Well, well well, who'd have thought it! Fox news has reached an 11th hour 'settlement' in the defamation suit brought against it by Dominion Voting systems. The settlement was worth 787 million of the 1.6 billion in the original statement of claim. Some people would perhaps liked to see Fox pay out more but its still a kick in the balls to Fox's (and Rupert's) bottom line. And of course for Dominion 787 million is still a good amount of change! In a statement released after the settlement was announced Fox stated that “we acknowledge” the court’s earlier ruling that certain claims that the network’s anchors made about Dominion were false. No doubt made through gritted teeth and with every senior executive and the Murdoch family trying to pretend the whole thing never happened! Anyone care to guess whats going to happen with Smartmatic's case now?
There are already 4 threads on this topic (or that were on the trial & have now bridged to the settlement)-- 3 under Current Events, & 1 under Political Opinions & Beliefs. Personally, I doubt the need for another one. Started April 8; DEFinning http://www.politicalforum.com/index...ase-against-fox-news-will-go-to-trial.609680/ Sunday, 12:46 PM; Btthegreat: http://www.politicalforum.com/index.php?threads/dominion-v-fox-trial-monday-april-17-day-one.609818/ Tue, 4:58 PM; Lee Atwater: http://www.politicalforum.com/index.php?threads/faux-news-settles-with-dominion.609869/ Tue, 5:20 PM; Patricio DaSilva: http://www.politicalforum.com/index...suit-for-stunning-787m-averting-trial.609870/
Fox's desperate desire not to have their kinky laundry aired in a public trial has set a precedent for the price of lying. Why Fox News’ Next Defamation Suit—From Smartmatic—Might Require Another ‘Big Check’ To Settle
Disclaimer: I am only using bits I've heard from talking heads, whose points may or may not turn out be all that determinative. On the plus side, Smartmatic's annual income is about $151.6 million, while Dominion's is not much more than a tenth of that ($17.5 million). https://growjo.com/company/Smartmatic_Corporation As I understand things, though, Smartmatic's case covers a smaller window of time than did Dominion's, and so it seems realistic to believe they may well not be able to reproduce as great a wealth of information, and bring such an open and shut case, as did Dominion.
in the public interest, Smartmatic's litigation will reinforce Fox's exposure as a partisan propagandist, something they settled with Dominion to avoid protracting.
Given that some of the (very damming) evidence disclosed during the discovery process for Dominion's lawsuit is also directly relevant to Smartmatic's suit (and admissible in it ) the only way I see Fox reducing the size of their payout to something even approaching the size Dominion's would be to agree to make on air retractions of their claims. So I guess we'll see what wins. Greed or ego. And on another issue. I've started wondering about the extent to which (if at all) insurance will cover the payouts. I have no idea about the legalities involved but similar to say a claim for fire damage where it is discovered the home owner deliberately started the fire it might be the case that an Insurer would balk at paying out for defamation claims where it turns out the client was aware the information they were broadcasting was not factual and the that the decision to broadcast anyway was made deliberately for the purposes of profit.
It will be interesting to see whether or not they case also ends in a settlement, as SmartMatic is asking quite a bit more than Dominion had: $2.9 billion, IIRC.
Unless Fox agrees to also pay for the damage it did to SmartMatic by its Trumpy lies, the payoff to Dominion will have been wasted as Rupert and the on-air performers will be displayed squirming in a witness box, a fate they have shown they are desperate to avoid. Squawking parrots on these forums have attested to the tantrump-inducing derangement: Rudy Giuliani confirmed whistleblowers from Dominion have come forward Data deep dive on Dominion Voting Systems offers incontrovertible proof of election hack Smoking Gun: Dominion Transferring Vote Ratios between Precincts in PA. Dominion Executive: Trump is not going to win. I made f***ing sure of that. Head Of Dominion Security Eric Coomer Showing How To ‘Fix’ Votes Already Cast Dominion software manipulated votes -- 289K in Michigan, 96K in Georgia, lawsuits claim Dominion Voting Systems: Affidavit by Venezualan Security Guard Sidney Powell's Dominion Quest in Georgia Gets Expedited Appeal BREAKING HUGE: Trump Team Has Dominion Machine from Small Georgia County – Shows Votes Flipped Dominion Software Intentionally Designed to Influence Mike Lindell Claims Dominion Voting 'Cover-Up' Is 'Coming Apart at the Seams' Prominent lawyer Sidney Powell defends self against a $2.5 billion Smartmatic defamation lawsuit ... and being held to account for feeding lies to the vulnerable is not limited to Fox's compensating Dominion and SmartMatic: Pro-Trump Newsmax and OAN sued for election-fraud lies Will OAN Follow Fox News' Lead and Settle? Legal Filings Offer Hints Newsmax Must Face Dominion’s $1.6B Defamation Lawsuit Over False Election Fraud Claims
I wonder how much of that garbage was churned out by the GRU? There are no filters in the wingnut alternative media. Misinformation and disinformation from hostile foreign actors mixes freely with domestic trumpist and partisan propaganda. There is no separating them. They are one and the same.
The unwitting pawns would be reduced to a fugue state if they were ever to register the antithetical relationship of their dogma to reality. Example: Russia's interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to help Trump and hurt Clinton was exposed by the concurring FBI, NSA, and CIA (and confirmed by two Republican-run Senate investigative committees) but the cult has been led to trust Trump's "savvy genius" over America's dedicated public servants.
Yeah. This is going to hit them where it hurts. About 1/5th of their entire revenue just got flushed down the drain. And I heard similar companies are lined up. Smartmatic demands 2.5 billion in damages lol
See my post (6) above. They may payout, they may not. There may also be legal wranglings that lead to a partial payout. Depends on the terms of the contract. In general if a commercial client knowingly or recklessly causes damage to itself (and there's definitely an argument that this was the case with Fox) then it can impact how much or even if the Insurer is willing to pay. We'll see. Who know's, Fox might even have to launch legal action of it's own to get a payout.
Just like the other 2 hype machines, CNN & MSNBC, FOX knows that the occasional distortion of information can lead to more money than they would lose in a lawsuit. Same goes for CNN and their demonizing Nicholas Sandman. It still put MORE money in CNN's pocket, trust me on this. People really need to learn to take main stream media with a grain of salt, absorb the facts and weed out the spin. I find it very interesting how the SAME story can be told so differently on different networks. This lawsuit is like lost lunch money for FOX https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyme...t-on-the-cable-news-rankings/?sh=7585227572f2 Trust me, they'll be just fine. Watch the news you like to watch but just remember there is spin for a reason, don't let yourself be assimilated. We are better than this!
I'm not sure the issue is quite that simple. For whatever their faults CNN and NBC etc haven't been sued and then settled a huge law suit alleging they deliberately published falsehoods in order to profit from them! And that appears to be the nub of the issue in the case of Fox. It's one thing to publish 'X' based on the information available to you. It's even OK to publish/broadcast said information with whatever 'slant' you deem best appeals to the market segment research suggests is your core audience. It's another thing entirely to do so knowing that what you are publishing is false but doing so anyway because it brings in the $$$!
Dr. Robert Malone claims Black Rock owns almost 20% of Fox and close to the same of Dominion. My bet is Malone is right about that. That means that Black Rock sued itself by way of the lawsuit. Was Black Rock ownership just trying to make a point, or just getting Tucker fired because they don't like his truth speaking and intelligent question asking?
