The Dominionation of Fox News

[1pooh4u]

Sounds like Dominion is about to own Fox News 

if dominion can prove a rich and powerful guy like Murdoch was nothing more than a liar that enabled liars, proving my landlord forged my name on a lease should be a cakewalk oh wait I ain’t got dominion lawyer $ but neither does my landlord 😬💩

[Sieg67]

I wonder how much of a hit FOX is going to take.  It'll be a sizable financial one but would it really be enough to significantly hurt he network?  Then there's also the topic of public trust but I can't imagine a lot of viewers even knowing about the lawsuit.  Even if they do, it likely won't change their minds because that's the kind of demographic FOX's viewers are.

Of course I'd Dominion will take Murdoch along with all of his news networks down but I think the most that will happen is that they'll be a bit more cautious with what misinformation they spread.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Sieg67

[scoobdog]

45 minutes ago, Sieg67 said:

I wonder how much of a hit FOX is going to take.  It'll be a sizable financial one but would it really be enough to significantly hurt he network?  Then there's also the topic of public trust but I can't imagine a lot of viewers even knowing about the lawsuit.  Even if they do, it likely won't change their minds because that's the kind of demographic FOX's viewers are.

Of course I'd Dominion will take Murdoch along with all of his news networks down but I think the most that will happen is that they'll be a bit more cautious with what misinformation they spread.

I think we’ll likely have seen the last of Tucker Carlson and other high priced talent when the verdict is in. 

[Raptorpat]

Quote

A judge ruled on Tuesday that Fox News could not argue that it broadcast false information about Dominion Voting Systems on the basis that the allegations were newsworthy, limiting a key line of defense for the network as it faces the beginning of a potentially costly defamation trial next week.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/11/business/fox-news-dominion-trial.html

[Icarus27k]

An article I read yesterday said that Smartmatic, another election technology company, is suing Fox News and what happens in the Dominion lawsuit will determine how future defamation cases against them will play. 

In other words, Fox News has years of legal problems ahead of them. 

[Icarus27k]

 

Fox News is going to lose this trial. I'm hoping it turns out like Alex Jones getting his ass sued and having to file for bankruptcy. 

[1pooh4u]

The fairness doctrine destroyed the news. I get wanting to explore both viewpoints but when one side is just lies that shouldn’t be allowed.  Fox OANN and Newsmax should be asterisked as news entertainment like how the wwe is sports entertainment 

[Jman]

5 minutes ago, 1pooh4u said:

The fairness doctrine destroyed the news. I get wanting to explore both viewpoints but when one side is just lies that shouldn’t be allowed.  Fox OANN and Newsmax should be asterisked as news entertainment like how the wwe is sports entertainment 

If Fox News goes out of business we could see a legal and popular push for the Fairness Doctrine to return, since it would essentially be the beginning of recovering a lot of people from brainwashing.

It’s why I expect Murdoch to pour his personal fortune into keeping Fox News afloat.

[1pooh4u]

23 minutes ago, Jman said:

If Fox News goes out of business we could see a legal and popular push for the Fairness Doctrine to return, since it would essentially be the beginning of recovering a lot of people from brainwashing.

It’s why I expect Murdoch to pour his personal fortune into keeping Fox News afloat.

Fox News should just hire that N Korean woman that’s been delivering the very good fortune news of their country for 40 years.  

[1pooh4u]

But for seriously even if labels were slapped on those networks informing viewers that it’s entertainment news the people watching would still take it as factual. These are the people that share articles from The Onion several times a week thinking it’s fr 

[PenguinBoss]

If Dominion settles, it'll be such a letdown. Think of everything that could come out at this trial.

[Jman]

A settlement is official.

The details of such are unknown but I have to imagine at least 3/4 of the lawsuit amount in damages and public apologies.

[Raptorpat]

It depends on what the terms are, but I was really hoping for the public tear-down.

[scoobdog]

8 minutes ago, Raptorpat said:

It depends on what the terms are, but I was really hoping for the public tear-down.

Waiting as long as they did, FoxNews already has a lot of salacious content to contend with. 

[Raptorpat]

They needed to settle before the trial began, because that's the point at which they could no longer keep the details from their own audience.

[Jman]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/fox-settles-dominion-defamation-lawsuit-1235376372/
 

$787 million was the agreed settlement.  I would have pushed for a round billion, but whatever.  
 

