We are learning that while the Big Lie was being promulgated all over the country by Fox News, riling up the wrath of millions to protest the election, and while state legislators followed up by passing numerous bills to subvert future elections and make it harder for the poor and minorities to vote, behind the scenes the Fox News Big Shots were actually mocking the very people they were reaching and making fun of the very people they put on air to “interview.” 

MSNBC analyst Mehdi Hasan reports on Fox News anchors mocking operatives of the former White House tenant and his Big Lie.

People like former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell the pillow guy — one of the biggest sponsors of the network — were mocked by these same interviewers and even by Rupert Murdoch, the man behind the throne of Fox News.

What are we tempted to sell truth for?  Is it ever worth it to abandon Truth for other gods? 

Around the world, “Truth” is found to be a proper name for Divinity.  Christ is said in John’s Gospel to speak thus: “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  (The historical Jesus did not talk this way but the early Christians put these words into his mouth.)  

The Bhagavad Gita declares that a world without truth is a world without God and in such a world desire alone will rule.

John Iadarola of The Damage Report recounts viewer stories of how Fox News conditioned their loved ones to hate. Further accounts follow in the comments.

The desires of Wall Street?  And stockholders?  Are they to determine for the rest of us what to accept as truth and what not to accept as truth?  And such such spiritual heavyweights as Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, Laura Ingram, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity—are they our spiritual gurus preaching truth?

Thomas Aquinas says that “the proper objects of the heart are truth and justice.”  It follows that the selling of lies and untruths is bad for our hearts and bodies—just as selling injustice is bad for hearts, bodies, communities of people and other Earth creatures.  Fox News is giving us heart-aches and maybe heart attacks and heart failures.

Perhaps Fox News should invite some teachers of the mystics to lead a retreat for all their news announcers on the value of truth.  And the dangers of its opposite.  And for the captains of other Wall Street corporations as well.  

To be continued.


See Matthew Fox, Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…including the Unnameable God, pp. 41f.

And Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times, pp. 101-109, 65-70.

To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.

Banner Image: “Separation of News and Hate.” Poster at the Seattle Rally to Restore Sanity, 2010. Photo by Ali-V on Flickr.

Queries for Contemplation

“Desire alone will rule” when Truth is ignored say the Hindu Scriptures.  Is that your experience too?  It makes Truth important, doesn’t it?


Recommended Reading

Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God …Including the Unnameable God

Too often, notions of God have been used as a means to control and to promote a narrow worldview. In Naming the Unnameable, renowned theologian and author Matthew Fox ignites our imaginations by offering a colorful range of Divine Names gathered from scientists and poets and mystics past and present, inviting us to always begin where true spirituality begins: from experience.
“This book is timely, important and admirably brief; it is also open ended—there are always more names to come, and none can exhaust God’s nature.” -Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, author of Science Set Free and The Presence of the Past

The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times

A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book!  Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit


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13 thoughts on “Fox “News” vs Truth”

  1. Richard Reich-Kuykendall
    Richard Reich-Kuykendall

    Matthew, Today you continue in your coverage of the Fox News scandal, and ask: “What are we tempted to sell truth for? Is it ever worth it to abandon Truth for other gods? Around the world, ‘Truth’ is found to be a proper name for Divinity. Christ is said in John’s Gospel to speak thus: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ The Bhagavad Gita declares that a world without truth is a world without God and in such a world desire alone will rule.” So you ask: “The desires of Wall Street? And stockholders? Are they to determine for the rest of us what to accept as truth and what not to accept as truth?” Then you share with us the wisdom of Aquinas: “Thomas Aquinas says that ‘the proper objects of the heart are truth and justice.’ It follows that the selling of lies and untruths is bad for our hearts and bodies—just as selling injustice is bad for hearts, bodies, communities of people and other Earth creatures.” Your questions for us today are: “‘Desire alone will rule’ when Truth is ignored say the Hindu Scriptures. Is that your experience too?” Yes, because when truth is ignored, people fall to their selfish and egocentric ways which are driven by their desires–as Buddhism has so aptly pointed out.

