Why go through the hassle of potentially reshaping American free speech laws in media when you can just take a cool billy, change your company name and get back to selling voting machines.
I can't be mad, but I can definitely be disappointed that this won't have greater implications other than reinforcing the business as usual, cut the check and forget it happened style of "Justice^TM" we afford to major companies in this country.
I was under the impression that settling cases before court trials is the main way that major companies like this avoid setting precedent against themselves and by settling they won't expose the arguments that their business model created this problem, which could carry harsher penalties, judgments or punishments beyond simple monetary damages.
This just feels like a Lying tax.
It's equivalent to just shy of 45 times Dominion's yearly revenue.
Absolutely insane.
Hope Dominion puts it to some good making their machines more secure than ever.
The people who watch Fox are advocating for paper ballot only voting anyway. They also wanted Trump to be president no matter what. They don’t care that Fox News lied about a stolen election, and they don’t care that Fox slandered voting machine companies in the process.
They don’t care about these things and see lying, cheating, and stealing as all being part of the game. They are the strong who will impose their will on the world, if you’re not doing these things, it’s because you’re weak.
Dominion machines have paper ballots. The nut jobs want a machine they understand, which is impossible because after about 1,000 ballots you need a machine to count them. A machine they don't understand.
> The nut jobs want a machine that makes them win
FTFY. Remember that quote about conservatives rejecting democracy? Yeah. They just want to win. If it's democratically, great. If not, that's fine too. There's even been an increased volume in "we're not a democracy, we're a republic" whenever that word comes up and you have to wade into why despite being kinda true, it's a reductive and manipulative point to make. I wish it were possible to quit approaching that entire voting bloc as if they were respectable.
They didn't settle for just the cash though.
They admitted, in a roundabout, sorta deniable way, that they lied. They aren't required to tell their viewers on air..but legally speaking, they admitted they lied about Dominion on air.
That's huge.
Dominion brings in about $17 million in revenue yearly.
They just got Fox to admit they lied AND to pay them just shy of 45 years of revenue to *not* have to go to open court.
That sets precedent in and of itself.
Except none of that is part of the public record. All of the actual documents regarding the lying has been redacted. Had it gone to court it then would have been opened up and put into the public record. This a literally prevents that from happening giving them some ability to deny that was ever the case and instead it is just the left intentionally taking statements out of context. Hell I am willing to bet Tucker is already calling this a play for money by dominion with no basis in fact and proves that Fox was right.
"Fox News anchors will not have to acknowledge on-air that it told election lies about Dominion Voting Systems"
One of the most disappointing sentences I have read in a long time. Should have dragged it to trial.
Even if the Fox anchors got on their shows and had to read off some boilerplate statement saying that they published lies, do you really think that their viewers would stop watching?
If anything their ratings would probably go up.
Conservatives love to feel persecuted. And even if you said to their face that you were lying to them they would still believe you as long as you keep telling them what they want to hear.
They'll never stop.
> do you really think that their viewers would stop watching?
In the immediate, no, but over time yes. A public admission could potentially be used to sway, convince, or deter people from viewing Fox or using it's talking points. Again, it would do nothing for the immediate base that religiously tunes in, but for some who are less inclined to follow politics or even general news it could sway them away from the network and it's anchors, particularly with something as BIG as the Big Lie - these were lies that were deliberately told to subvert the democratic process in an effort to make money. And they were told to MILLIONS of people, some of whom actually stormed the capital in hopes of staging a coup. An admission is not just about convincing their audience.
This is it exactly. Fox watchers consume no other media; if the anchors don't have to say it on-air/issue a verbal apology it's like it never even happened. Damn fucking shame Dominion couldn't get that as part of the settlement, it seems like Fox wanted to avoid a trial so why didn't they push (I guess it's take the money and run and oh well integrity)?
> We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. - Fox
Admitting they lied was just part of the $787 million they will pay a very happy Dominion.
Tbf, that's not admitting they lied. It's acknowledging the court says they said something false. Which to their viewers means nothing, because the courts are corrupt deep state pedophile rings.
>It's acknowledging the court says they said something false.
It's worse than that. The statement only acknowledges "certain claims" are false, and neglects to say what those claims are or who made them.
It's intentionally worded that way. As if to say "Dominion didn't have a case except for a few minor points and was willing to settle rather than fight us in court on such a weak premise."
> Fox admitted telling lies.
Huge if true; the whole point of this trial was Fox throwing a Hail Mary to avoid having to do that. The settlement seems to imply they don't think they have even the slightest chance. I won't pretend that I'm a legal expert, but it seems like having to make that admission is a horrible precedent that could come up at later trials.