A separate lawsuit with another voting machine company is pending but this is strong incentive to settle that one as well

[Raptorpat]

4 minutes ago, Jman said:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/fox-settles-dominion-defamation-lawsuit-1235376372/

Quote

“We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems,” a Fox spokesperson said Tuesday. “We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. 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.”

I guess they don't have to make any admissions beyond this statement, no public accountability, they and their viewers get to keep on keeping on in their alternate reality. But they'll be more careful about how they do it.

[1pooh4u]

They settled because really bad shit was most likely gonna come out that would have probably changed things forever about how the news reports things and who can call themselves “news”

[Raptorpat]

They were nailed to the wall to the point where the judge told the jury that they must accept as fact that it was all lies and that Fox could not rely on newsworthiness as a defense.

They were nailed so hard that there was nothing they could do, and therefore no reason not to wave the flag and settle.

[scoobdog]

20 minutes ago, Raptorpat said:

They needed to settle before the trial began, because that's the point at which they could no longer keep the details from their own audience.

Indeed.  I tend to think Dominion would have gone after Tucker, Hanity, and Baritoromo during the trial and killed Fox’s golden geese in the process.  We might never know what the new evidence that producer was bringing forward, but I think we can guess.

[Master-Debater131]

Interesting to see the reactions to this. The hard left and right are spinning it into purely partisan talking points where either its a disaster because Dominion settled or that it means Fox didn't do anything wrong but wanted this to go away. Its hilarious seeing these takes play out.

The truth is that this was the most likely outcome of the case. Fox absolutely lied with the "stop the steal" bullshit that they spewed, and they absolutely knew it was a lie. But Dominion was going to struggle to get the full payment once this went through the entire appeals process due to Sullivan (more on this below). The settlement is an acknowledgement from both sides that this is the best outcome with all things considered. This is also a massive W for Fox in that it keeps a lot of their dirty laundry hidden. Whats more interesting is that it sounds like Fox investors are prepping their own lawsuit against executives for not pushing back on Trumps claims enough. That's the bigger risk now. Fox executives could face some serious problems if they failed in their fiduciary duty to the shareholders.

 

The Sullivan aspect of this has been interesting from the start. Its incredibly difficult to prove actual malice in cases like this. Its also a massive, and I do mean massive, can of worms if Sullivan is ever overturned. SCOTUS Thomas has said multiple times he wants to readdress Sullivan, and it sounds like he may have others on the court on his side. If they did reexamine Sullivan, and if they did weaken its protections as many expect they would, it would unleash the floodgates for Defamation suits against literally every media company in the country. You can form your own opinions on how that would go. Some pretty high profile liberal commentators have been very worried about this case and that can of worms. Its one thing to make some inflammatory statement that drives the views, issue a hardly noticed correction later, then repeat that formula again in a week or less. Its an entirely different situation when that formula now opens you up to massive lawsuits. The entire modern media would collapse if the protections of Sullivan were ever to be reduced. And like it or not the structure of the modern media absolutely benefits the Left. Take away those protections and it would greatly benefit the GOP.

[1pooh4u]

If you follow this story just even a little bit and you live on the planet Earth, there’s no way someone can look at this and say “Fox was only paying out nuisance money” 

Over 3/4 of a billion sure is a lot of cash to fork over for a “no evidence case” this is an amount Murdoch is gonna feel

[scoobdog]

This is not a massive win for Fox News.  It's really hard to imagine what else could be out there that is any more damning than what has already been reported by the other outlets.  Plus $787 million dollars is not a trifling amount of money even for a company that is used to being sued.

[Master-Debater131]

Im not the one claiming that they paid for nuisance money. Thats one of the talking points popping up on the Right online. Twitter and Reddit are full of these takes right now. I think its a stupid take when you actually look at the case, but that doesnt stop people from saying it online.

As for it not being a massive W, I never said the entire outcome was. Just the fact that Fox does not have to have its big names testify and have any more of its dirty laundry aired. That's huge for Fox. Fox clearly fucked up, to the tune of $800 Billion, but protecting their stars is worth that to them. They'll make it back sooner than later, as well as have insurance cover a good chunk of those costs.

