Mike Hosking: Authenticity trumps all in media

We touched on authenticity before the school holidays.

I said that one of the more damning aspects of the Dominion and Fox news scrap was not whether Fox was at fault over claims around the election, but rather the revelation in depositions that Tucker Carlson lied about Donald Trump.

As we know, as of last week, a bit over a billion dollars is heading Dominion's was after the settlement.

A lot of people who hate Fox wanted the thing to go to trial. The reason Fox didn’t is kind of exemplified by the Carlson sacking.

Officially they say they parted ways. But they parted ways because Carlson is a fraud. And that is worse than saying stuff that isn't true

You can defend yourself, especially in America, if you truly believe that what you say is the truth. The fact you are wrong can be penalised, but it's not nearly as bad as knowingly saying one thing, while thinking the other.

Tucker Carlson, if you have missed all this, texted about his hatred of Donald Trump. This was a shock to many, given he appeared on the television saying something very different.

Fox was willing to defend its position using the free speech argument. But they couldn’t defend a bloke who publicly said one thing but privately said something very different.

It doesn’t work in law and it doesn’t work in broadcasting. And I said a couple of weeks back that I wasn’t sure how a revelation like this could surface and he survives.

Turns out, he couldn’t.  

Ironically Don Lemon, who works for CNN, also got sacked yesterday. But that isn't nearly as important because Lemon is not in Carlson's league and CNN is a troubled network anyway with nowhere near Fox's audience.

And he got fired for basically being an arrogant, sexist prat, which although not a trait to aspire to, is hardly the end of the world.

Carlson's sacking isn't the end of the world either but it’s a major dent. The audience will suffer, the share price suffered and advertising will suffer.

He was the biggest of big deals on a big deal network. They don’t sack people like him unless they have to.

But that’s the point - they had to.

All you have in this game is your reputation. You have to be authentic and the audience have to believe that what you say you are, you are.

And Carlson wasn’t. Fraud, in broadcasting terms, is the greatest crime of all.  

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