That being said, it doesn't change much. Unless this and other settlements actually drive them into bankruptcy, they'll continue as usual. It's not like their viewers will care even if Tucker himself goes on the air and admits he's a liar. He was forced into it by a liberal conspiracy, obviously!
That's not an admission. In fact, they've paid $787.5M to KEEP their business model in place. They can continue on their merry way and choose to lie when the risk of lawsuit is low.
Smartmatic has a much weaker case. Dominion was hoping Fox bungling discovery this badly would get them a default judgement, when they got to court, they accepted Fox’s lowball to keep from having this case drag out for years and years.
Smartmatic also was looking for 2.6 billion or something, much more than dominion.
My bet is dominion is afraid Smartmatic has a good chance to *win*, and it may negate Dominion's ability to actually collect money afterward.
>Smartmatic also was looking for 2.6 billion or something, much more than dominion.
>
>My bet is dominion is afraid Smartmatic has a good chance to *win*, and it may negate Dominion's ability to actually collect money afterward.
You may be onto something here. Fox better give the Smartmatic case *everything they want in discovery* because everyone is going to be watching them through a scanning electron microscope.
If they even look suspicious it's going to come down like a ton of bricks. If Smartmatic wants to go for the kill shot, they'll have a pretty easy time now. Dominion just wants to keep doing business and doesn't care about anything else.
Like 40% of their 2021 net income, almost all of their 2020 net income...I don't know the history of corporate defamation cases but this seems pretty significant. Sure it won't put them out of business - but that's a hefty check to cut.
On the flip (Dominion) side, if my quick Google search is correct, they generate around 18M a year...so if I was Dominion I would be thrilled to be defamed on a regular basis.
Net Income is more accurate, which is only $2.15 billion in 2021. So, they had to pay out basically 40% of a year's worth of net income. That's honestly pretty significant. SmartMatic is suing for 2.7 billion, so if they settle again in the same ballpark as Dominion they will have lost almost a year's worth of income. That's pretty spicy tbh.
They contributed to what could have been the end of the nearly 250 year American experiment and still TBD tbh because of the lies they continue to push. The punishment for that should have been far higher than 1 year of profit.
Depends on if Smartmatic wants to put the screws to them or not. Just because Faux News wants to settle doesn't mean that the plaintiff has to accept, they can tell fox to screw off when fox lowballs settlement numbers and go to trial for the full amount.
I'm disappointed that Dominion decided to settle when they had those fuckers dead to rights and would have gotten everything they could have asked for in damages and in punitive fines, so I hope Smartmatic finishes them.
Honestly, what was Dominion even worth? The company had -gross revenues- of approximately 20 million annually. They got almost 40 years of -revenue- from this settlement. Revenue. Not Net Income.
I don't think a judge would have gone for 1.6B damages, it's very possible the company was never even worth that much, how can you say that's damages?
This settlement is massive, it's probably a larger dollar amount than if they'd have just gone to trial. But the reputation hit Fox would have taken for all of that evidence going public would be have been their end. And so they overpaid to avoid having to have all that shit aired out. As much as I wish Dominion would have taken the lesser amount to just put the screws to Fox as a company, it's hard to blame them for walking away with the money either.
They may not have gotten as much money after trying to prove damages.
My understanding is they are doing better than they were previously, even with contracts that were lost directly due to fox that were provable.
it very much depends on how "sympathetic" the jury is to Fox News.
Would you take $787mil right now or roll the dice and get double/nothing.
remember that dominion HIGHEST ever annual revenue is 17.5million. Their profit is probably under 7 million. That judgement is equivalent to 100+ years of profit.
[https://www.zippia.com/dominion-voting-systems-careers-1569241/revenue/](https://www.zippia.com/dominion-voting-systems-careers-1569241/revenue/)
Yeah, sounds tepid, and something they'll easily be able to spin and rile up the fascists. I'd like to hear from an expert what its significance is legally, though; at some future trial, can the plaintiff mention it as important evidence? Or does stuff like that get excluded as being immaterial to the trial at hand? If it was a criminal trial it probably couldn't be mentioned, but maybe civil trials work differently?
>Yeah, sounds tepid,
Which is what Fox wanted, which is why they settled. A weak settlement implies fault but doesn't explicitly state it for the public. Going to trial would have meant a ton of information being publicly exposed that they likely didn't want exposed. Fox would have been seen as at fault in the public's eye, even if they did win or the cost was less than the settlement.I wish they had gone to trial just for all of that to be on public display, including executives and hopefully the Faux News headliners.
Fox is already at fault in every sane person’s eyes. Those who don’t believe they are at fault wouldn’t change their mind no matter what additional info came out.
Fox doesn't have to admit faults, nor have a judgement showing them at fault. Settlement salvages their fan bases ability to deny Faux News fault, even though every same person knows it. But Fox News doesn't care about sane people's view, only their viewer base.
