Fox News, Dominion settle defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million

[TC Talks]

Do any of you GOP nerds still watch Fox?

The story doesn't mention if Dominion used lubricant or finished Fox off dry. I bolded my favorite FOX quote...

Chalk one up for the trial lawyers.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Fox News agreed Tuesday to pay $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems, settling a lawsuit brought by a company that was repeatedly smeared on air with fantastical claims of helping to rig a presidential election and marking an abrupt end to one of the most consequential and closely watched media cases in decades.

The eye-popping figure — the largest publicly disclosed monetary settlement ever in an American defamation action — averted what could have been an even costlier outcome for Fox and its parent company, Fox Corp., had the suit gone to a jury. Dominion had sought $1.6 billion, and several pretrial rulings had strengthened its claims.

The settlement agreement came with only a grudging acknowledgment by Fox that it had been wrong in repeatedly airing false statements that backed up President Donald Trump’s bogus claims of election fraud after the 2020 election. Fox’s hosts and guests had repeatedly depicted Dominion, the maker of voting machines and software, as at the heart of a conspiracy to change votes to hand Joe Biden the election.

“We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false,” the cable network said in a statement following the news that it would no longer contest Dominion’s allegations in court. “This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues.”

The parties came to a last-minute deal that was announced just after a jury was selected to hear the case and just before opening arguments were slated to begin in a superior court in Delaware — Biden’s home state.

“The truth has meaning,” said a lawyer for Dominion, Justin Nelson, in remarks delivered outside the courthouse. “Lies have consequences.” The settlement agreement, he added, “represents a ringing endorsement for truth and democracy.”

[Matt]

This is a Fox win - they avoided the spectacle of a trial.

[bmw]

Fox News is a shell of its former self, IMO. Outside of Special Report with Bret Baier, FNC is largely a network of programs hosted by right-wing political hacks. And of course CNN and MSNBC aren't any better. The state of cable news in this country these days is embarrassing.

Say what you want about Alan Colmes (RIP), but at least once upon a time Sean Hannity incurred challenges daily from the other side. Even Tucker Carlson, when he first took the 8pm time slot from Bill O'Reilly, used to have prominent liberals on as guests every night. Now all we get from both hosts is long monologues that do nothing more than preach to the choir. And Laura Ingraham is no better. You get 3 straight hours of (often intellectually dishonest) conservative ranting with no opposition to be found.

My question is, how do we, as a country, get away from the tribal politics that largely rule everything? I have no problem with principled views that lean left or right, but we've gotten to a point where intellectual honesty takes a back seat to making one's own side look good and the opposing side look bad. It is true of Congress, it is true of social media, it is true of late night entertainment programs, and it is true of virtually every news program in existence.

As an aside, while I think Fox News got what it had coming to it, the collective orgasm the left is having over this is embarrassing.

[TC Talks]

This is a Fox win - they avoided the spectacle of a trial.

Not quite, they have a few other suits similar to Dominion. Since when is settling the largest suit of it's kind considered a win?

Months before Dominion filed its defamation claim, Smartmatic, another voting machine company, filed its own, demanding $2.7 billion in damages. Fox denied wrongdoing, saying it had simply reported on newsworthy allegations coming from Mr. Trump.

A day after the Smartmatic suit was filed, Fox Business canceled the show of Lou Dobbs, who was named as a defendant. A New York appeals court denied Fox’s request to dismiss the case in February. A New York judge last month agreed the case could proceed.

In March, Abby Grossberg, a Fox News producer who had worked with Ms. Bartiromo and Mr. Carlson, filed two lawsuits, in Delaware and in New York. She accused Fox of coercing her into giving misleading testimony in the Dominion case and of creating a hostile, discriminatory work environment.

After she filed the complaints, Fox fired Ms. Grossberg. “We will continue to vigorously defend Fox against Ms. Grossberg’s unmeritorious legal claims, which are riddled with false allegations against Fox and our employees,” a Fox News spokeswoman said.

[TC Talks]

Fox News is a shell of its former self, IMO. Outside of Special Report with Bret Baier, FNC is largely a network of programs hosted by right-wing political hacks. And of course CNN and MSNBC aren't any better. The state of cable news in this country these days is embarrassing.

This made me laugh out loud. Name a right winger who isn't a hack?

[bmw]

Fox News is a shell of its former self, IMO. Outside of Special Report with Bret Baier, FNC is largely a network of programs hosted by right-wing political hacks. And of course CNN and MSNBC aren't any better. The state of cable news in this country these days is embarrassing.

