Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Fox News settles with Dominion in historic $1.6 billion defamation case



Fox News has settled its case with Dominion voting systems, according to multiple reports. Fox News must pay Dominion $787.5 million, per the settlement agreement.

CBS congressional correspondent Scott MacFarlane tweets that the judge has confirmed that "parties have resolved their case."

The unspecified settlement avoids what had been expected to be an embarrassing trial for the conservative outlet.

CNN reports that “the judge just announced in court that a settlement has been reached in the historic defamation case between News and Dominion Voting Systems.”

In a statement, Fox News said that “we are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems. 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.”

Dominion Voting Systems had sued Fox News for $1.6 billion, alleging the conservative network promoted Donald Trump's baseless claim that its machines were used to rig the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Joe Biden.

Dominion alleged that the network began endorsing Trump's conspiracy because the channel was losing its audience after it became the first television outlet to call the southwestern state of Arizona for Biden, effectively projecting the Democrat would win the presidency.

Fox News denied defamation. The network claimed it was only reporting on Trump's allegations, not supporting them, and is protected by free speech rights enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Dominion's lawsuit has proved embarrassing to Fox.

Murdoch admitted in a deposition in the case that some on-air hosts had "endorsed" the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

But he denied that the network in its entirety had pushed the lie, according to court documents filed by Dominion in February.

A separate filing showed Murdoch had described comments by former Trump advisors Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell pushing Trump's claims as "really crazy stuff. And damaging."

Dominion's lawyers also released a trove of internal Fox News communications in which some commentators expressed a dislike of Trump, despite praising him on air.

"I hate him passionately," Carlson said of the ex-president after his election loss.

Fox News has accused Dominion of "cherry-picking and taking quotes out of context."

AFP



'Lies have consequences': Dominion attorney declares victory after settlement with Fox News



On Tuesday, Dominion Voting Systems agreed to a settlement with Fox News in their $1.6 billion lawsuit over election conspiracies in the wake of the 2020 presidential race.

In a press conference after the superior court judge in Delaware announced the agreement, Dominion attorney Justin Nelson took a victory lap to reporters.

"The truth matters. Lies have consequences," said Nelson. "Over two years ago a torrent of lies swept Dominion and election officials across America into an alternative universe of conspiracy theories, causing grievous harm to Dominion and the country. Today's settlement of $787,500,000 represents vindication and accountability."

"Lies have consequences," Nelson continued. "The truth does not know red or blue. People across the political spectrum can and should disagree on issues even of the most profound importance. But for our democracy to endure for another 250 years, and hopefully much longer, we must share a commitment to facts. Misinformation will not go away. It may only get worse. This litigation cannot solve all problems. All of us remain ever vigilant to find common factual ground."

"Today represents a ringing endorsement for truth, and for democracy," concluded Nelson.

The settlement does not completely resolve Fox News' legal problems, as another lawsuit by electronic voting systems company Smartmatic is also advancing.

Watch:

Fox News settlement doesn't stop special master probe that could end in obstruction charges: legal expert



Former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann said Tuesday that a special master investigation into Fox News could likely continue despite the settlement between Dominion Voting Systems and the conservative network.

Fox was found to have withheld evidence in the case that should have been part of the discovery process.

Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis announced Tuesday that he was appointing Delaware litigator John Elzufon to oversee the investigation into whether Fox News followed discovery demands.

Last week, Davis sanctioned Fox and its parent company Fox Corp. for not turning over evidence in a timely fashion. It was then that Davis acknowledged that he was considering a special master. On Tuesday morning, that is exactly what happened.

"We do have — the judge appointed today, a special master, by the way, that could continue," said Weissmann during an MSNBC appearance.

It prompted host Nicolle Wallace to ask if that could have been an incentive for Fox News to settle.

"Well, absolutely," he agreed. "Worst case scenario, we don't know if this is the case, the worst case scenario, the special master has free rein to take depositions anew. And on Fox's dime. And that means the worst case is that was not inadvertent that somebody said, 'we're not producing this,' or 'we're going to produce this late in the day.'

"I think there are ethical lawyers involved and I think when they would hear about that I'm pretty sure they would say, I'm not losing my Bar ticket over this. But that doesn't mean there aren't people at Fox who are deliberately keeping stuff away from Dominion. If that's the case, just to be clear, that's a crime. To obstruct the case."

Wallace mentioned another lawsuit filed by former Fox News staffer Abby Grossberg who claimed Fox's lawyers coerced her into giving misleading testimony in the Dominion case.

Watch:

CNN's Jake Tapper burst into laughter reading Fox News statement promising 'continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards'

CNN host Jake Tapper on Tuesday burst into laughter as he read the text of a Fox News statement in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit after the two sides reached a $787,000,000 settlement agreement.

“Fox trying to put a positive face on what can only be as one of the ugliest and most embarrassing moments in the history of journalism,” Tapper said, before reading a statement affirming Fox’s commitment to upholding “journalistic standards.”

“This is going to be difficult to say with a straight face,” Tapper remarked, bursting into laughter as he read a statement that said “This settlement reflects Fox's continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards."

The statement continued: “We are hopeful that our decision to resolve the dispute with Dominion amicably instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues.”
 
Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1648423669734207491

[Rick Plant]

Trump unable to delay E. Jean Carroll civil rape trial set for April, judge rules
https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/trump-e-jean-carroll-civil-rape-trial-date-rcna80012


Despite defamation suit Fox continues to tell 'a different version of the same story' nightly: reporter



After announcing a settlement between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox Corp., analysts on MSNBC argued over whether the outcome would be such that it would serve as a deterrent to the conservative network.

New York Times reporter Nick Confessore said that Fox News would continue to push a pro-Trump narrative despite the costly lawsuit.

"Look, in some ways, I see this outcome, if there's no apology on the air, as a draw for Fox," he said.

"Because, think about it, on any given night or week on Fox, they are telling a different version of the same story that Donald Trump should be president, that the Jan. 6th conspirators are innocent victims of government overreach, that they had a right to be angry, that something was, you know, amiss. That's the story that still animates the viewership on Fox. That's the story they tell every night."

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace agreed, saying that it appears they're "platforming Trump 2.0" and promoting authoritarians like Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong Un.

"You can argue the lies they're broadcasting now, not to say anything of the zombie-apocalyptic crime stories they tell day after day which, we don't know, but they may be on in some of the living rooms of people stockpiling weapons to be ready if a teenager rings their door," Wallace quipped, alluding to the recent shooting of Ralph Yarl in north Kansas City, Missouri last week.

Watch:

[Joe Elliott]

“Lies have consequences. The truth does not know red or blue.”

— Dominion Voting Systems lawyer Justin Nelson celebrates Fox News’ settlement of $787.5 million over its lies about Dominion in the wake of the 2020 election, sparing Fox News from a potentially damaging trial.

By settling with Dominion, Faux Propaganda is admitting they are not a credible news outlet. This settlement is an admission of Fox's guilt of pushing outright disinformation about the 2020 election.

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1648423279282257925

Best news of the week. A network should have a commitment to the truth. And not pass on lies merely because they originate from the President and so any statements by him or his major spokesmen is "news worthy", without challenge.

I think it's okay to broadcast these false statements. But the network must counter with logical arguments. Is it really plausible that Dominion Systems could get hundreds of computer programmers all on board on this secret scheme to miscount the ballots? Is it really plausible that thousands of election volunteers would also go along with this scheme? A responsible network needs to repeatedly make these points every time it broadcasts an obvious lie by a spokesman, no matter who they are backing up. They needed to ask tough questions to these spokesmen, and failed to do so.

[Rick Plant]

Best news of the week. A network should have a commitment to the truth. And not pass on lies merely because they originate from the President and so any statements by him or his major spokesmen is "news worthy", without challenge.

I think it's okay to broadcast these false statements. But the network must counter with logical arguments. Is it really plausible that Dominion Systems could get hundreds of computer programmers all on board on this secret scheme to miscount the ballots? Is it really plausible that thousands of election volunteers would also go along with this scheme? A responsible network needs to repeatedly make these points every time it broadcasts an obvious lie by a spokesman, no matter who they are backing up. They needed to ask tough questions to these spokesmen, and failed to do so.

A credible news outlet has the responsibility to provide accurate information to its viewers.

Faux News decided to perpetrate harmful disinformation in order to keep its viewers from moving over to the even more right wing radical outlets Newsmax and OAN.