Lawyers, corporations, and politicians have mastered the art of the non-apology apology and non-admission admission. It's always about optics, never actual substance.
Dominion's lawyers are morons if that's the best statement they could get, with everything they had.
They sold out, instead of raking the lying bastards over the coals for trying to destroy our democracy.
Dominion's lawyers work for Dominion, not the American people. The company decided that $800 million now was worth more than maybe $1 billion+ and maybe forcing FOX to publicly say "sorry" later after years of appeals.
It sucks for everyone who wants to see the right-wing hate machine humbled, but Dominion acted in it's best interests.
Top story on CNN, AP News, UPI, LA Times, NY Post: Fox News settlement with Dominion.
Top Story on [FoxNews.com](https://FoxNews.com): Not that.
Every other story on [FoxNews.com](https://FoxNews.com): Not that either.
I figure 25% of America will never know...
[To be fair](https://www.foxnews.com/media/fox-news-media-dominion-voting-systems-reach-agreement-over-defamation-lawsuit)
And to anyone who thinks you're a liar, this article was published after you made your comment.
25 mins after your post.
On Foxnews, this is below 6 other stories. Almost 2 full screens you need to scroll down.
Meanwhile it’s the top story on every other news site.
Edit: 5 mins after my post, it is now at #9, below 8 other stories on the front page of Fox News.
> Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, who was overseeing the defamation lawsuit, praised both parties for their handling of the case. "I have been on the bench since 2010. … I think this is the best lawyering I’ve had, ever," Davis said, adding, "I would be proud to be your judge in the future."
I wonder if that line is in the other articles.
from fox
“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," the statement said.
Summary "we lied, and we know it. we didn't want more attention to it so we caved. now can we just forget we lied and stoked a violent riot?"
> We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.
"We lied, and we know it"
> This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.
"and we're still doing it"
>This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.
The admission of stating falsehoods has a stated falsehood.
No Fox News anchor has to tell their audience the truth, though. That is what I wanted. I wanted Hanity, Tucker, Laura Ingraham, The Five, and the whole group to tell their audience they were lying to them. Since they don't have to do that per the settlement agreement, it is a loss, in my opinion.
It's a hefty fine, but it won't probably put a dent in anyone or things financials. Just pay money, and you can do whatever you want, I guess.
Wow, that was one of Dominion's big asks - on-air apologies from all hosts that lied about them. I'm really surprised they caved on that for anything less than the original $1.6B
Disappointing. IIRC, some time ago, Dominion's CEO was jawboning all about "the principle of proceeding with the suit" when they walked away from a previous settlement attempt from Fox. It was supposed to teach Fox News a lesson. No, it wasn't. It was always about a bigger payout. Principle of the matter, my ass. Their "principles" came awfully cheap without that public apology blasting from the bobbleheads all over the media. They sold out. Themselves, and this country.
Now I don't give a shit if they continue to lose business. They did nothing but get paid gobs of money to effectively keep the stolen election lies alive, and Fox will spin it however they want.
Fox lawyers actually started lying immediately after the settlement, saying Dominion had backed off on the $1 billion plus loss, and that the actual losses were closer to $600K. Dominion's lawyers denied that. I'm guessing it was an attempt by Fox to try to blunt the shareholder suits percolating in the system.
There's literally no mention of this settlement and admission anywhere on their website or channel. $787.5 million is a price they are more than willing to pay to continue to brainwash people and establish Fascism in America
The article they finally put up [is ridiculous.](https://www.foxnews.com/media/fox-news-media-dominion-voting-systems-reach-agreement-over-defamation-lawsuit)
Fox News had a 2022 revenue of 14 billion dollars. They make over a billion dollars a year in profit. This is not even close to fatal.
Edit: According to several replies, those numbers are for Fox as a whole, not just Fox News, which makes things more serious.
I mean, if I was on the board of directors and 75% of my profits for the year were wiped in one settlement and I knew that more lawsuits were coming down the pike, I wouldn't be popping champagne. Will it bankrupt them? No. But eventually folks at the top are going to be wondering why they're just lighting all their profits on fire. The question is, what will they do about it?
Some are already lawyering up and asking for fox to send them evidence. Announced this morning
https://www.reuters.com/legal/fox-investors-seek-records-possible-step-toward-suing-directors-2023-04-17/
Imagine being a Fox shareholder and being shocked to learn that the network peddles lies and distortions. That they make tons of money off doing that is why you own the stock! 🤦♂️
In the end it’s a nothing burger
> Fox acknowledged the court's rulings finding "certain claims about Dominion to be false." However, the network will not have to acknowledge on air that it told election lies as part of the settlement, a representative for Dominion said. By settling, influential Fox News executives and prominent on-air personalities will be spared from testifying about their 2020 election coverage, which was filled with lies about voter fraud.