  2. Maybe the ‘teachers of the Mystics’ can go out first and learn something. Instead of making an audience of the ‘Kings and Queens’ of media, would it not be prudent to walk among ‘the viewers’, the followers, those that accept what is ‘spewed out’ without question? What is it in the ordinary person that makes them want to take sides and believe that they themselves are being ‘unjustly’ treated by an ‘unjust system’? Is that not the case? For the most part, masses of people, not all people, grow to become content with ‘their lot’ unless they believe that they are being ‘shorted’ by another group of people. And in some way, large groups of people see life as they know it continues to crumble and change, and not for the better. The ‘middle class’ is shrinking is it not, as the West moves towards the ‘haves and have nots’? Is it not ‘the powerful’ then that want to take ‘leadership’ of a disgruntled group and move the masses, with emotion and discord, to their ‘self-serving’ direction? The ‘disgruntled’, as a whole, are not bad people. They are just people that are disgruntled. Talk to them. Mystics are listeners first and foremost are they not? — BB.

    1. Richard Reich-Kuykendall
      Richard Reich-Kuykendall

      Bill, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and say that I don’t think you are writing of Matthew when you write: “Maybe the ‘teachers of the Mystics’ can go out first and learn something.” Because if you are that is an insult. Matthew is not only a teacher of the Mystics, but he is one himself, and you would know that if you read some of his books–I would recommend: The Coming of the Cosmic Christ. This book shows what a modern mystic says and does. Matthew speaks of the “mystic-prophet.” That is one who engages in contemplation, but also with social activism–something that is different from the medieval mystics. And it will help you with the problems you have with the idea of the Cosmic Christ.

  3. I have followed your brilliant scholarship for 30 years. I have unending gratitude to you for introducing me to so many great minds and mystics. My life is forever changed because of it–no small thing. This is why I find it so sad when the ‘meditations’ go down the road of scapegoating a favorite enemy by the man who introduced me to Rene Girard’s work on the scapegoat mechanism, Sam Keen’s work on The Faces of the Enemy, Joanna Macy’s systems thinking work–I could go on. Corporate media on BOTH sides of the political spectrum engage in demonizing the ‘other side’ as a result of the repeal of the fairness doctrine, with the sole aim of dividing and polarizing the populace so that we keep fighting among ourselves and don’t see the grift that BOTH parties and their corporate donors are perpetrating on the people and the planet. This is a systems problem and as long as we continue to scapegoat and war with each other our glorious planet will continue to spiral toward the abyss.
    I say these words from the wisdom your profound work introduced me to. With respect…

  4. Truth and Desire are linked; one without the other leads to a world ruled without God. What links Truth and Desire…the Heart. This leads to the question… “what is the true desire of one’s heart and how is this tethered to one’s relationship with God, in this world?”

    Without a heart-to-heart relationship with God… personally lived… which we see much of in this world… what takes center stage in some people’s hearts, is human desire alone… fixated on the things of this world. Things like power, wealth, status… that this world defines as success, or the so called bringers of happiness… are deemed as the ultimate value of the meaning and purpose of a worthy life. Yet all these worldly things are temporary.

    For me personally… growing, evolving and merging into becoming a more loving, compassionate, merciful and just human being… defines not only meaning and purpose in life… but I see this as a life lived successfully… in embodying the wealth of the gifts given me… broken open into givenness. Yes, sometimes this brings me much happiness and at other times much sorrow and suffering… yet all of this too is ultimately of value and worthy.

    What arises are the words in scripture… “Guard your heart, for out of this flows the rivers of living water.”

