Watching it on CNN. No details on terms, not clear how final such terms might be.
Gonna be hard to spin it as “We didn’t do anything wrong; we paid Dominion $787 million to get them to away and quit annoying us”
According to Fox News, it’s for the good of the country.
“We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems,” the network 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 can understand why Dominion opted to take a settlement, but I’m disappointed.
A statement which Jake Tapper could not read on air with a straight face.
No to derail this thread but isn’t Dominion also suing Trump, his lawyer Giuliani, and
the My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell? I wonder how this settlement will impact these other
cases.
No, it’s simple: They’re just not going to spin it at all. Their broadcasts and website will just completely omit any mention of it.
Disappointed that the settlement didn’t include Fox being forced to acknowledge their lies on the air, but it seems obvious now that a private corporation like Dominion would prefer big money over a public apology.
$787 million dollars and other things yet to be disclosed which could include on-air apologies.
Do we know that it doesn’t? Or some other form of public acknowledgement that Fox was in the wrong? I would expect it to be reported if such a provision was in there, but it’s possible media are focusing on the hefty payment over all else, or the complete terms haven’t been hammered out or made public yet.
For as tough as Dominion has been through this, I would be really surprised if they let Fox get off with only a payment, but I suppose if the dollar figure is high enough, that might be good enough.
Every major news network, except for Fox, is covering it.
According to some commentator on CNN, the settlement amounts to about 10x the valuation of the entire Dominion company, which happens to be wholly owned by an equity firm, which now gets all that dough.
No, I don’t think Dominion sued for anything or any motive except money. Any damage to Fox and to the culture of lies instead of news, is only collateral benefit.
I’m not worried about the future welfare of such liars, however. Fox was incredibly stupid in the way they went about it, and I’m sure the other news services that survive on lies will figure out smarter ways to do it, so that they won’t be vulnerable to lawsuits.
If they had any journalistic standards, they wouldn’t have had to settle anything.
I, too. CNN reports the commentators? on air news personalities? will make no on air apologies. I was looking forward to Tucker Carlson admitting that he had been pushing lies.
Even the Good Guys would rather have money than truth.
As I stated here (or the other thread) Fox almost certainly requested confidentiality during the negotiations (every defendant does) Dominion apparently refused. So, they didn’t want to let Fox create the impression they settled for nuisance value.
The national Fox website has a brief story noting that a settlement has been reached in the case. It’s well down the main page under the heading “Media”.* There’s no mention of the $787.5 million dollars.
Based on CNN’s reporting of the case, it’s Lou Dobbs who might have the most to apologize for.
*it’s not even the leading “Media” story. Getting higher billing is “MSNBC anchor Medhi Hasan accused of plagiarizing column on child spanking”.
The website blurb also makes no reference to the court’s findings that they engaged in false reporting.
Yes to Giuliani and Lindell, also Sidney Powell, One America News, Newsmax and Patrick Byrne.
Here’s a list.
They don’t appear to be suing Trump himself. Trump made a lot of wild accusations about “dead people voting” and “votes counted twice” but I’m not sure if he ever said anything specific against Dominion. He attacked “voting machines” but didn’t specify which ones. There’s also the possibility that he might have immunity for statements about the election made in his capacity as President.
There’s still the Smartmatic lawsuit.
I think there’s a large gap between a settlement amount for nuisance value, and what they actually settled for.
Of course, I’m only supposing their motives. It is also possible that they think a robust democracy that has voting integrity is a better market for their voting machine products. And/or that they settled to clear the floor for the other lawsuits stacking up behind them, their own and other companies’.
On the whole, I am becoming persuaded that a nice huge settlement like this one is probably the best achievable outcome.
There are no Good Guys when money is involved.