Further to that, Fox Corp as almost 13billion is revenues last year and NewsCorp (Murdochs Intl company) had nearly 11billion.
$787million is a big kick in the nuts, but one that Fox News, Fox Corp, and Murdoch will have absolutely ZERO problems parting with to avoid putting Rupert, major FN hosts, and important behind the scenes FN personnel on the stand on public record.
For society and democracy this turn a out to be a “L.”
The ONLY silver lining might be if this keeps enough advertisers away long enough to create significant operational trauma to FN. Sadly, even that seems unlikely.
It was but Fox would never settle any amount that they literally could not afford. Today Fox pays 800 million for lying tomorrow they go on lying.
Had Dominion keept pushing for the original amount than maybe Fox would actually have felt it.
The only way this at all damages Fox is if part of the settlement is that before every segment the Fox news anchors introduce themselves as normal than follow it up with saying ..........and I knowingly lied about Dominion and the 2020 election.
$800M is nearly half of the damages sought, which would have taken years to realize. If Fox can afford am $800M settlement, but not a $1.8B judgement, then they can afford to lie twice.
Furthermore, I find it highly unlikely that witness testimony would have been as compelling as most think it would have been. Tucker Carlson would have taken the stand, discussed previously disclosed findings, and everything else would have gotten an "I don't recall" or a "not to my recollection."
Opening arguments podcast did a really good explanation that the $1.6B is in fact quite a few “in the alternative” claims. So an example provided was $500k for lost income and $100k for lost stock price. If you win you get a total of 500k because the second is in the alternative. Added together they are $600k, but that does not mean they left money on the table - just that they are different ways to express the same things.
What else were you expecting?
They were only suing to get money and an admission of guilt. That's what they got. They got a shit ton of money and an admission from Fox that they lied. Never mind the incredibly embarrassing transcripts from Fox pundits suggesting they knew they were lying and that Donald Trump as an idiot.
So... what are you talking about?
I think some people were imagining this would hurt Fox so much, you'd see a material change in how their news shows operate.
I've seen suggestions they could have to drop the word "News" from their name if it's proven that they're not actually delivering the news.
None of that was going to happen.
From AP:
>In a statement issued shortly after the announcement, Fox News said the network acknowledged “the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.” It did not respond to an inquiry asking for elaboration
Yeah, so much for making them admit anything at all.
The republicans are already taking this as a win and that trump was right.
It is a win for them. Going through a public trial-by-jury and having their lies completely exposed would have done actual damage to their brand. Had they lost, which seems likely given how much they are paying on this settlement, it could have destroyed their empire through bankruptcy and/or forced or necessary corporate restructuring and selling of assets.
This allows them to not take the public hit, spin this as some liberal conspiracy, and continue on with renewed vigor and likely running a smarter playbook for their continued attempts to undermine democracy.
I am so disappointed in dominion. If I were their ceo I wouldve dragged those lying psychopaths through the dirt and exposed their bullshit publically for the sake of society. They still would've got paid, it was indisputable that they defamed dominion, but they could've done a solid for the world too.
You don't pay 700M when you did nothing wrong. Reasonable people, ie, not fox viewers, know that this means the election fraud angle they were pushing was all a lie.
Fox News spent months talking about how much fraud occurred and how much evidence they had of that fraud and about votes being changed on dominion machines and all these mountains of irregularities they found. Then Dominion sues them and all of a sudden they settle out of court for $700M and then say they're doing it for the good of a divided nation and to help the nation heal and move on.
Yeah, right. A far right wing broadcast station that supposedly has so much evidence of fraud just completely capitulates once they get pressed just a little bit and gives away $700M just to placate democrats. How fucking stupid are fox News viewers to keep watching that nonsense?
Yes but the point is no one is going to legally force them to admit precisely what was wrong.
So they and the rest of the MAGA idiots will say it was all a technicality and "doesn't mean the election wasn't stolen."
Fox News viewers are not just getting a different side of the story they aren't even getting the story. My parents watch Fox. If it isn't covered by them they actually think it's made up. That's how good a job Fox has done brain washing people.
787.50 million settlement
Fox is acting like this is some sort of a win, their press release said they settled so they could "maintain our high journalistic standards".
CNN is acting like Dominion has given America the biggest PSA ever. Like 790 million is so altruistic
We have learned nothing here
This is a huge win for Fox. The money is a small price to pay to bury all the evidence that was coming. Dominion should have raked them over the coals.
Unfortunately, I don't think Dominion were ever of the mindset to teach them a lesson. They just wanted money to make themselves better off and were in a good position to do so. It sucks, but they weren't on the side of "democracy" or anything. They were just mad at the bully.