    1. Richard Reich-Kuykendall
      Richard Reich-Kuykendall

      Jeanette, Thank you for your comment. The bottom line in all of this as you put it is: “Without a heart-to-heart relationship with God… personally lived… which we see much of in this world… what takes center stage in some people’s hearts, is human desire alone… fixated on the things of this world. Things like power, wealth, status… that this world defines as success…”

  5. LOVE~LIGHT(Wisdom/Truth)~LIFE… Divine Flow of Loving Diverse Oneness within, through, among us, especially within Sacred Mother Nature/Earth, and within All our ongoing co-Creation~Evolution of our sacred multidimensional-multiverse Cosmos in the Sacredness of the Eternal Present Moment….
    🔥💜🌎🙏

    1. Richard Reich-Kuykendall
      Richard Reich-Kuykendall

      Heather, You ask: “Wondering what is a better translation of “I am the way, the truth and the light” from John chapter 14; v6.” I think this is a good translation, in fact, you can check out other translations just by looking up John 14:6 in other Bibles. When Matthew wrote: “The historical Jesus did not talk this way but the early Christians put these words into his mouth”–after quoting this verse, he was simply acknowledging the fact that the date that the Gospel of John was written (approximately 100 CE), suggests that these weren’t Jesus’ own words, but rather were the words of the Christian community that attributed these words to Jesus’ disciple John, and the author of John in tern attributed the words to Jesus himself. I hope that helps…

  6. Personally, I think we’re all being “played” by the small, elite, global group of the ultra-rich and the large corporations who own most of the media. They’ve created carefully edited entertainment that may (or may not) have news, but also has content designed to manipulate ALL the rest of US (the un-wealthy global masses) into pitting our frustrations and pain — the despair of sliding (further) into poverty, experiencing worsening healthcare and education, and being stripped of human rights and government power) — into fighting a designated, carefully tailored “Other” i.e., a group of people whom, we are told, is so vile, so depraved, so unpatriotic, so immoral — that we should, MUST IMMEDIATELY (Urgent!!) oppose them with every means possible, especially by (authoritarian) laws and violent (but of course “justified”) action.

    We are carefully diverted, praised, groomed, told that we, too, should aspire to buy stuff, pursue wealth, elevate individualistic egos, and dominate each other (become LIKE the elite!), and we’re invited to hate/Crusade against “those other ones” who are disgusting/stupid/standing in our righteous way. While we’re frantically (but enjoyably! ) busy fighting/hating each other, we’re prevented from realizing we’re more like each other than we’re being told to believe by the true masters of global wealth and power. We allow ourselves to be divided and, because of that, our power is successfully neutralized.

  7. I thought as I was reading that this topic might ruffle a few feathers. The unvarnished truth has a way of doing that. However, choosing to allow falsehoods to go unchallenged is to allow them to gain power. Fox news is the political outreach of the republican party. There is no other way of saying it, although I would expect to be challenged about this. The courts have allowed them to peddle a modern day version of Joseph Goebbel type propaganda, updated with neuroscience and social networking. It has been shocking to see how the american public has been manipulated by combining these techniques with entertainment to achieve the successes they have attained these last few years, especially.
    Talking about politics and Truth would be empty if the facts about what has been happening in the US and around the world were to be avoided

  8. Yesterday I commented, saying I have been writing the Federal Communications Commission , asking that they require Fox to remove the word news from their advertising. What I learned today is that the Federal Communications Commission has NO governance over cable networks. And there is NO governance,oversight for any of the subscriber offerings.

  9. Justice depends on Truth. The successful manipulation of the media and advertising acts to subvert truth and to substitute lies that appeal to people’s selfishness and greed. Divide and conquer is clearly the desired result. Scapegoating and setting up paper tigers distracts us from the truth, as Melinda points out, and sets us against one another. Propaganda reigns, and this is how democracy dies. I was just speaking to a friend in the Czech Republic who is terrified at this trend in the country that once stood as an example and inspiration to smaller nations. Putin is a real threat to her people, a next door “neighbor” who will gobble up everything in his way. Through propaganda by such media giants as Fox only aids him and other despots–it used to be called aiding and abetting the enemy but has become business as usual—only the bottom line counts. Not that Fox is the only culprit in that .

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