Is Fox News a criminal enterprise?
An appeal to target the Fox political apparatus during the 2024 campaign
CREW
From 2009 to 2011, I did occasional freelance consulting work for the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a noble public-interest group that hired me to conduct nearly a dozen investigations. Although CREW made public the results of several of these projects, I never received a single public acknowledgment for any of my contributions. And the fee I charged was a fraction of what I normally billed for my opposition-research work—even though I insist that no one in the world of oppo-research can match my record of successes.
But, considering my great respect for CREW, I was happy to do it.
In fact, I felt honored when its leadership invited me to their annual holiday party in December 2010. During the dinner, the executive director asked everyone in the room to make their predictions for the coming year.
When my turn came, I stood and replied, “During 2011, Fox News will be declared as a criminal enterprise.”
Amid the laughter that followed, one of CREW’s attorneys shouted out, “And be the subject of a federal RICO case?”
I replied only half-jokingly, “Please, Lord, let me be part of it!”
Although I tried, we didn’t do that job, but the British government came close.
James Murdoch is the son of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and the then-executive chairman of News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation, which is also the parent company of Fox News in the United States. In November 2011, he appeared before a committee of Parliament.
During Murdoch’s testimony, MP Tom Watson compared News International to an organized-crime family, saying to Murdoch, "You must be the first Mafia boss in history who didn't know he was running a criminal enterprise."[[1]]
Sean Hannity and the “Freedom Concerts”
While working with CREW, my biggest and most important investigation focused on the popular, long-time Fox News anchor, Sean Hannity. When approached for this project and asked to prepare a proposal, I wrote:
I’ve never investigated Sean Hannity. Indeed, I always viewed him as a right-wing crank, but I also believed him to be a Boy Scout. I didn’t think that he, unlike Bill O’Reilly, had sexual motivations that could jeopardize his marriage. However, despite his constant flag-waving patriotism and breast-beating Christianity, I believe that he is purely motivated by money. This appears to be the overriding gospel that he preaches—that freedom means unfettered capitalism.
Consequently, I believe that the best chance of success in finding the goods on Hannity will revolve around his personal finances.
A trusted source tipped me off to Hannity’s so-called “Freedom Concerts.” After several weeks of investigation, I submitted a series of reports, alleging that, among other things, Hannity used these popular events to finance his right-wing agenda—and not for the publicly stated exclusive purpose of providing scholarship money “for the children of killed and wounded soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The evidence I uncovered showed that such statements were demonstrably false.
The immediate beneficiary of the enormous amount of money raised by Hannity via his allegedly “deceptive marketing practices” was an organization called Freedom Alliance that touted Oliver North of Iran-Contra fame as its “Honorary Chairman.” North—who had his own show on Fox, War Stories with Oliver North, from 2001 to 2016—is still an occasional commentator on Hannity’s evening show.
Although I argued for CREW to file a civil RICO litigation—with what I considered clear RICO predicates—CREW’s attorneys rejected that idea but did send formal complaints to both the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Trade Commission.
In their submission to the FTC, the CREW attorneys, based on my investigation, wrote, in part:[2]
Although Freedom Concerts’ website indicates the net proceeds from the concerts go to the scholarship fund, Mr. Hannity has a record of using his television show on Fox to misrepresent the facts:
On July 10, 2003, Mr. Hannity reminded viewers that a Freedom Concert was to be held the following evening. He stated, “And by the way, you can still go. Great Adventure, Jackson, New Jersey, Six Flags. All the proceeds go for the scholarship fund.”
On May 27, 2004, Mr. Hannity was promoting the Freedom Concerts with his guest, Lt. Col. North. Mr. Hannity asked Lt. Col. North to talk more about the scholarship fund and Lt. Col. North stated, “I get letters every single day into the foundation. There’s no overhead. There’s no expenses taken out. Every penny that’s donated or that’s raised through things like the Freedom Concert on July 8, when I hope everybody watches [sic] is going to join us out there.” Lt. Col. North continued, “And what we’re going to do is we’re going capstone this $2 million fundraising campaign. Every penny of which will go to support a youngster in college. All they have to do is get into college. The check goes to the college.”
On May 19, 2005, promoting his upcoming Freedom Concert at Six Flags in Jackson, New Jersey, Mr. Hannity proclaimed, “Every penny, 100 percent of the donations, are applied to the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund. We're going to send all 1,300 kids of slain soldiers to college with your help.”
On July 28, 2006, Mr. Hannity played a video clip, taped at a Freedom Concert in New Jersey, of Lt. Col. North declaring to the audience, “Look at this crowd that’s gathering here for this wonderful concert, all of which, every penny [that] comes in goes to support the widows, the orphans, the dependents of those who died in the line of duty.”
On June 6, 2007, Mr. Hannity promoted an upcoming Freedom Concert, stating, “The purpose is all the money that we make we put in a scholarship fund for the children of these slain heroes.”
On December 2, 2009, Mr. Hannity stated, “All the benefits of these funds benefit the Freedom Alliance Scholarship. All the proceeds go to them, a scholarship fund for the children of slain heroes.”