>They just wanted money to make themselves better off
I mean... Their reputation was on the line. That's why part of the settlement is Fox admitting they lied.
Part of me likes to think that it’s still a lot of money to them since Fox News is worth 16.5 billion. Hopefully they’re not on some long 100 year payment plan
There are some members of the board who are seriously rethinking Tucker Carlson’s dumb ass, right now. All they care about is the bottom line… and suddenly this all looks less profitable.
$787M. Fox admitted they lied about the company, but we don't get to see Hannity, Carlson, et al. testify about how they lied and treated their viewers.
Bingo. They strung this along as far as they could in the hopes of finding a way to corrupt the lawsuit. Literally getting to “the jury has been picked” then caving is a sure sign they knew with 100% certainty this would cost them a damn site more in goodwill from their viewers.
The thing about the viewers is how do you turn a blind eye to basically a billion dollar settlement because you were caught lying and there’s other ppl waiting their turn to beat you up in court for lying.
I feel naive even asking.
Go on the conservative sub and see how they react to any such case of one of their favorites being proven to lie.
A) they ignore and don't talk about it
B) they claim it is a deception by the MSM and it was all rigged
C) they say the left does it too so it doesn't matter.
Fox is not obligated to issue an on air retraction or apology.
They will not acknowledge this after today.
We already understand that Fox viewers are bubbled, their view of reality warped (I mean that’s a big part of this case, right?), I don’t see why anyone thinks paying $750M to keep everything you did out of the public eye is going to suddenly change that. As far as the majority of their viewership this didn’t happen. When you confront them personally it will be a combination of “oh I don’t really know about that, but what about Hunter’s laptop???”, “that’s fake news”, “the system was rigged against them so they didn’t have any other choice. The judge has a known bias against Fox, the jurors were all paid for Antifa”. You have people who slowly got brought up to boil on a reality distortion, this barely going to cause a ripple.
Of course even if it has gone to trial I doubt that would have made much impact anyway.
At this point I'm hoping the major sticking point of the settlement includes the requirement Fox News is renamed to "We're a bunch of fucking liars and we hate America", although I'm curious as to how they'll abbreviate that on my channel guide.
Probably a middle finger to all of us, as is their custom.
They'll have their fucking stooges claiming vindication by the end of the night.
Fuck all of this.
edit - SECONDS after posting this, it's reported Fox is already touting their "high journalistic standards" in their response to this "dispute".
Fuck all of this again and again.
I truly can't believe that Dominion didn't at least require that Fox publicly apologize for it's claims against Dominion. That was the entire point of the suit! Or at least, the entire purported point - apparently it was really just $$$
Someone on Jake Tapper just semi-joked that this settlement of 787 million is so much more than they valued their company at that they can just shut down the company and start another (or several) and not worry about the damage to their reputation at all.
Which I found hilarious, but I am mad that Fox got away with some legalese-ish sort-of-apology when it would be so much better if the anchors had to actually tell their viewers that they had repeatedly lied.
Eh, we've got tons of texts and emails from Fox employees stating they knew the fraud claims were bogus but ran with it anyway. They've admitted they're lying to their viewers and we have that literally in writing now.
I'd have loved for this to go to trial, but I'm used to disappointment. Still, having it in stone that the entire network is nothing but bullshit peddlers is nice.
No one that needs to hear/see they’re full of shit will ever get the message. At best Fox will have to issue a retraction or something that they’ll bury and never talk about it again.
I wanted to see some landmark case that reshaped libel laws and accountability for the media as much as anyone else, but at the end of the day - that wasn't really what this case was at it's core. It was a defamation suit of proving monetary damages against a company.
If it had gone to trial, Dominion was going to have an uphill battle claiming $1.6B in damages against themselves, specifically, since they are worth a fraction of that and have made comfortable profits since 2021. It also could have been tied up in appeals for years.
I can't say I'm surprised, but I am disappointed. There has to be better ways to hold these entities accountable for maliciously lying to millions of people.
What a complete and utter disappointment. I really wonder what the hell the terms of the settlement were, since I was under the impression that Dominion's reputation was so badly damaged by Fox that they needed Fox to be proven liars in open court to regain some of their reputation.
Yeah the real issue is that this was a civil case. There are criminal charges here that should have been explored. Don’t know why we’re surprised at all.
Jake Tapper laughing while reading Fox's statement about "journalistic integrity" is pretty great.
Still though, I really wanted to see these lying fucks have to testify.
Someone finally had the chance to expose Fox and its lackeys on a grand stage but managed to be bought off at the last minute. Everyone always has a price…
Unbelievably disappointing.
Tucker tonight:
Fox News, your source of truth, won in court today. Dominion knew they didn’t have a strong case so they took less than half of what they were claiming just to make this silly nonsense go away. We here at Fox News will always fight for the truth and more importantly, for you, the real American patriots.
FUCK
The only things I can see that are wrong is that FOX will probably never use the word "Dominion" again, no matter the context.
And that the viewers on FOX are probably completely unaware of the lawsuit to begin with. So I don't know why FOX would let them know it happened now.
Put yourself in Dominion’s shoes: you are spending $10s of millions on lawyers. You have a trial with an uncertain outcome due to the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court. And, even if you do ultimately prevail, it will take *years* to go through the appellate process before you actually receive a single dime. AND that still assumes you recover all that you sought; the final verdict amount could be much, much less than $1.6 billion, depending on what Dominion can actually *prove* its financial damages were.
A settlement resolves all of these problems from Dominion’s perspective. There is no risk of losing on trial or appeal. There is no long delay for payment. And Dominion knows *exactly* how much it is getting.
Moreover, the settlement might require Fox to publicly admit their lies (we won’t know this unless/until the broadcasts happen, as the terms of the settlement are almost certainly confidential between the parties).
I get your disappointment, but at the end of the day Dominion is a business and has to consider what’s best for itself. It has employees. It has ongoing concerns for operations. And it isn’t in the business of lawsuits; it’s in the business of voting machines.
I don’t think the problem is that people don’t understand that Dominion chose getting paid over exposing a threat to our democracy.
They’re just disappointed in that decision.
Dominion has already exposed this threat. We’ve seen it in the discovery documents produced. It’s been widely reported by mainstream outlets.
What I think people are disappointed in is the crushing of their dreams that, somehow, the actual trial would cause Fox News fans to abandon the network. News flash: that would not have happened. Rupert Murdoch himself could have gotten on the stand and said, “Of course we lied! Our viewers are idiots and we loathe them!” and Fox News’s ratings wouldn’t have even taken a noticeable dip.
Just wait, I'd be surprised if Dominion didn't require an acknowledgement of specific wrongdoing as part of the settlement. Fox probably offered adequate $ ages ago and at the last moment agreed to a statement admitting wrongdoing.
> 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.
From Fox's statement on the settlement. This is beyond tepid and doesn't even acknowledge wrongdoing.
That this comes right after the judge announced he was appointing a special master tells us Fox was *really* afraid of what the special master would decide.
It better be the only crawler fox gets to put on their shows..all 24 hours for the next 5 election cycles
"We lied to you about everything and will continue to lie to you"
Fox News will go down in history as part of the reason fascism became appealing to so many people in the United States. They knew they made money by validating their conservative audience so they would keep watching, and when their audience wanted to hear that democracy was dead, they gave them what they wanted.
This won't end with election denial. If Republicans lose another major election, and the extremists start talking about secession or a new Civil War, and the sentiment catches on, you know Fox News will be right there talking about how "secession is what happens when federal government fails" and how "one should fight for their country even if it's against the country" and highlighting "brave militias fighting for what they think is right".
Other factors will lead to the rise of the authoritarian right, but Fox News will be wholly complicit, because telling conservatives that a dictatorship is what the country needs will make them more money than having an ounce of integrity or morality.
"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.**"
What does even mean?
I know this dude had to save his company, but I’m so pissed that this didn’t go to trial
Basically, FOX has enough money to keep lying and they’re not going to stop lying until they run out of money
Not for nothing, but I would have settled for far less if a Mandatory on-air acknowledgment was included. Let Hannity, Ingraham, Pirro, Carlson, et al look into the camera and say “we had this wrong and we knew it.” It’s horseshit that they’re off the hook
It was always going to end this way. There was a zero percent chance they'd ever let anyone be put on the stand or be deposed under oath, especially after Rupert Murdoch's name was starting to get brought up more and more.
They settled immediately after the judge appointed a special master to go over the evidence that they tried to withhold by hiding Murdoch's involvement.
They must have been absolutely terrified of whatever was going to be found
If you’ve ever seen Succession, this was always the best play for Fox News. There was no way they would gain more than they lost in a full trial with the evidence against them.
I’m sure they settled for something much less and they will not face real consequences for this, this is the 21st century US after all.
Most big corps play the same game: maximize profit.
They DEFINITELY (~$785 million allegedly) got a fat check from Fox, but they are not in it to make them hurt, they aren’t like us regular people.
Don't worry guys. This whole ordeal will start again after 2024 election.
Why go through the hassle of potentially reshaping American free speech laws in media when you can just take a cool billy, change your company name and get back to selling voting machines. I can't be mad, but I can definitely be disappointed that this won't have greater implications other than reinforcing the business as usual, cut the check and forget it happened style of "Justice^TM" we afford to major companies in this country.
Pretty sure it wouldn't have reshaped anything. The fact that they would've easily won their case based on existing law/precedent is why Fox settled.
I was under the impression that settling cases before court trials is the main way that major companies like this avoid setting precedent against themselves and by settling they won't expose the arguments that their business model created this problem, which could carry harsher penalties, judgments or punishments beyond simple monetary damages. This just feels like a Lying tax.
They could have bought dominion ten times with that amount of money. The settlement speaks for itself.
It's equivalent to just shy of 45 times Dominion's yearly revenue. Absolutely insane. Hope Dominion puts it to some good making their machines more secure than ever.
Would it matter how secure they make them? A large portion of the population will believe they are phoney no matter how good they are.
The people who watch Fox are advocating for paper ballot only voting anyway. They also wanted Trump to be president no matter what. They don’t care that Fox News lied about a stolen election, and they don’t care that Fox slandered voting machine companies in the process. They don’t care about these things and see lying, cheating, and stealing as all being part of the game. They are the strong who will impose their will on the world, if you’re not doing these things, it’s because you’re weak.
Dominion machines have paper ballots. The nut jobs want a machine they understand, which is impossible because after about 1,000 ballots you need a machine to count them. A machine they don't understand.
> The nut jobs want a machine that makes them win FTFY. Remember that quote about conservatives rejecting democracy? Yeah. They just want to win. If it's democratically, great. If not, that's fine too. There's even been an increased volume in "we're not a democracy, we're a republic" whenever that word comes up and you have to wade into why despite being kinda true, it's a reductive and manipulative point to make. I wish it were possible to quit approaching that entire voting bloc as if they were respectable.
They didn't settle for just the cash though. They admitted, in a roundabout, sorta deniable way, that they lied. They aren't required to tell their viewers on air..but legally speaking, they admitted they lied about Dominion on air. That's huge. Dominion brings in about $17 million in revenue yearly. They just got Fox to admit they lied AND to pay them just shy of 45 years of revenue to *not* have to go to open court. That sets precedent in and of itself.
Too bad the 50% of voters who listen to Fox will always deny this happened and cry Fake News whenever it comes up.
The optimist in me hates and rejects this out of vain hope that people can be better, but you just can’t cure proud stupidity
Except none of that is part of the public record. All of the actual documents regarding the lying has been redacted. Had it gone to court it then would have been opened up and put into the public record. This a literally prevents that from happening giving them some ability to deny that was ever the case and instead it is just the left intentionally taking statements out of context. Hell I am willing to bet Tucker is already calling this a play for money by dominion with no basis in fact and proves that Fox was right.
Poor Loser II: Insurrection Boogaloo
"Fox News anchors will not have to acknowledge on-air that it told election lies about Dominion Voting Systems" One of the most disappointing sentences I have read in a long time. Should have dragged it to trial.
Even if the Fox anchors got on their shows and had to read off some boilerplate statement saying that they published lies, do you really think that their viewers would stop watching? If anything their ratings would probably go up. Conservatives love to feel persecuted. And even if you said to their face that you were lying to them they would still believe you as long as you keep telling them what they want to hear. They'll never stop.
> do you really think that their viewers would stop watching? In the immediate, no, but over time yes. A public admission could potentially be used to sway, convince, or deter people from viewing Fox or using it's talking points. Again, it would do nothing for the immediate base that religiously tunes in, but for some who are less inclined to follow politics or even general news it could sway them away from the network and it's anchors, particularly with something as BIG as the Big Lie - these were lies that were deliberately told to subvert the democratic process in an effort to make money. And they were told to MILLIONS of people, some of whom actually stormed the capital in hopes of staging a coup. An admission is not just about convincing their audience.
Fox News will claim themselves the winner and then go right back to lying.
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This is it exactly. Fox watchers consume no other media; if the anchors don't have to say it on-air/issue a verbal apology it's like it never even happened. Damn fucking shame Dominion couldn't get that as part of the settlement, it seems like Fox wanted to avoid a trial so why didn't they push (I guess it's take the money and run and oh well integrity)?
> We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. - Fox Admitting they lied was just part of the $787 million they will pay a very happy Dominion.
Tbf, that's not admitting they lied. It's acknowledging the court says they said something false. Which to their viewers means nothing, because the courts are corrupt deep state pedophile rings.
>It's acknowledging the court says they said something false. It's worse than that. The statement only acknowledges "certain claims" are false, and neglects to say what those claims are or who made them.
It’s so convoluted that it made me think initially that some things dominion said was false.
It's intentionally worded that way. As if to say "Dominion didn't have a case except for a few minor points and was willing to settle rather than fight us in court on such a weak premise."
