, more threateningly, he has amassed a frightening level of power for someone as unpredictable, ego-driven, and conspiratorial and lover of right wing propaganda, including from neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and other anti-government fanatics.  While extolling his commitment to all points of view, he censors and blocks reporters and others whose opinions he doesn’t agree with.

 And What Will xAI Legacy Be?

As an Asheville reporter said on Poynter, attempts to get information about resources and help in the wake of Hurricane Helene on X were hopeless as the site was swamped by grievances, bad information, and right wing conspiracies.  He recommended reliable sites with information on Instagram and Reddit, while pledging to never go on X again.

The personal arrogance was on full display when in the aftermath of the Trump assassination attempt, he posted a comment that suggested it was time for an attempt on President Joe Biden or Vice-President Kamala Harris.  Other posts of his are solicitous of Russian foreign policy (he refused Ukraine’s request to enable Starlink to Crimea) and with Tesla’s factory in China accounting for half of the car’s deliveries and the bulk of its profits, it’s no surprise that China has found a home on X for its propaganda.

He has largely dismantled Twitter to the point that little of its value or talented staff remain.  It has lost 16% of its users and app downloads declined 38%.  It depends on morally questionable investors that include the Saudi royal family.

With the Musk supercomputer in Memphis, xAI is now being trained, but there’s no doubt it will continue to spew misinformation and conspiracies even more effectively.  So far, with the cheerleading and backslapping from Chamber of Commerce and MLGW, the fact that Memphis will play such a pivotal role in helping Musk ensure that his AI venture will be dedicated to undermining what he calls the “woke mind virus” and to do it with the help of neo-Nazis and White nationalists.

Here’s hoping that Memphis will not have buyer’s regret in the future as a result of swallowing Musk’s venture hook, line, and sinker at a time when more and more cities are being more circumspect, pushing back on these huge data centers and their impact on electricity, water, and quality of civic life.   

Hopefully, here, historians will not sometime in the future write that Memphis made a Faustian bargain with a megalomaniac whose behavior later dynamited the bragging rights from economic development officials.

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