Fox News/Smartmatic Election lawsuits

This is why the Twitter Files are such a fail. One would think that if there was any there there, it would be revealed in e-mails/texts/messages between Twitter execs the same way Fox's agenda was revealed here.

Judge Eric Davis has ordered a new deposition at Fox News' expense. Has officially censured Fox for its deception.

And has said he will be considering appointing a special master to investigate Fox News thoroughly.

And a new lawsuit against Fox. This time by it's investors for corporate malfeasance in it's election claims damaging the stock price.

Who are they being sued by? Their own board. Womp womp.

https://www.nbcnews.com/media/ruper...rs-sued-investor-stolen-election-cl-rcna79267

Rachel Maddow tho!!!

The article says it's a single investor, not a board member.

And sadly, the fact that FOX is the target of so many lawsuits probably just feeds into the QAnon whackjob conspiracies.

I saw a story that seemed to come out of nowhere about Rupert Murdoch's long history of health issues. I would be quite suspicious if the old bastard suddenly developed health issues just before the trial. I am reminded of the classic Star Trek TNG line where Q asked Worf how he could convince him that he had become mortal. "Die"

This could also go in the Trump investigations thread.



https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1646321015276937216?s=46&t=QiuV69xq9AIYylUGTRqITA

I bet Fox would happily throw her under the bus if it’d make the suit go away. Fortunately, I don’t think it will.

They've already tried to feed Lou Dobbs to the sharks, but that just seemed to make them hungrier.

I hope we get to find out who that official was before too long.

The second one though is pretty explicit. It's not about the insurrection, it's about Trump's plot for Pence to contest the election.

Say what you want about Pence, and there's a lot of shit to be said, he did stand up for the Constitution and may very well have averted a civil war that day.

If only he'd realize he has no chance of any future with the GOP because of that and would tell the truth what happened that day.

Fox is up for renewal with 3 major providers: Xfinity, Charter and Cox.

They already charge twice as much to be carried as any other non-premium channel.

But with the recent ad loss revenue Murdoch has been telling his stockholders that they plan to extract more to be carried. Fox has about 3 million viewers out of 90 million households that pay for cable in the US. Virtually everyone pays more for their cable bill just because of these assholes.

Check out https://www.nofoxfee.com/ for resources on how to pressure your cable company to not bend to Fox pressure.

So I guess after lying to the public for thirty years with impunity you start to believe you can just lie to everyone.

But that just isn’t the case.



Oopsies.

Delaware judge delays start of trial in Dominion lawsuit against Fox News
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday that Fox had made a late push to settle the litigation with Dominion, citing people familiar with the situation.

IMHO Fox would have to offer some kind of incredible settlement because at this point Dominion is winning and the trial hasn't even begun.

As a company Dominion is dead either way. I agree with the line of thinking that says they probably will settle for a massive figure to avoid the slight risk of a trial not going their way. Fox will pay a buttload, but do it in a way that means they don't admit any responsibility.

In addition to a check with a LOT of zeros, they should produce a special that runs every night for a month admitting they lied and why. Oh and fire Carlson, Ingraham and Bartiromo. Hannity stays, but under a strict gag order. If I’m Dominion thaat’s my opening offer. And don’t forget Smartmatic which may be able to prove much higher damages.

And so it begins.... LINK

Seems to me that Dominion has an ironclad case on liability, but damages are less clear. Can Dominion show that because of what Fox did that they have lost or will lose business and suffered other harms that are greater than the hundreds of millions that I would guess FOX has offered as a settlement? There's always a temptation to go for the bird in hand.

Random thoughts: I think Dominion has a hard-on for Fox and wants a piece of their ass. That said, the numbers could get to the point where there's simply no way to say "no". It could be that Dominion (and Fox) will be more willing to settle after some of the really embarrassing stuff gets exposed in open court. Say, Old Man Murdoch getting up there and admitting everything the way he did in the deposition along with a couple of talking heads. My guess is that Dominion's big decision is when has Fox been humiliated enough to say "Okay, write the check." I gather that Fox has enough money in the bank to cover damages no matter how big the settlement might be. Maybe they'll demand that Fox re-brand it's prime time programming without the "News" label and if I were them I would absolutely not allow Fox to settle without admitting liability. Is the such a thing as an "Alford Plea" in civil cases? As far as incentive to settle I think Smartmatic has more incentive since they're smaller and would benefit more from a big cash infusion. However, they may also have the better case for actual damages since I gather their equipment was well-reviewed in Los Angeles County, but hasn't been growing much.

That should definitely be part of any settlement they reach. Make them admit to it, repeatedly.

(As Mister Stotch from the "some Mexican guy" episode)
LIARS!!!! LIARS!!!!! CONFESSS!!!! CONFESS!!! COOOONFEEEESSSS!!!!!!!!!

Um, Foxnews' defense is using clips from the Simpsons for some of their exhibits

https://twitter.com/EdKrassen/status/1648349899732180992

New version of the Chewbacca defense?

Annnnnnd Fox and Dominion reach a settlement agreement

Pity, would have been interesting to witness that trial

My guess is at this point, Dominion sees more long-term advantage in forcing Fox News to admit on the stand that they lied than in getting money out of the case.

Edit: Guess not!

Gonna be very interesting to see the terms….

No terms yet but $787 million appears to be the number

Wonder if they promise to quit lying…

Where is their whipping boy to tell us dominion settled because they were making everything up?

Maybe Federal Farmer is in detention or something

Looks like they have to admit that they lied about Dominion.

I assume that there will be some on air coverage on FOX admitting as such and talking about their commitment to fair and balanced journalism.

Will they do the responsible thing to the country, journalism, the truth, their audience and their shareholders and abandon the Big Lie completely? I doubt it.

Judge: The parties have reached a settlement.

Me on the jury: The fuck they have!