It's a question dripping with sanctimony and self-righteousness, but it's the phrase I repeat to myself when I think about the Murdoch family and their crucial role in bringing democracy in the US and around the world to its knees. Rupert Murdoch, his sons Lachlan and James and daughters Prudence and Elisabeth—and their various spouses—continue to reap billions (each) in profits from News Corp, much of it coming directly from Fox News and other propagandistic news services around the world, by sewing division, inciting bigotry, stoking hate, and enabling Donald Trump and his apologists in Congress and elsewhere to not only survive but thrive.
I wrote this song out of deep frustration after Trump's victory in 2016, but it was only late last year that I spent a number of weeks combing through footage from Fox News and other sources to create this accompanying video. The video was finished before the coronavirus pandemic and economic downturn and before the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, but sadly, many of the clips featured here could easily be interchanged with the twisted coverage Fox is currently providing in relation to each of these tragedies.
If you're as concerned and frustrated as I am, there are things you can do right now:
1. Learn more about the history and malignant influence of Murdoch, Roger Ailes, and Fox News.
2. Share your own clips of particularly egregious moments on Fox—these create a public record and will eventually serve as documentary evidence of what history will no doubt judge harshly.
3. Vote in November. And make sure everyone you know—and those you don't—votes as well.
4. Watch Fox News (and, in your local area, news programs produced by the likes of Sinclair Broadcasting). Whatever your political persuasion, it is naive and counterproductive to deny or ignore the enormous influence of right-wing media outlets such as these. Knowledge is power.
5. Contact the Murdoch family directly through their other activities to voice your concerns. For instance, James Murdoch and his wife, Kathryn, run the Quadrivium Foundation. a nonprofit devoted to strengthening democracy, addressing climate change, promoting scientific understanding, and other issues directly at odds with the goals of News Corp. Write to them and ask them to use their influence to change the culture at News Corp. and its parent company 21st Century Fox Inc., an organization that has put billions of dollars into their pockets.
lyrics
How do you do it
Walk me through it
Talk me through it
Tell me how do you do it:
How do you live with yourself?
You recruit truants
You ooze pollutants
You key up shooters
And tee off looters
How do you live with yourself?
You seed confusion
You feed delusion
Your fictions fester
Into vicious gestures
Your vision fosters
Our worst impulses
You tending fences
Panem et circenses
Tell me, how do you live with yourself?
credits
released September 10, 2020
Music and lyrics by Tod Lippy
Produced by Tod Lippy and Kramer
Four indie-pop reflections on growth and loss from the Australian singer-songwriter, sustained by robust pianos and fervent vocals. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 29, 2024
More folk-inflected confessionals on love, loss, and anxiety — plus a Kacey Musgraves cameo —from the Nashville indie pop auteur. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 11, 2024
