What we can and should be doing now. – Update for Sunday 3/6

Action #1: Help strengthen democracy here. UPDATE: Join DEMCAST’s Team to fight Russian disinformation!
Action #2: Ask Biden to protect Ukrainians currently in the U.S. and prepare for Ukrainian refugees.
Action #3: Ask FOX the question…”Seriously, why are you allowing your employees to give “aid and comfort” to an enemy of the United States?”
Action #4: Here’s a list of organizations AND actions to help.

#1: Help strengthen democracy here.

On Sunday, Swap Meet Justice volunteers headed out in the early morning to set up our monthly citizenship fair at Oxnard College. We did this so good, hardworking people can gain a voice in our country. We did it because the road to becoming an citizen is difficult, racist and unfair. And we did it in the name of our own forebears who left behind everything they knew to escape poverty, famine, brutal repression and yes, war. And now war will again force traumatized people from their homes.

As we watch the Ukraine tragedy unfold, it is disheartening to see our own countrymen, including a former president, giving “aid and comfort” to a war criminal who has attacked orphanages and kindergartens and is now threatening the world with nuclear weapons. However, what we can do right now is concentrate on strenthening what Putin, and his GOP gaslighters (excellent article here) fear most – democracy itself. Join in – here are a few options (Do not be afraid that you’ve never done these kinds of activities before. There is training for you, and questions are always welcomed.):

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Time for some Fox-sequences. Report their COVID lies to the FTC.

Join this guy in stopping Fox News’ lies about the Covid vaccine! He’d made it really easy to help.

(From Dean Obeidallah) “This is special edition of my newsletter given the dangerous lies that many-although not all—Fox News hosts have been spewing about the Covid vaccine.

On Tuesday, July 20, I filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Fox News for possible violations of the Covid-19 Consumer Protection Act. That law, enacted in December 2020, makes it “unlawful” for a corporation or individual “to engage in a deceptive act or practice in or affecting commerce associated with the treatment, cure, prevention, mitigation, or diagnosis of COVID–19.”

My goal in filing this complaint is to prompt the FTC to investigate and bring an end to the apparently deceptive information Fox News has been selling to the consumers of its channel. Given the FTC’s expanded powers under the new Covid-19 Consumer Protection Act to protect the public from deceptive information related to the treatment or prevention of Covid-19, I believe this complaint fits squarely within the spirit of its new mandate. Fox News is a for-profit business that is selling its product — information — to the public in exchange for cable subscription fees.

The FTC is the perfect agency to protect the public from any person or entity peddling false information about Covid-19 vaccines in pursuit of pecuniary gain. I wrote in detail about the legal basis for the claim, the sources that prove Fox News hosts lied about the Covid vaccine and the need for an investigation in my new MSNBC op-ed out today that you can read HERE.

My hope though is that YOU will also file a complaint with the FTC—it literally will take you less than five minutes. Info is below. Let’s not just get angry about the dangerous lies Fox News is spreading that is potentially killing people, let’s do something about it!

ACTION #1: File an FTC complaint:

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“Hello, I’d like to speak to the man behind the curtain.” Let’s talk to Rupert Murdoch.

Action #1 – Continue to de-FOX-ify your life.

We have, like many groups, advised people to cut off their unwitting financial support of FOX News, a right-wing propaganda machine masquerading as a media empire. And as there’s more than one way to attack this issue, so we offered a variety of options here.

Meanwhile, the poison continues. Tucker Carlson, who promotes white nationalist viewpoints on his widely watched show, gave a sympathetic and unquestioning platform to Charles Murray, a social scientist who uses racist pseudoscience and misleading statistics to argue that social inequality is caused by the genetic inferiority of the black and Latino communities, women and the poor. Meanwhile, a report released last Friday by the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters showed that the majority of vaccine-related segments that Fox News aired over the past two weeks “repeatedly fearmongered about and downplayed the need for continued vaccination campaigns.”

So what do we do now?

In 2019, the Intercept published an article: “The Problem at Fox News Is Not Just Tucker Carlson — It’s the Murdoch Family Who Owns and Controls the Network: It’s not enough to criticize the racist anchors on Fox News. The Murdoch family is responsible for what happens there. Let’s talk about them…

…It’s absolutely correct to direct our anger at the terrible people we see on Fox and the terrible things they say, but they are not the worst culprits or the most powerful ones. Remember the Watergate-era saying, “follow the money”? Do that with Fox News and you’ll quickly realize that the people responsible for its hateful programming — the people who can shut it off in an instant but don’t because they approve of it or are too cowardly to take a stand against it — are Rupert Murdoch and his heirs, who founded and own a controlling stake in the network’s parent company.“

In fact, let’s talk to Rupert...

Action #2 – Write an email, a letter or a postcard to Rupert Murdoch. Copy his son.

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Tucker Carlson is just a symptom. We are the cure.

Action #1: Stop their money machine. We are paying for Fox through our cable fees.
Action #2: Write to your cable company’s CEO.
Action #3: Write to the NFL. Their largely Black players profit Fox, while being denigrated by them.
Action #4: Write to the FEC – The Federal Election Commission. Fox is providing services to the GOP.

UPDATE: “Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Signs a Voter Suppression Bill, and Fox News Has the Only Camera” (MotherJones) (Axios) Hard-right politicians recognize Fox “News” for what it is – the propaganda wing of the GOP, just as Roger Ailes envisioned. DeSantis baldly using them as a force-multiplier for his message, while denying all other news media access, makes Fox a political actor rendering services. Contact the FEC. (Action #4 below)

(Graphic quote here.) Watch the CNN video below here. Then we have four actions for you to do.