[Raptorpat]

The court wouldn't overturn Sullivan if this had gotten appealed to SCOTUS. The case had all but cleared Sullivan's extremely high bar, so there'd be no need to address the question of lowering the bar (on top of the practical/political factors). That's a major motivating factor in settling - no sense in fighting a battle you're unlikely to win.

6 minutes ago, scoobdog said:

This is not a massive win for Fox News.

It is to the extent that a court order that draws a line in the sand while compelling them to make an explicit, formal admission of wrongdoing to their own audience is of vastly greater public concern (and more damaging to the long-term credibility of their current format) than the $800m they pay out while continuing to do what they do.

[Master-Debater131]

I think there was/is a real risk that SCOTUS could at least significantly weaken Sullivan. SCOTUS doesnt have to totally throw out Sullivan to completely upend the modern media structure. Just removing "Actual" from the "actual malice" test alone would totally upend the entire landscape. If all you have to do to launch a lawsuit is say that a media personality acted with malice then virtually the entire system collapses.

Not that that would be a bad thing honestly. If we required our media and journalists to simply report the news rather than editorialize everything then we might see improvement.

[Raptorpat]

Even if that were a possibility, practically speaking Thomas etc. in favor of weakening the standard wouldn't do it with conservative Fox as the defendant.

[scoobdog]

16 minutes ago, Raptorpat said:

It is to the extent that a court order that draws a line in the sand while compelling them to make an explicit, formal admission of wrongdoing to their own audience is of vastly greater public concern (and more damaging to the long-term credibility of their current format) than the $800m they pay out while continuing to do what they do.

I don't think we're accounting for what's already out there, but I suppose it's a "massive" win that they're not out of business if that was ever a real possibility.

[Raptorpat]

What's out there doesn't matter to their audience of it doesn't come from them directly. It needs to penetrate their bubble.

Their audience probably won't grow but the current audience will remain in bizarro world.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Raptorpat

[scoobdog]

Just now, Raptorpat said:

What's out there doesn't matter to their audience of it doesn't come from them directly. It needs to penetrate their bubble.

That's something else that was always unlikely because of the exodus they're already seeing to smaller, more extreme outlets like Newsman or OAN.  It's important to remember that the Big Lie didn't start with FoxNews - it started with Trump egging on his supporters.  It won't go away just because someone who should have known better admits it wasn't true, it will only go away when the source of the lie itself disappears.

[Master-Debater131]

19 minutes ago, Raptorpat said:

Even if that were a possibility, practically speaking Thomas etc. in favor of weakening the standard wouldn't do it with conservative Fox as the defendant.

Thats probably fair.  They want to do it, but want the right case to use.

[naraku360]

3 hours ago, Jman said:

A settlement is official.

The details of such are unknown but I have to imagine at least 3/4 of the lawsuit amount in damages and public apologies.

And no lessons were learned.

[Jman]

27 minutes ago, naraku360 said:

And no lessons were learned.

I think the lesson is “Don’t book Rudy Giuliani.”

Granted I think most of could have told them that for less than $787 million USD.

[Top Gun]

This was probably inevitable, but it's still massively fucking disappointing. We should have had Resting Shit Face getting absolutely reamed on the stand.

[naraku360]

2 hours ago, Jman said:

I think the lesson is “Don’t book Rudy Giuliani.”

Granted I think most of could have told them that for less than $787 million USD.

I don't know what Dominion has to benefit from settling. It seems really bizarre when they have such a strong case. Unless the only reason was to avoid getting bled out by Fox's massive empire, but even then if you did what they did to me, I would've waited until after the trial started to make any agreements since Fox should be exposed for just how malicious they are.

Though, I'm also tripping and I imagine Fox's negotiations end pre-trial. They are slimy enough to do it. So my post was probably kinda dumb.

Edited April 19, 2023 by naraku360

[naraku360]

58 minutes ago, naraku360 said:

I don't know what Dominion has to benefit from settling. It seems really bizarre when they have such a strong case. Unless the only reason was to avoid getting bled out by Fox's massive empire, but even then if you did what they did to me, I would've waited until after the trial started to make any agreements since Fox should be exposed for just how malicious they are.

Though, I'm also tripping and I imagine Fox's negotiations end pre-trial. They are slimy enough to do it. So my post was probably kinda dumb.

Okay, but did Xenoblade X have to call me out, too?

[SwimOdin]

Disappointing, but expected.

[Icarus27k]

Changing Fox News by forcing its executives to pay higher personal insurance.

