Byline Supplement

Byline Supplement

Share this post

Byline Supplement
Byline Supplement
How to Detox from Fox
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

How to Detox from Fox

With studies showing the lethal impact of Fox News, former Fox producer and anchor Heidi Siegmund Cuda reveals how the US can wean itself off its toxic influence

Heidi Cuda
Aug 19, 2023
∙ Paid
20

Share this post

Byline Supplement
Byline Supplement
How to Detox from Fox
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
1
4
Share
Members of the activist groups Truth Tuesdays and Rise and Resist gather for the weekly FOX LIES DEMOCRACY DIES protest outside the NewsCorp Building in Manhattan. Photo: Erik McGregor/Sipa US/Alamy Live News

"Whatever your first issue of concern, media had better be your second, because without change in the media, progress in your primary area is far less likely." — Nicholas Johnson, former Federal Communications Commissioner

Protecting your sources is a golden rule in reporting, and I recall being horrified when a reporter neglected to blur the face and alter the voice of a source who mouthed off on camera about a well known Los Angeles gangster.

I yelled at the television: “He’s gonna get killed!”

And within a week, the source was dead. 

I have written books with the rapper Ice T and with the bodyguard of Tupac Shakur, and I produced a TV news series called Thug Life about former gang members who had turned their lives around. I knew a few things about the streets, and I knew when the reporter neglected to blur his source’s face that the source was a dead man walking.

I had been doing the job long enough to know that reporters need to protect their sources from themselves. 

Reflecting back on that era almost seems quaint now. Fox News has become a fully deployed weapon of mass destruction — both on the minds of viewers, who buy the unreality the Murdochs sell them, and how that very same propaganda can kill people, as evidenced by the Fox viewers body count during from the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of lives due to the Insurrection.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Byline Supplement to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Byline Media Holdings Ltd
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More