Right; difficult but not impossible, and anyway I don’t think provable damages should be the only consideration.
I know all this might seem like a hijack of the thread, but put it like this: right now, most of the media is talking about how FOX presenters and executives knowingly lied to their viewers. They were exchanging texts about how the stolen election narrative was “bullshit” and “nuts”.
Then, they were staring right down the camera and telling their viewers the election was stolen.
It’s led to all the craziness we’ve seen, and we would like to say culminating in Jan 6th, except that the madness has still continued so it wasn’t a “culmination”.
Most people who hear these facts are appalled, and it’s a good thing that these details are coming out.
But, it’s all only because they brought in the name of a corporation. A corporation with deep enough pockets to sue. Otherwise everything they did is absolutely fine, A-OK.
As much as Americans like to believe that the specific line of freedom of speech in US law is optimal for democracy, it demonstrably is not.
Well, of course. But I would say there’s an asterisk this time.
I engage with a lot of right-wing forums…I want to be able to tell my grandkids “I tried”
When previous scandals about FOX have dropped, there have been plenty of apologists stepping up, with the normal stuff like “CNN lies much more!” or “Tucker was obviously joking” or, of course “fake news” (which would be accurate…but sadly, they mean the story about FOX, and not FOX itself).
This time the apologists are curiously absent. Multiple threads, on multiple forums, are only getting responses from people who agree with how bad this is.
I think this one is hitting harder than past scandals.
People like Tucker will have to quickly think of some excuse or deflection, and command his viewers to believe it (using that silly reverse psychology thing of his), before he loses them.
There’s a recent Borowitz Report (satire, in case you didn’t know) with Tucker devastated that the world found out that he once told the truth and how that’s hurting his brand.
It goes beyond lack of empathy. People who glom onto conspiracies and the idea that those with opposing views are lying for financial gain, are prone to doing so largely because it’s the way they’d act if they got the chance. There’s also the conviction that Others must be lying, so We are totally justified in lying our asses off in response.
“I have never seen a defamation case with such overwhelming proof that the defendant admitted in writing that it was making up fake information in order to increase its viewership and its revenues,” Tribe told the Guardian. “Fox and its producers and performers were lying as part of their business model.”
“This is the most remarkable discovery filing I’ve ever read in a commercial litigation,” said Scott Horton, a Columbia Law School lecturer, Harper’s Magazine contributing editor and litigator with clients including CBS and the Associated Press.
“A summary judgment motion by a plaintiff in this kind of case is almost unheard of. These suits usually fail because you can’t prove the company you’re suing knew they were spreading falsehoods. That you would have evidence they knew it was a lie is almost unheard of … in this case the sheer volume of all the email and text messages is staggering.”
Have not seen it mentioned here - may have missed it. Quotes from NPR
Apparently there was memo that Sidney Powell shared with Fox news (via Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo’s show), outlined how Dominion had fixed the election and stopped Trump’s Glorious Victory. This memo formed a lot of the “proof” that Fox news used to trash Dominion.
The author of this memo is anonymous. The author of the memo also stated that
she gains insights from experiencing something “like time-travel in a semi-conscious state.”
The author of the memo stated that
she knew the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had been killed during a week-long human hunting expedition at an elite social club.
“Who am I? And how do I know all of this?.. I’ve had the strangest dreams since I was a little girl,” the woman wrote in the email shared by Powell with Bartiromo and Dobbs. “I was internally decapitated, and yet, I live.”
This is the anonymous author of the “proof” that Fox News used to trash Dominion, as provided by noted whack-a-doodle Sidney Powell.
And Fox News went with this. They promoted it. They encouraged it. People believed it. Dominion was financially harmed by it.
So if someone who is anonymous (and therefore impossible to fact-check, as if that is necessary) makes claims that strongly suggest that they suffer from delusions (and I say that in all seriousness, no snark), it is fine as long as it pushes a palatable narrative that will being a lot of attention.
This is absolutely sick.
Also, this quote:
David Clark, then the senior executive over Fox’s weekend shows, later said under oath to Dominion’s lawyers that he “would not have allowed that claim to be aired,” had he known this memo was the sole foundation of the “crazy” theories.
Did you fucking ask anyone before approving these bold claims you blithering idiot?!
I am really beginning to think that Dominion will win this suit. Trial starts in April! (Below is gift link)
Rupert Murdoch, chairman of the conservative media empire that owns Fox News, acknowledged in a deposition that several hosts for his networks promoted the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald J. Trump, and that he could have stopped them but didn’t, court documents released on Monday showed.
I think this certainly proves actual malice on the part of Fox. That being “ with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”
And even this standard is only needed for public figures. Which Dominion is not, IMO.
I think FOX is boned. I hope this lawsuit damages them, and/or they are required to air a disclaimer on air every 15 minutes that they are for entertainment purposes only, and nobody should believe anything they say.
This is much more important for the country than the money. They need to be forced to go on air and admit that it was all a lie, because the people that need to hear that are not reading the NY Times and the Guardian. Some of them are totally unreachable, of course, but I think there are some Republicans that are still reachable.
We found out already that for the Qliban audience, such a disclaimer is meaningless. That’s one of the lessons from the Alex Jones case. What should happen is that network be sent into the dustbin of history.
The Deep State/Biden gubmint is making them say that. The “real patriots” all know the truth.
Hell, Tucker could start each episode reminding people that they are obligated to give those disclaimers but wink at the camera and compliment the audience because he knows they aren’t going to fall for it, before falling into his regular bullshit.
