It Won't Go Away

The election just won't go away. 

It seems that people are actually going to be held accountable for the misleading and false statements they made or repeated in the absence of evidence. 

This morning in The Wall Street Journal I found this headline:

Smartmatic Sues Fox News Over Election Claims

In reading the article I am at the same time gratified and concerned. Here is a quote from the article:

The suit, filed Thursday in a New York court, focuses on a series of statements made about Smartmatic on Fox News by lawyers who supported former President Donald Trump’s claims that the election was rigged, including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. The lawsuit also mentions remarks made about Smartmatic by Fox News Media anchors including Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo.

Smartmatic’s complaint claims that the segments on Fox News contained numerous errors involving the reliability of its technology, and that Fox News knew its statements about Smartmatic were untruthful.

While I am happy that people are being held accountable for their words and the damage it has subsequently done to companies and people, I am concerned that a news organization is at the center of the complaint. News organizations are supposed to report news--both sides and allow the viewers to make decisions. Perhaps this suit would suggest that Fox News is not a news organization, but rather a mouthpiece for right-wing disinformation?

And then there is the impeachment trial coming next week. Will anything good come of it? We all knew when the House of Representatives voted to impeach the then president a second time that the Senate would likely not vote to convict. And apparently even before the trial begins it appears there are not nearly enough votes to potentially convict. I am saddened that so many senators have so short a memory. 

But we, who are doing the best to make it in our day-to-day lives need to move on. We cannot continue to look behind us or we will not see the obstacles yet to come. 

I wish our Congress would stop looking in the rearview mirror and start supporting our president in planning to meet the future.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD