Lies have consequences
Fox News and its parent company Fox Corp. have struck a deal averting a trial in the blockbuster defamation suit filed by the election tech company Dominion Voting Systems over spurious claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential race.
Judge Eric Davis of the Delaware Superior Court announced the settlement from the bench on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the trial’s scheduled start.
The parties settled for $787,500,000 — about half of Dominion’s original $1.6 billion
ask.The amount “represents vindication and accountability,” said Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson. “Lies have consequences.”
Dominion CEO John Poulos told reporters, “Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees and the customers that we serve. Nothing can ever make up for that. Throughout this process, we have sought accountability,” he said. “Truthful reporting in the media is essential to our democracy.”
Fox is a liar and everybody knows it.
Dominion has now made more money from Fox lying about them than they ever will from selling voting machines. Their annual revenue is around 20M a year. That settlement is forty years of revenue, and who knows how many years of profit. And they’re not even done. They’ve still got suits against OAN, Newsmax, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Mike Lindell. The tail is wagging the dog.
And now Fox has to deal with more suits, both from inside (Abby Grossberg) and outside (Smartmatic) the company.
I think I heard last week that the $1.6B represented about a years profit for Fox (not sure if that is Corp or News). So this is affordable to them, but definitely material. I suspect that the settlement amount is greater than they would have had to pay out after appeals. But when you factor in the cost of those appeals, some sort of judgment of costs and penalty, and most importantly repetitional damage over years, I think they got off lightly. Fox clearly thinks so as well or they would not have been so keen to settle.
It’s one thing to be called a proven liar this week. Having it said over and over a again for years…
I’m not sure about all that. I encountered a bloke with the arse out or his pants who bore an uncanny resemblance to Rupert. He was picking through a garbage bin outside what was formerly Murdoch’s HQ here in Canberra, and from where he launched The Australian, long before he got interested in Fox. He also asked me if I could spare him a dollar. Muttered something nasty from between clenched teeth.about Trump leading him up some garden path.
But it could all have been just an idle dream.
There are more law suits to come. I suppose it’s too much to hope that these will bankrupt Fox and News International.
Murdoch despised Trump but pandered to Fox’s viewers. Murdoch has been a destroyer in 3 English speaking countries – the UK, the USA and Australia. Malevolence, meanness, lying, cruelty, viciousness, ignorance – if that makes money, Murdoch will deliver it.
Murdoch lives by money. Clive James said of him that he values nothing else. The only way to injure him is to remove his money.
I hope this settlement gives him some bad nights anyway.
Everybody except their viewers. Alex Jones is still shoveling it, and his dupes are lapping it up.
The US should be able to sue Fox for all the damage to the country. They have saddled us with two ignorant, right wing presidents that did a lot to move the country toward a dictatorship. They pander to people who don’t understand how democracy works (hint: it doesn’t mean you get your way all the time) and who hate so many people they probably can’t be happy much of the time. They pander also to big money men by promoting the ruinous, rich-friendly policies. Meanwhile, the poor get poorer, and the middle class shrinks.
My guess is that Fox settled because the faster they can move it through the news cycle, the better. By next election it will just be a footnote. They don’t want months and months of Fox’s lies and manipulations being dragged through courts and appellate courts, and making frequent headlines. They are cutting losses.