Politics Off the air, Fox News stars blasted the election fraud claims they peddled

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/31/media/fox-news-dominion-lawsuit/index.html

Dominion Voting Systems’ historic defamation case against Fox News will proceed to a high-stakes jury trial in mid-April, a Delaware judge ruled Friday, in a major decision that dismantled several of the right-wing network’s key defenses.

The judge’s decision is a painful setback for Fox News and sets the stage for an agonizing, weekslong trial, where the network’s highest-ranking executives and most prominent hosts could be called to the stand to testify about the 2020 election lies that were promoted on its air.

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Judge blocks key Fox defenses
In his 130-page ruling, Davis dismantled several of Fox News’ potential trial defenses, dealing a significant blow to the network. On the whole, these findings from Davis take away several key arguments that Fox could’ve presented to the jury, making it harder for them to prevail at trial.

Davis ruled that Fox News can’t invoke the “neutral report privilege,” which protects journalists who neutrally pass along newsworthy allegations in an unbiased fashion. Dominion had argued that Fox News hosts essentially took a side while covering the fallout of the 2020 election, by throwing their weight behind the false idea that the results were illegitimate, and Dominion was to blame.

“The evidence does not support that (Fox News) conducted good-faith, disinterested reporting,” Davis wrote. “(Fox News’) failure to reveal extensive contradicting evidence from the public sphere and Dominion itself indicates that its reporting was not disinterested.”

The judge also blocked Fox News from using the “fair report privilege” with the jury. That legal doctrine protects journalists who report on what is being said at official proceedings, like congressional hearings, or on allegations being levied in court filings, like in a civil lawsuit.

Davis pointed out that the timeline of Fox’s on-air statements didn’t sync up with the lawsuits, many filed by pro-Trump lawyers like Sidney Powell, that sought to overturn the 2020 election.

“Most of the contested statements were made before any lawsuit had been filed in court,” Davis wrote, adding that out of the nearly 20 broadcasts on Fox’s networks that Dominion claims damaged their reputation, “only one broadcast at issue even mentioned Ms. Powell’s lawsuit.”
The judge gave Dominion a boost by determining that the on-air statements at the heart of the litigation were either factual assertions or “mixed opinion,” which might make it harder for Fox to defend itself in front of the jury. Fox had asked Davis to rule that the statements were “pure opinion,” and therefore couldn’t be defamatory under the First Amendment.

“The context supports the position that the statements were not pure opinion when they were made by newscasters holding themselves out to be sources of accurate information,” Davis wrote.

Davis additionally wrote in his ruling that even if the statements were opinion, Fox News would not be protected under the Constitution, given that they appeared to “charge Dominion with the serious crime of election fraud.”

“Accusations of criminal activity, even in the form of opinion, are not constitutionally protected,” Davis wrote.

 

That is so awesome.

 

Luckily, fascists are always stupid. They can sure do a lot of damage before they are found out though.

 

Fox News sanctioned for withholding evidence in Dominion defamation case

Where the hell is the FCC on all of this?

 

Word is it's not just about the $$$ for Dominion but other concessions that Fox News might not be willing to make, like nightly apologies on air, or donating to causes that could hurt Fox's 'brand' and that's why this hasn't settled. It's not always as easy as just cutting a check.

 

I'm not buying the Fox talking heads claim that they were "forced" to spew the excreta they peddled. If they actually had some semblance of a backbone and even a modicum of self respect, they would have said "fuck you" and walked out...but that didn't happen and they instead took the coward's route, and said "OK, Boss, I'll say whatever you want me to say."

Wonder how many and how long before some of the Faux News dipshits will retroactive cry "foul", and end up suing Murdock?....wait for it.

 

Bummed that the anchors who said the bullshit over and over don't have to acknowledge on air they lied over and over, but it's something... anyway, next up, Smartmatic who's suing the liars for 2.7 billion.

 

Fox bought their way out of trouble. What the rich do.

 

I was really hoping they would not settle...would have preferred to have had Hannity, Carlson, Ingraham, et al, would have had to swear under oath that they knowingly lied.

 

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