File under "Fox News learned nothing from the Dominion lawsuit." Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo was one of the worst offenders for behavior that led to the record-setting $787 million settlement Fox News paid in a defamation lawsuit filed by a voting machine company falsely accused of "stealing" the 2020 election from Donald Trump. During the height of the Big Lie, Bartiromo had a steady stream of guests touting wild conspiracy theories, usually based on shady claims of "sources" that were often entirely fictional. Or, in the case of Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, based on emails from a woman who claimed she is a ghost who speaks to the wind.
Yet Bartiromo was at it again on Sunday night. This time she interviewed Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., about his highly implausible claims to have "evidence" to back up the increasingly baroque right-wing conspiracy theories accusing President Joe Biden and his family of running a crime syndicate. Comer claims to have an "informant," but somehow, said person never materializes, and neither does their evidence. Even Bartiromo asked where this person was.
"Well, unfortunately, we can't track down the informant," Comer replied, making up some wild story about how "informants are kind of in the spy business" and thus this disappearing act is no surprise.
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Rather than point out how convenient it is that Comer can't produce the evidence for his claims, Bartiromo gave Comer the full Sidney Powell treatment, declaring it is a "stunning breaking news story this morning that some of these people now may be missing."
The possibility that Bartiromo is ignoring: One cannot be "missing" if one never actually existed.
Republicans' "informants" probably live in the same right-wing alternate reality as "Q" from the QAnon cult or the wind ghosts who gave Sidney Powell psychic evidence for the Big Lie.
Republicans' "informants" probably live in the same right-wing alternate reality as "Q" from the QAnon cult or the wind ghosts who gave Sidney Powell psychic evidence for the Big Lie. It's not like Comer is especially shy of letting people know he intentionally spreads disinformation from his perch as the chair of the House Oversight Committee. In March, he bragged about flogging conspiracy theories to the New York Times by noting that Republican voters want to hear "QAnon stuff" and arguing that "the customer's always right." The odds that this "informant" is a real person, therefore, are roughly equal to the possibility that Rudy Giuliani is sober during any post-5PM TV interview.
No one should hold their breath waiting for any in the Republican base to be embarrassed by the obvious bullshit fueling the "Biden crime family" lie. A few, whose brains are totally pickled by QAnon message boards, will believe there was once an "informant" and said person "suddenly" disappeared. Most, however, will take the story of Mysterious Disappearing Whistleblower in the spirit it's intended: as a fairy tale that MAGA heads recite not out of true faith, but to demonstrate fealty to the tribe.
As with the Big Lie or any of the other whoppers Trump and his acolytes peddle, it's not that the GOP voters are seriously deluded, so much as they enjoy the transgressive thrill of lying and getting away with it. I've been writing for years about the psychology of MAGA lies, and how few who espouse them truly believe them. It was only recently, though, that a reader shared with me this Scientific-American article by Jeremy Adam Smith about the concept of the "blue lie." As Smith explained, blue lies are "told on behalf of a group" to or about another group, as a way to strengthen the in-group while demonizing an out-group. In "Capture the Flag," for instance, your team might throw up a decoy to mislead the other team about where your flag is. In politics, this is where one political group tacitly agrees to share in a lie that they think will benefit themselves at the expense of others. The Big Lie, for instance. Or claiming to disbelieve E. Jean Carroll. Or birtherism. It's less an expression of authentic belief and more about point-scoring against political opponents.
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The Dominion lawsuit helped a lot more journalists understand the extent of blue lying among the GOP base. Before Dominion published reams of internal communications from Fox, the widespread belief was that the Fox audience was a passive recipient of conspiracy theories. Most commentators spoke as if the network set out to deceive its viewers, who just haplessly fell for the lies. What the documents show, however, was the opposite. When Fox tried to tell viewers the truth about the 2020 election, the viewers revolted. It was only after Fox started to lie to them about the election that they came back. The audience isn't just complicit in the lies. The viewers demand lies.
The odds that this "informant" is a real person, therefore, are roughly equal to the possibility that Rudy Giuliani is sober during any post-5PM TV interview.
Paul Waldman of the Washington Post addressed this reality last week, rebutting the naive commentators hoping that "fact checks" of Trump would somehow diminish him in the eyes of his supporters. Waldman correctly noted that Trump's supporters are perfectly aware he is lying, and so are impervious to said "corrections."
The ability to lie and get away with it is a show of power. As fascists, all the MAGA base cares about is power. And as Waldman noted in a follow-up column, "The very act of lying, then shouting down those who would correct you, is what creates the excitement the party's voters crave." It's why Trump voters don't care that he contradicts himself from moment to moment. One moment he's denying that he raped E. Jean Carroll. The next moment, he's winkingly bragging about it, saying both that she had it coming and he was entitled to do it. To the GOP, the whole point is rubbing people's noses in Trump's ability to lie and get away with it.
That's why Comer playing "the dog ate my informant" is not going to diminish him or his conspiracy theories to Republican voters. Likely, they never believed there was an actual informant, or cared if he ever produces one. The point is not any sincere belief that Biden has done anything wrong. If anything, the accusations against Biden are more thrilling because they're so obviously false. The conspiracy theory will keep chugging, getting more bizarre as it goes, all without a shred of real evidence to back it up. The point for the GOP base is playing their hateful game of make-believe, and they are never going to let petty little things like facts get in the way of their fun.
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