This made me laugh out loud. Name a right winger who isn't a hack?

I'm conservative, but I'm fed up with the amount of intellectual dishonesty that exists within the community of conservative political pundits. Conservatives USED to be the ones who promoted and encouraged debate with the other side. They still pretend to support debate, but they no longer participate in it themselves.

[TC Talks]

And who championed that stonewalling technique? The GOP, not the pundits.

[Rate This]

Fox News is a shell of its former self, IMO. Outside of Special Report with Bret Baier, FNC is largely a network of programs hosted by right-wing political hacks. And of course CNN and MSNBC aren't any better. The state of cable news in this country these days is embarrassing.

This made me laugh out loud. Name a right winger who isn't a hack?

I'm conservative, but I'm fed up with the amount of intellectual dishonesty that exists within the community of conservative political pundits. Conservatives USED to be the ones who promoted and encouraged debate with the other side. They still pretend to support debate, but they no longer participate in it themselves.

It’s all about the money. Those people are as unprincipled as they come and realize being honest or having a debate would cost them viewers and by extension money.

For example the Dominion lawsuit documents indicated Sean Hannity tired of Trump long ago but he keeps being an unwavering fetishist for the guy because he is afraid of losing viewers. That’s the real tragedy here. But that’s what “conservative” audiences want. Unwavering support or die. It’s the same thing that brings us GOP litmus tests.

[bmw]

I'm not sure I believe that conservative viewers would abandon watching/listening to conservative pundits if said pundits were to more actively engage in debate with liberals. Love him or hate him, Bill O'Reilly routinely had guests on his Fox News program (when he still had a job there) with points of view that differed from his. And to the best of my recollection, his show was always the top-rated show on the network. And again, you once had Hannity and Colmes. I don't know what the show's ratings were, but I can't imagine they were were than Hannity (solo) has now.

What MIGHT happen though is they might all make enemies with Donald Trump if they were to do so. Nobody at Fox News wants to lose access to Trump or be on his bad side. Now if by extension your argument is that viewers would leave because of Trump telling them to do so, you might have a point. But you can't, as a network, operate under fear of what one politician might do to you; otherwise you are nothing more than propaganda machine for said politician (yes, I know you you would say that is already the case). I can't imagine I'm the only conservative who feels this way.

This goes back to something I said in here some months ago - that for things to change, there has to be some high-profile conservative who breaks ranks with Donald Trump. The problem is, they have already all sold out and doing so at this point would in and of itself be a credibility issue for whoever were to do that.

[Matt]

I'm not sure I believe that conservative viewers would abandon watching/listening to conservative pundits if said pundits were to more actively engage in debate with liberals. Love him or hate him, Bill O'Reilly routinely had guests on his Fox News program (when he still had a job there) with points of view that differed from his. And to the best of my recollection, his show was always the top-rated show on the network. And again, you once had Hannity and Colmes. I don't know what the show's ratings were, but I can't imagine they were were than Hannity (solo) has now.

What MIGHT happen though is they might all make enemies with Donald Trump if they were to do so. Nobody at Fox News wants to lose access to Trump or be on his bad side. Now if by extension your argument is that viewers would leave because of Trump telling them to do so, you might have a point. But you can't, as a network, operate under fear of what one politician might do to you; otherwise you are nothing more than propaganda machine for said politician (yes, I know you you would say that is already the case). I can't imagine I'm the only conservative who feels this way.

This goes back to something I said in here some months ago - that for things to change, there has to be some high-profile conservative who breaks ranks with Donald Trump. The problem is, they have already all sold out and doing so at this point would in and of itself be a credibility issue for whoever were to do that.

Are you on the "Trump needs to go away" train now?

[TC Talks]

Trump in control is good for all of us. He's too incompetent and no one trusts him.

And if you think Fox for an instant put strong progressive or moderate democrats on their programs you are a fool. They were foils in the classic sense. Read a crib note on the elements of a drama. It's so cliche it's comical.

[Rate This]

Trump in control is good for all of us. He's too incompetent and no one trusts him.

And if you think Fox for an instant put strong progressive or moderate democrats on their programs you are a fool. They were foils in the classic sense. Read a crib note on the elements of a drama. It's so cliche it's comical.

They were always 3rd tier liberals that were either easily defeated in their arguments or would be cut off if they made a good point.