The Murdaugh trial offers a reminder of the 'old South'

Except for the judge and a few court officers, everyone in the audience and on the stand is white, not Black as we might now be accustomed to. The defendant is a member of a very rich and prominent South Carolina family that has long been important financially, governmentally and socially in the region. The charges against the defendant are serious but very common in the pre-civil rights era and also pre-Civil War era in the South: the misdeeds of gothic aristocrats ready to inflict pain and suffering on those beneath them regardless of race or right.

I have found the trial fascinating for a glimpse into the past, and for some perhaps even into the future.

Norman Ravitch, Savannah

At Fox News, lying is a business decision

When forces within a democracy embrace lying as a core value, consumers (and voters) beware. That's us.

The Dominion lawsuit against Fox News' libelous reporting of 2020 presidential election results has exposed what many have suspected at least during the President Donald Trump era: a news organization consciously and chronically misleads its viewers. The Republican Party adopted that as a template and a business plan. Lies sell. Trump lost and a political party perpetuated the lie. It continues to do so (see George Santos and other first-term Republicans).

The defense for lying at Fox is its parsing of who is a commentator and who a newscaster. The worst defense is that of the Republican Party touting Trump, a well-document lier, as the 2024 standard bearer. As Aretha Franklin once sang, "Who's zooming who?" Who's being duped? Is Fox the Republican safe space where lies not only soothe and reassure, but also deceive and rob? Perpetual lying equals propaganda. Fox is willing to sell out our democracy for a cheap, craven business plan. For ratings and revenue.

Fox News is a media perversion just as the current Republican party is a political perversion -- a perilous combination for our democracy.

Daryl Chubin, Savannah