Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty
Dominion Voting Systems has officially settled its lawsuit against white nationalist propaganda porn network Fox News, which was accused of joining Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and the rest of the idiocracy-infused fraternity of MAGA-lie-KKKappa in spreading demonstrable false claims about rigged voting machines costing Trump the 2020 election. But many people believe that all this last-minute settlement did was shield Fox “News” from having to admit during a nationally televised trial that it serves as a misinformation PornHub for conservative rubes and racists more than it serves as an institution of journalism.
According to CNN, Tuesday’s $787.5 million settlement represents the largest publicly known media company-involved defamation settlement in US history. But the agreement was announced just hours after the jury was sworn in at the Delaware Superior Court, where the public trial would have taken place.
From CNN:
“The parties have resolved their case,” Judge Eric Davis said, before dismissing the 12-member jury, crediting them with giving the parties an impetus to reach a settlement, effusively praising the lawyers from both sides, and gaveling out the so-called media “trial of the century” before it could even begin.
The groundbreaking settlement “represents vindication and accountability,” Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson said. “For our democracy to endure for another 250 years, and hopefully much longer, we must share a commitment to facts… Today represents a ringing endorsement for truth and for democracy.”
But was this really a big win for Dominion?
Besides the fact that the voting machine company settled the case for roughly half of the $1.6 billion it was seeking in the lawsuit, the settlement means Fox News will never have to publicly admit that at least 20 Fox News broadcasts included blatant lies about Doninion rigging its machines to abracadabra Trump votes into votes for President Joe Biden. The “news” network did “acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false” in an official statement, but it also claimed the “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,” the statement continued.
First of all, how the hell does a settlement over proven lies reflect a “continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards?” And why is everything “divisive” to conservatives until they’re the ones slinging around accusations, such as the “big lie” regarding widespread voter fraud that instigated a whiny whites riot at the U.S. Capitol?
It could easily be argued that all Dominion did was trade hundreds of millions in lawsuit money to protect a lying “news” platform from a six-week trial that would have caused it more embarrassment than it has already (and deservedly) suffered.
More from CNN:
The witness list included Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch, his CEO son Lachlan Murdoch, and top Fox hosts like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. Damning emails, texts, and deposition testimony made public during the case revealed that these figures, and many others at Fox, privately said in 2020 that the vote-rigging claims against Dominion were asinine. But the lies were spread on-air anyway.
Rupert Murdoch thought the election denialism was “really crazy,” even as Fox personalities peddled those same claims to millions of viewers. Carlson said he “passionately” hates Donald Trump, whose presidency was a “disaster.” Fox hosts, producers, fact-checkers, and senior executives privately said in the on-air claims of a stolen election were “kooky,” “dangerously reckless” and “mind-blowingly nuts.”
These revelations generated months of blistering headlines for Fox as the case moved toward trial. By settling now, Fox deprived Dominion a chance to further expose its dishonesty with a weeks-long trial.
Not that we needed a public trial to prove that Fox News is the media manifestation of Pinocchio’s nose. We all know that Tucker Carlson and other Fox hosts and producers knew what a fraudulent (and possibly demented) liar Trump is before the network served as a vehicle for easily (not to mention, legally) disproven Trump-aganda. We know Carlson used his show in a pathetic attempt to sanitize the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that happened as a result of the lie he knew was a lie. We also know that Carlson has railed against critical race theory only to admit he has no idea what the academic study even is. We know that the same year Fox News was airing false MAGA musings about Dominion, Sean Hannity casually admitted on his show that he doesn’t vet the information broadcasted on his show. We know that Fox hosts have engaged in the white and fragile war against “wokeness” but have also admitted they can’t define the word “woke.” We heard a Fox News contributor blame the recent school shooting in Nashville on a side door to the school being unlocked, despite the fact that the door was locked and was shot through by the shooter. We’ve seen the network go out of its way to attack the characters of Black victims of unjust police and vigilante shootings.
Still, it would have been nice of representatives for Fox News had to publicly testify from a witness stand that the network intentionally lied.
Fortunately, Fox News is still facing a $2.7 billion lawsuit from another voting machine company, Smartmatic, which accused the network of making “over 100 false statements and implications” in backing Trump’s orangey-white nonsense about rigged machines. In a statement, Smartmatic made it clear that it has no intention of letting the network take the easy way out.
“Dominion’s litigation exposed some of the misconduct and damage caused by Fox’s disinformation campaign. Smartmatic will expose the rest,” Smartmatic attorney J. Erik Connolly said in a statement, according to the Washington Post. “Smartmatic remains committed to clearing its name, recouping the significant damage done to the company, and holding Fox accountable for undermining democracy.”
There’s a difference between media platforms showing bias, which generally all of them do, and a so-called news organization spreading provably false information.
Fox “News” tends to be the latter.
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