If anything proves that the Murdochs are promoting their own big lie by putting “News” in their network’s name after “Fox,” it’s putting Tucker Carlson and the J6 cover-up crew on the air instead of what any legit newsperson would acknowledge is real news: the January 6th Committee hearings.

Oh, sure, Fox has come up with a tiny fig leaf. The New York Times stopped well short of ripping it off:

The [prime time] anchors have held a dim view of the committee. Mr. Carlson called the committee “grotesque” on his program on Monday night, and Mr. Hannity has called the group of five Democrats and two Republicans “fake” on his 9 p.m. show.

Fox News will be covering the hearings live — with Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum anchoring — but on Fox Business, a lower rated cable network. Fox News Media said in a statement that local Fox affiliates around the country would be able to pick up the Fox Business feed, which will also run on the Fox website as well as its stand-alone app, Fox Nation.

The network said that Mr. Baier and Ms. MacCallum would appear on the Fox News cable network but it would not be in prime time. They will appear at 11 p.m., pre-empting an episode of the network’s late night show, “Gutfeld!,” for a two-hour special.

What the Times didn’t explicitly note is that Fox’s news anchors and the hearings have been relegated to the network's broadcast ghetto, while most fans will be getting Tucker Carlson’s seditious and Murdoch-approved spin on an attempt to overturn our democratic election, while Sean Hannity pretends he didn’t urge Donald Trump to stop the violent siege of the Capitol and pretends he didn’t know Trump had lost the election. Laura Ingraham engaged in the J6 cover-up, too.

Something else that rarely gets mentioned, including by Tucker Carlson, is that his son was in the Capitol on January 6th. That was almost certainly Buckley Carlson, communications director for Rep. Jim Banks, who voted to overturn the election results. It will be interesting to see if the committee reveals what the two of them were up to that day and whether Carlson has any personal stake in delegitimizing the proceedings. 

Let’s not forget that Fox “News” insists that Baier and MacCallum represent the “ultimate journalistic integrity and professionalism.” But the network swore in court that nobody should consider Tucker Carlson a trustworthy source of news or facts. As Crooks and Liars’ John Amato wrote, “How embarrassing.” He meant it’s an embarrassment for Baier, anchor of the network’s signature news hour. It should be for MacCallum, too. But she seems to have lost any sense of shame, assuming she ever had any. Last year, she was demoted to daytime so that the Murdochs could put a more opinionated hour in her one-time primetime slot (now hosted by Jesse Watters, who got the gig not long after talking assassination of Dr. Anthony Fauci).

I’m sure the Murdochs are not embarrassed. They’re too busy ringing up their anti-democratic profits. But hey, they may need the dough, considering Fox is being sued for billions for promoting Big Lies about the 2020 elections.

By “coincidence,” Fox’s decision to cover up the news goes hand in hand with the GOP strategy for dealing with an investigation into an attempted coup in which many of them played a part, including former President P***y Grabber. So we can expect pushback on the Fox "News" airwaves about the same hearings the networks doesn't want most of its viewers to watch.

But let’s not forget for one second that ultimately, it’s the Murdochs who have launched this latest assault on democracy – while Lachlan Murdoch pretends otherwise.

Last year, a Democratic PAC put together a powerful ad urging that those responsible for the Jan. 6th insurrection be held accountable. But Fox "News" reportedly refused to air it and refused to explain why. I hope Fox will not prevent accountability now. But, sadly, I fear otherwise. If ever there was a time for democracy lovers to take to social media to demand accountability, it's now.

You can start by watching the ad, called #HoldThemAccountable, below: