Faux News hasn't learned their lesson by still continuing to defend their election disinformation. "Freedom of the press" does not give any media outlet the right to broadcast harmful and malicious disinformation nor is that "foundational to democracy" when bogus conspiracy theories of "election fraud" is aimed at eroding our democracy and elections in the United States.
Fox News makes 'remarkable' statement just one day after massive Dominion settlementFox News on Tuesday agreed to a massive $780 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems -- and now the network is acting like absolutely nothing has changed.
Axios media reporter Sara Fischer on Wednesday reported that Fox News sent out a fresh statement about its ongoing litigation with electronic voting systems company Smartmatic that shows the network relying on the same tactics it used to try to defuse the Dominion litigation.
"Remarkable statement from Fox to me just now in response to Smartmatic’s lawyers saying they are ready to pick up where Dominion left off," Fischer commented on Twitter before pasting the entire statement.
"There is nothing more newsworthy than covering the president of the United States and his lawyers making allegations of voter fraud," Fox said in a preview of its defense against Smartmatic's allegations that it defamed them with segments suggesting they stole the 2020 election from former President Donald Trump. "Freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy and must be protected, in addition to the damages claims being outrageous, unsupported, and not rooted in sound financial analysis."
This is the exact same defense that Fox News used in the leadup to its defamation trial with Dominion where it eventually agreed to pay the company several times its net worth and acknowledged that it had reported false claims about the firm.
Smartmatic is suing Fox News for even more money than the $1.6 billion that Dominion originally sought and its lawyers have vowed to bring accountability to the network.
https://twitter.com/sarafischer/status/1648680384165724161'Travesty': Former Fox Host says network's greed and disinformation is a danger to democracy
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson unloaded about her former employer on CNN Wednesday, tearing into them for valuing profits and ratings over informing their viewers of the truth.
This comes just after the network agreed to pay out a $787.5 billion settlement to Dominion Voting Systems in a closely watched case about their promotion of election conspiracy theories in 2020.
"When you saw some of those documents that, through discovery, Dominion got, in which what folks were saying on air and what they were saying privately in text messages to each other," said anchor Anderson Cooper. "Did that, the difference between what was being said and what they were actually believing, Tucker Carlson saying he hated Donald Trump and clearly not saying that on air, did that surprise, you? Now look, I think that even Rupert Murdoch said that it was all about making sure that they were in the green and keeping things, you know, making money for them?"
"Look, I think it's a travesty," said Carlson. "Because I think it's actually a threat to American democracy to promote that kind of misinformation. Let me be clear. There is a huge difference between espousing conservative viewpoints and having an intellectual conversation between conservatives and liberals, which I think is very important — there's a huge difference between that and telling lies to the American public, and that's where we have now become in the evolution of Fox News, at least with regard to the 2020 election and January 6th."
"Do you think with this next election — do you think we're going to hear those same lies told again?" Cooper pressed her.
"Oh gosh, depends on who the candidate is, I think, but I have — I have no way of predicting that," said Carlson. "But I would love to be able to reach out to all of those Fox News viewers and hope that somehow we could get them back into the reality of what's really going on, but I think we're so far gone in this fake news era that I'm not necessarily hopeful about that."
Watch:Dominion settlement doesn’t end Fox News’ legal crisis
Fox News was able to avert the embarrassment of a trial by settling its defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million, but the Murdoch empire remains in crisis amid a parade of ongoing lawsuits, The Los Angeles Times’ Meg James writes.
Fox is still facing a defamation lawsuit filed by Smartmatic, which is seeking $2.7 billion, as well as a lawsuit from former producer Abby Grossberg on allegations that she was pressured into giving false testimony in the Dominion case.
Texts and emails revealed during discovery in the Dominion case showed that some of the network’s top executives and talents knowingly aired falsehoods about the 2020 election that have caused reputational damage to the company.
The Dominion case also shows that Murdoch may have lost a step, Yale University management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld said Tuesday, according to James’ report.
“There’s a huge amount of evidence that Murdoch is not at the top of his game,” Sonnenfeld said.
“The best case for him would be to acknowledge that he’s lost control of the Fox-enstein monster that he created.”
The network is also facing a shareholder revolt, with investors contending that network executives are responsible for airing falsehoods that damaged the company.
“Fox executives and hosts knew that Trump’s election fraud claims were ‘really crazy stuff,’ as Rupert Murdoch, the head of the Fox media empire, put it, yet pushed them on air anyway,” Fox shareholder Robert Schwarz alleges in court filings obtained by The Times.
