The Conduct

The document is called "Standards of Business Conduct." Fox News Media wrote it, named it, and distributed it to employees. The document uses the word "rigorous" to describe the level of honesty required. It uses the phrase "accurate and complete" to describe what financial records should be. The document has been in place for some time.

Jason Hermes is the Vice President of Content Sales and Partnerships at Fox Weather, which is a Fox News Media property. He oversees ninety million dollars in annual business. Recently, an undercover journalist recorded him explaining his approach to expense management.

"We would just lie on the Fox Expense Reports," he said. "No one's gonna f*ing say a word to me."

I am not making this up.

The Standards of Business Conduct document says "rigorous honesty." Hermes said "we would just lie." Both of these things are true. Fox News Media produced both of them. One was produced by the legal department. One was produced by a hidden camera in a restaurant.

The four-thousand-dollar charge was for a strip club. It was charged to Fox corporate cards. The expense reports were handled, according to Hermes, in the manner he described. He used the word "we." This is a statement about institutional practice, not personal preference. "We would just lie" is a mission statement with a subject.

The organization that recorded Hermes was O'Keefe Media Group. James O'Keefe spent years building a career out of deploying undercover journalists to catch elite institutions saying things they would prefer not to have on camera. He developed the technique, refined it, and used it to document progressive organizations describing their actual methods. This week he used it on Fox News Media.

I am not making this up.

Fox News has produced extensive coverage of elite corruption, hidden agendas, and the gap between what powerful institutions say publicly and what they do privately. They have been doing this for years. The Standards of Business Conduct document has been in place the entire time. Both things appear to be true simultaneously.

Hermes said "it's still like that," referring to the practice. Present tense. An ongoing condition. Ninety million dollars in oversight. Four thousand dollars in documentation that was, according to Hermes, handled with the level of accuracy he described.

The document is still called "Standards of Business Conduct." Nothing about the name has changed. Everything about the name is still technically accurate. They have standards. They have business. They have conduct. The relationship between the three is a document separate from this one.