Criminal Donald publicly criticized Faux for not pushing his 2020 election fraud lies and told his base to stop watching Faux.

In order for Faux not to lose ratings, they began to push outright lies and fraudulent conspiracies about the 2020 election. All the hosts on their channel knew they were lying, but continued to do so anyway in order to keep their ratings and profits. Private texts and emails have confimed that.

The lies Faux told helped to incite the January 6th insurrection and to erode our democracy.

Smartmatic is also suing Faux and their lawsuit is for over 2 Billion. So when it's all said and done, Rupert Murdoch will be writing another hefty check for pushing fraudulent conspiracies and election disinformation.       

[Rick Plant]

Faux Propaganda now has to deal with Smartmatic in another lawsuit. This one will be even bigger than the Dominion lawsuit.

   

[Rick Plant]

This document is from an older lawsuit against Faux Propaganda, but you can see the bogus claim Faux made for their argument regarding the disinformation broadcasted on their channel.   

Faux executives admitted in court under oath that Faux News is nothing but right wing propaganda.

The Faux executives calls their talent "opinion hosts" claiming they are not held to the same "journalistic standards" as real news programs and networks. They also go on to say that their "opinion hosts have no obligation to correct their falsehoods".

So in other words, their "opinion hosts" are nothing but right wing hacks pushing bogus propaganda to the sheep who watch them each day.

Faux Propaganda is in the business of telling their audience what they want to hear instead of the actual facts. It doesn't matter how outrageous or far fetched their lies are, they keep pushing those lies in order to gain ratings and profits.         

Disinformation has consequences and Faux now has to pay nearly 1 billion dollars for those fake election fraud lies.

Faux is the real fake news because they lie to their audience which Fox executives admitted to in court.

Faux executives can make whatever bogus claim they want, even though Faux is propaganda masquerading as a news network, they are still held accountable for the harmful disinformation they broadcast.       

[Rick Plant]

'They’re going to keep telling lies': Legal expert predicts Fox suit will help Jack Smith and Fani Willis



Harvard Constitutional Law professor Laurence Tribe explained to MSNBC that some might be disappointed in the final Dominion settlement with Fox News. However, he explained, the real problem for the network is not the financial loss but the fact that special counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can use the lawsuit as part of their cases against Donald Trump.

Speaking to MSNBC's "Deadline White House" on Wednesday, Tribe began by saying that those who wanted a public apology on air from Fox personalities isn't what the civil justice system is designed to do. Besides, he argued, it's not like any of the viewers would buy it.

"It wouldn't have helped anything. I mean, for [Sean] Hannity or one of these guys to go on air and wink and nod and say, 'Yeah, we weren't telling the truth,' who would have believed they actually meant it?" asked Tribe. "Their audience wouldn't have believed it. Their audience didn't even learn today the size of the settlement amount. So, it seems to me that this was a very important victory for truth and for Dominion..."

In his commentary on Tuesday, former FBI general counsel and NYU Law professor, Andrew Weissmann, warned that all this suit really did is give Fox guidelines for being more nebulous in their attacks. So instead of citing a specific person they can say "liberals" or instead of a certain company, they'll say "those companies."

Tribe agreed, "I think they're going to keep telling lies. I think they're going to avoid lying about particular plaintiffs who can sue them. That doesn't mean that big lies will remain undeterred permanently, but what this does is underscore the importance of what Fani Willis in Fulton County, Georgia, and Jack Smith, the special counsel, are able to do in holding Trump and Trump's allies accountable for the attempted coup that was based on the big lie and for the insurrection that big lie fomented in a way."

What hasn't been discussed, however, is how the criminal justice system can vindicate the public interest and the interest in democracy, he explained.

"The civil justice system can make a victim whole, but it can't make the country whole," Tribe said. "No amount of lawyering — and the lawyering, Stephen Shackelford and Davida [Brook] and Justin [Nelson], was brilliant. No amount of good lawyering, however good, would have vindicated the full national interest. That's going to depend very much on the D.A. of Fulton County and on the special counsel and that's the way the system is designed and that's the way it ought to work."

He went on to say that he's optimistic that when the final word in history is written that the "big lie" will be exposed for what it is and that Donald Trump will forever be associated with that lie and those injured by Fox.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Trump’s new Series 2 digital trading cards. So pathetic.

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1648368848050028547