[1pooh4u]

Everyone and investors are gonna get rich now cuz the settlement is worth way more than Dominion ever was.  It was more important to make $ than to do anything that would have created legit reform 

[scoobdog]

A lot of people are disappointed by this, t the point of suggesting Dominion was expected to look out for all of our interests instead of just its own.  I guess I just assumed that the trail was really only going to put into court record what we already knew to be true, but maybe people really were hoping to see the personalities of FoxNews publicly humiliated and pilloried.

[Icarus27k]

 

Sentence A proving sentence B to be laughable.

[1pooh4u]

Fox News has paid a few times because of their “quality journalism” this isn’t the first but it’s definitely the largest 

[Icarus27k]

For decades, they have gotten along by pretending to have some legitimacy. Sure, their right-wing pundits say insane things but they still have an objective value as journalism, as the argument would go.

But this has proved that wrong to anyone who didn't believe it before. They won't recover from that reputational damage. 

[1pooh4u]

1 minute ago, Icarus27k said:

For decades, they have gotten along by pretending to have some legitimacy. Sure, their right-wing pundits say insane things but they still have an objective value as journalism, as the argument would go.

But this has proved that wrong to anyone who didn't believe it before. They won't recover from that reputational damage. 

I wish that were true,  but whatever was going to come out was going to turn viewers against Fox. So much so that they felt 3/4 of a bn(actually more) was a more acceptable loss than whatever could’ve possibly happened had this played out. 

[Sieg67]

I dunno.  Cognitive dissonance is a hellava thing.
Besides, they may not even hear about it if they stay in their conservative echo chamber. 

[scoobdog]

8 minutes ago, Icarus27k said:

For decades, they have gotten along by pretending to have some legitimacy. Sure, their right-wing pundits say insane things but they still have an objective value as journalism, as the argument would go.

But this has proved that wrong to anyone who didn't believe it before. They won't recover from that reputational damage. 

3 minutes ago, 1pooh4u said:

I wish that were true,  but whatever was going to come out was going to turn viewers against Fox. So much so that they felt 3/4 of a bn(actually more) was a more acceptable loss than whatever could’ve possibly happened had this played out. 

What Pooh said.  This was never about passing as legitimate, it was always about not being the “main stream” media for an audience that, to be perfectly blunt, isn’t interested in racial reckoning.  This whole charade is about giving white people the cover they need to not integrate into the melting pot, and following the social unrest after Fergusson, it no longer was necessary to pretend that society was a functional to their needs.  They’re not suffering any reputational damage because they were never supposed to be unbiased - they were supposed to speaking the truth as their audience expects it.

[naraku360]

1 hour ago, scoobdog said:

A lot of people are disappointed by this, t the point of suggesting Dominion was expected to look out for all of our interests instead of just its own.  I guess I just assumed that the trail was really only going to put into court record what we already knew to be true, but maybe people really were hoping to see the personalities of FoxNews publicly humiliated and pilloried.

I do want to see that but not necessarily at the expense of bankrupting a company out of spite.

I'd be far less disappointed if it had gone to trial, but we don't really know much of what the reasons were.

[naraku360]

39 minutes ago, Icarus27k said:

For decades, they have gotten along by pretending to have some legitimacy. Sure, their right-wing pundits say insane things but they still have an objective value as journalism, as the argument would go.

But this has proved that wrong to anyone who didn't believe it before. They won't recover from that reputational damage. 

Unfortunately, you may be overestimating the intellect of an average Fox viewer.

[scoobdog]

56 minutes ago, naraku360 said:

I do want to see that but not necessarily at the expense of bankrupting a company out of spite.

I'd be far less disappointed if it had gone to trial, but we don't really know much of what the reasons were.

Oh, it's not you.  Reasonable people understand that it's not Dominion's responsibility to correct all of FoxNews' bad behavior.  It really just comes down to us wanting to know what really happened and being disappointed because we won't get that opportunity.

[katt_goddess]

1 hour ago, scoobdog said:

Oh, it's not you.  Reasonable people understand that it's not Dominion's responsibility to correct all of FoxNews' bad behavior.  It really just comes down to us wanting to know what really happened and being disappointed because we won't get that opportunity.

I just really wanted to see the named 'journalists' having to get up on the stand, take that vow, and have to admit they are so full of it, their eyes are permanently brown.