The joke is on Fox News viewers

But they don't get it.

(Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham)

Fox News thinks its audience are idiots.

That’s the through line from all of the texts and messages from high profile hosts and executives of Fox News revealed in recent weeks as part of the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against the network.

Time and time again, the communications suggest a total disdain for their audience — a belief that if told the truth about the election, viewers would flee to a network more willing to lie to them.

“To be honest, our audience doesn’t want to hear about a peaceful transition,” said Fox producer Abby Grossberg in an exchange with Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo. “Yes, agree,” responded the anchor.

When a Fox News correspondent did a fact-check on a tweet from Donald Trump, Fox News primetime star text fellow anchors Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham “please get her fired,” adding: “I’m actually shocked…It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.”

After Fox News — correctly — called Arizona for Joe Biden in November 2020, Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox News, wrote this to the editor-in-chief of the New York Post: “I hate our Decision Desk people! And pollsters! Some of the same people I think. Just for the hell of it still praying for Az to prove them wrong!”

Suzanne Scott, the chief executive at Fox News, said this on a Zoom call following the election: “Listen, it’s one of the sad realities: If we hadn’t called Arizona, those three or four days following Election Day, our ratings would have been bigger. The mystery would have been still hanging out there.”

And on and on it goes — and went. Time after time, Fox News personalities — and their bosses — said things behind the scenes that DIRECTLY contradicted things that were being said on air. And they did it because they didn’t trust their audience to stick with them.

There is a sort of unstated agreement between the media and those who consume it. We do our absolute best to get the right information in the quickest time possible to you. You have to trust that what we are doing — and the end result — is fair and independent whether you happen to agree with it or not.

I know that’s a bit Pollyanna-ish these days. People tend to seek out the news that fits their particular world view, which incentivizes news channels to provide perspectives — especially in primetime — that they know their viewers want.

But, there still should be a reasonable expectation that what a news organization knows appears on its airwaves, that there is not a major disconnect between what is said off air and what is said on air.

That was — and is — clearly not the case with Fox News. They were literally saying things on air that they were making fun of off air. Rather than leading with what was happening and why, they were reverse engineering the process to placate viewers — in pursuit of ratings and money.

Which, ironically, is what Fox has long accused its rivals in the mainstream media of doing. Watch Fox on any given day and there will be loads of coverage on how CNN or MSNBC or the New York Times is shaping a story to play to its allegedly liberal clientele. The accusation is clear: These other places are only telling part of the story while Fox is telling the full/real story.

The big loser in all of this isn’t Fox. It’s the people who ardently consume the channel’s content and treat its hosts — especially in prime time — as authorittaive voices to be believed and followed.

In polling conducted by Morning Consult last year, a strong majority of Republicans said they believed the coverage on Fox was “credible.”

Pew data from 2019 found similar trust in Fox among Republicans.

The situation then is this:

1. Fox News is demonstrably misleading its viewers, telling them one thing on air while repeatedly claiming the opposite off air

2. Republicans a) overwhelmingly use Fox as their main source of news and b) trust it as a credible outlet.

Now, you might think that #1 could well impact #2. After all, it’s beyond debate that Fox News wasn’t telling its viewers everything it knew and/or believed about the 2020 election and the riot at the U.S. Capitol that followed.

But, you would almost certainly be wrong. Why? Because Fox News isn’t covering this story — BIG surprise! — and lots and lots of Republicans will simply not watch any other cable channel or read the Times or the Washington Post or any other mainstream publication.

They live in what is, effectively, a news desert. They see and hear what Fox News provides for them. Period.

Which means that these people are likely to continue to consume Fox News’ product. Even though the most high profile figures at the network have made absolutely clear the utter disdain they have for their audience.

Good times.