More recently, Mr. Hannity appears to have been trying to cover himself against allegations of deceptive marketing, stating that all proceeds go to scholarships, but then adding the caveat, “the net proceeds.” For example, after having stated that all proceeds go to the scholarship fund on December 2, 2009, the next evening, December 3, Mr. Hannity stated, “Here’s the best part: all the proceeds go to the Freedom Alliance scholarship fund for the children of slain soldiers, the net proceeds.”[3]
CREW’s attorneys were not surprised that neither the FTC nor the IRS filed either civil or criminal charges against Fox, Hannity, and North—all of whom denied any wrongdoing. As explained to me, few serious people consider Sean Hannity a legitimate journalist. However, Hannity has always enjoyed the legal protective shield of what is arguably an illegitimate news operation. To be sure, Fox has made a science of cloaking responsibility for its biased and partisan journalism by wrapping itself around and hiding behind the First Amendment.
For the government to prosecute Fox’s alleged political operation would automatically draw the wrath of the true gods of journalism—like the New York Times and the Washington Post, among many other respected news organizations.
In other words, if the Times, the Post, and others do not protect the worst of their profession, like Fox News and Sean Hannity, then they could be at risk of becoming the next targets of government litigation and judicial review.
My second attempt to RICO Fox
On December 21, 2015, I pitched a detailed, written proposal to a well-known client, once again advocating the filing of a civil RICO case in federal court, along with formal complaints against Fox News with the IRS and the FTC, as well as the Federal Communications Commission. Here was the introduction to my proposal:
There will be no greater, more powerful player on behalf of the Republican Party during the 2016 General Election than the Fox News Channel. Candidates will come and go, but Fox News will be omnipresent, promoting and manipulating events.
Because Fox News is widely viewed as more of a right-wing political operation than a legitimate news organization—in spite of its “fair and balanced,” “we report, you decide” [masquerade]—it is certainly worthy of intensive investigation and close scrutiny, especially during this upcoming election year. And I believe that, if conducted carefully and credibly, such a focused campaign would be welcomed by the mainstream media, which has been driven to the right because of the success of Fox News, which constantly complains of “the liberal bias in the lamestream media.”
This proposal was also rejected, and, to my chagrin, I wound up sitting out the 2016 campaign when I failed to interest any other organization in my project to investigate and attack Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Fox News as a package deal.
To be sure, throughout the Trump presidency (2017-2021), the gang at Fox News, led by Sean Hannity, continued their now-familiar roles as Trump’s most dependable shills and stalking horses.
Simultaneously, Fox ran roughshod over the political landscape, defending and embracing everything from Trump’s shameless pull back from NATO to his crazy home remedies for Covid, along with his national-debt busting tax breaks for the rich to his proven 30,000-plus lies about anything and everything. Even after The Capitol Insurrection, Fox remained faithful and loyal to its Dear Leader, who cares only about himself.
2024: Target Fox
In 2024, Fox News continues to apologize for and further enable Trump’s dishonesty and corruption while entertaining the sheep in their common flock with the network’s ongoing proven history of fraud, lies, and defamation.
Any lingering doubts that Fox News is on the wrong side of legitimate journalism—while serving as little more than a right-wing propaganda machine—were completely dispelled by the $787.5-million settlement that Dominion Voting Systems received from Fox in 2023.
Dominion proved that top executives, anchors, and other “talent” at Fox intentionally chose to mislead and flat-out lie to their audiences with their knowingly false claims that Donald Trump was the victim of voter fraud by Dominion in the 2020 presidential election and in its aftermath.
Subsequent to the settlement, Fox evening anchor Tucker Carlson was fired—but, somehow, Hannity survived.
The $2.7 billion defamation case, Smartmatic v. Fox News, is on deck and should reveal even more of the mindless speculations, half-baked opinions, and poorly sourced facts from Fox News, aka Trump State Television.
In 2024, both Donald Trump and Fox News are still here, providing cover for each other while sabotaging fairness and accuracy in journalism and American politics. And Fox News, arguably an existing criminal enterprise that is posing as a legitimate news organization, should be investigated and pursued, just like a corrupt politician.
ENDNOTES
[1] No byline, BBC News, “James Murdoch denies ‘code of silence’ over hacking,” November 10, 2011.
[2] See CREW’s complaint for further details.
[3] I began investigating Sean Hannity on November 17, 2009, filing my first interim report on November 29, 2009. That was followed by my first report specifically about the Freedom Concerts on December 8, 2009. By the end of the year, I had submitted three additional detailed reports.
While CREW was busy with its fact-checking and vetting process, conservative commentator Debbie Schlussel published a good story about Hannity’s concerts on March 10, 2010.
CREW’s attorneys submitted the results of our investigation to the FTC and the IRS on March 29, 2010.
Schlussel updated her work on April 5, 2010.
Thanks, Ben. . . . Since 2016, Trump and Fox have been joined at the hip. The Dominion settlement exposed Fox for what it really is. . . . After that, why does Fox continue to be accepted as a legitimate news organization?
Great proposal Dan, really great. On the face of it Fox News should be investigated and exposed for its fraudulent claims to be a legitimate journalistic enterprise.