“Fox was more concerned about short-term ratings and market share than the long-term damages of its failure to tell the truth,” Schwarz’s suit said. “The board’s decision to chase viewers by promoting the false stolen election claims has exposed the company to public ridicule and negatively impacted the credibility of Fox News as a media organization that is supposed to accurately report newsworthy events.”
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-04-18/fox-news-dominion-settlement-fallout-rupert-murdochs-empireDominion settlement imperils Fox News' far-right rivals
Deep-pocketed Fox News can probably withstand the $787.5 million payout in its settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
But that may not be the case for the conservative network’s far-right rivals, The Daily Beast reports.
One America News Network and Newsmax are both facing lawsuits from Dominion and Smartmatic, among others.
The parade of lawsuits against the right-wing networks all center around false claims of election fraud in 2020.
Dominion’s lawsuit against OANN states that the network “helped create and cultivate an alternate reality where ... Dominion engaged in a colossal fraud.”
The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona writes that “Essentially, the voting-systems company is arguing that both Newsmax and OAN overtly tried to boost their ratings and directly appeal to disgruntled MAGA fans.”
Fox News remains mired in litigation. It is facing a $2.7 billion Smartmatic lawsuit, along with a lawsuit from former producer Abby Grossberg on allegations she was pressured into giving false testimony in the Dominion case, and a shareholder revolt targeting executives over Fox’s airing of conspiracies that damaged the company.
But Fox News has a market capitalization of approximately $17.3 billion, and according to CEO Lachlan Murdoch has $4.1 billion in cash on hand.
OANN and Newsmax are both are privately held companies, which makes it difficult to assess what they’re worth.
Baragona writes: “Conservative businessman Robert Herring, who launched OAN in 2013, pegged the network’s value in 2019 at $250 million. However, that was almost entirely due to the channel’s deal with DirecTV at the time, as an accountant swore under oath at the time that OAN’s value ‘would be zero’ without the AT&T-backed satellite carrier. DirecTV dropped OAN last year, followed by other cable providers.”
Read More Here: https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-fox-news-caving-to-dominion-could-spell-doom-for-newsmax-and-oanDominion lawyer shoots down Newsmax’s defense of 2020 coverage: 'It's the same lies' as Fox
Dominion Voting Systems' lead counsel Justin Nelson took yet another victory lap on MSNBC's "The Beat" Wednesday, following Fox News' agreement this week to pay a $787.5 billion settlement to resolve the lawsuit over their role in pushing election conspiracy theories.
He also reiterated a vow he made the previous evening: that the litigation is not over, and another big right-wing media network that pushed election lies, Newsmax, is next.
"Beyond just making Dominion whole, which is the legal jargon, you had a major win against a powerful, well-funded adversary in the Fox News parent company and Rupert Murdoch," said anchor Ari Melber. "What does it mean for people other than media watchers, insiders and the Dominion company? What does it mean, in your view, for American democracy?"
"I think it is a ringing endorsement for accountability," said Nelson. "This was the first time that anybody has been held accountable for the lies told in the 2020 presidential election, and this was the first time that a court has held that the lies were indeed false. And to have a payment of over $750 million and recognition these were indeed lies is a strong message that lies indeed have consequences, as we said yesterday. To have that just all throughout, it really is a message to all Americans that, Ari, we can disagree, we're going to have disagreements over issues, but we've got to have a shared understanding of facts, and that is really what makes our democracy so special, and I think that this is helping so tremendously along that line."
"There are open cases you're leading," Melber noted later in the segment. "You've just shown the world what you guys can do. Giuliani, Powell, Mr. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. These other entities, OAN and Newsmax. I call them media entities. Do you think you're on a path to win these cases? And do you think that would also potentially have a positive effect on factual discourse in America?"
"I do," said Nelson. "Newsmax released a statement saying, don't worry, our case is different. But obviously it's not, it's the same lies everybody knew. So we're going to go after Newsmax, we're going after One America News and the owners of One American News, who are billionaires, and we're going to go after the individuals who helped spread these lies — Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell, Patrick Byrne. And I think it sends a message that if you told these lies about the election, that there is accountability, and ultimately that's what it's all about. Again, we're going to have misinformation, but I think what this is establishing is that there will be consequences to lying ... when you are knowingly lying, recklessly disregarding the truth, there are consequences to that, and that's what the past 48 hours have shown."
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