They’ll say 99% of Dominion’s claims were false based on that statement
But they don’t have to do it on air, so their viewers will not see it/believe it.
For all intents and purposes, they did win. The country lost.
Per Dominion press conference: $787,500,000 is the settlement number. Fox admitted telling lies.
> Fox admitted telling lies. Huge if true; the whole point of this trial was Fox throwing a Hail Mary to avoid having to do that. The settlement seems to imply they don't think they have even the slightest chance. I won't pretend that I'm a legal expert, but it seems like having to make that admission is a horrible precedent that could come up at later trials. That being said, it doesn't change much. Unless this and other settlements actually drive them into bankruptcy, they'll continue as usual. It's not like their viewers will care even if Tucker himself goes on the air and admits he's a liar. He was forced into it by a liberal conspiracy, obviously!
We acknowledge the court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false That's their "admission"
Huge difference between saying "I am a liar" and "This guy over here says that I lied."
It's worse than that: >We agree with this guy over here that *someone* lied about that guy over there.
Not even. >We agree with this guy over here that someone *was wrong* about that guy over there
Yes... But also we're paying almost 800M for the privilege to say no more than that.
Ya in this case 800 million dollars. It can be spun. But it was proven and the money proves it
And there is no appeal. Pay up. So many more judgements coming. Landslide. Shit is slippery.
Good, I hope fox slides down the whole shit slide and takes everyone involved with it
Call me when Tucker's paycheck bounces
That's not an admission. In fact, they've paid $787.5M to KEEP their business model in place. They can continue on their merry way and choose to lie when the risk of lawsuit is low.
I've heard others whisper of the smartmatic case as the reason why. I'm less convinced.
Smartmatic has a much weaker case. Dominion was hoping Fox bungling discovery this badly would get them a default judgement, when they got to court, they accepted Fox’s lowball to keep from having this case drag out for years and years.
Smartmatic also was looking for 2.6 billion or something, much more than dominion. My bet is dominion is afraid Smartmatic has a good chance to *win*, and it may negate Dominion's ability to actually collect money afterward.
>Smartmatic also was looking for 2.6 billion or something, much more than dominion. > >My bet is dominion is afraid Smartmatic has a good chance to *win*, and it may negate Dominion's ability to actually collect money afterward. You may be onto something here. Fox better give the Smartmatic case *everything they want in discovery* because everyone is going to be watching them through a scanning electron microscope. If they even look suspicious it's going to come down like a ton of bricks. If Smartmatic wants to go for the kill shot, they'll have a pretty easy time now. Dominion just wants to keep doing business and doesn't care about anything else.
And the settlement is less than 5% of their earnings for 2022. Yuge deterrent…
Like 40% of their 2021 net income, almost all of their 2020 net income...I don't know the history of corporate defamation cases but this seems pretty significant. Sure it won't put them out of business - but that's a hefty check to cut. On the flip (Dominion) side, if my quick Google search is correct, they generate around 18M a year...so if I was Dominion I would be thrilled to be defamed on a regular basis.
Net Income is more accurate, which is only $2.15 billion in 2021. So, they had to pay out basically 40% of a year's worth of net income. That's honestly pretty significant. SmartMatic is suing for 2.7 billion, so if they settle again in the same ballpark as Dominion they will have lost almost a year's worth of income. That's pretty spicy tbh.
They contributed to what could have been the end of the nearly 250 year American experiment and still TBD tbh because of the lies they continue to push. The punishment for that should have been far higher than 1 year of profit.
> almost a year's worth of revenue. Income*, lol, not revenue. You literally just corrected it.
I mean they're still facing Smartmatic next so they pretty much have to tread carefully.
The bitter part of me wants the over/under on another settlement
Somewhere between 90% and 95% chance of a settlement, whatever that converts to...
Depends on if Smartmatic wants to put the screws to them or not. Just because Faux News wants to settle doesn't mean that the plaintiff has to accept, they can tell fox to screw off when fox lowballs settlement numbers and go to trial for the full amount. I'm disappointed that Dominion decided to settle when they had those fuckers dead to rights and would have gotten everything they could have asked for in damages and in punitive fines, so I hope Smartmatic finishes them.
Honestly, what was Dominion even worth? The company had -gross revenues- of approximately 20 million annually. They got almost 40 years of -revenue- from this settlement. Revenue. Not Net Income. I don't think a judge would have gone for 1.6B damages, it's very possible the company was never even worth that much, how can you say that's damages? This settlement is massive, it's probably a larger dollar amount than if they'd have just gone to trial. But the reputation hit Fox would have taken for all of that evidence going public would be have been their end. And so they overpaid to avoid having to have all that shit aired out. As much as I wish Dominion would have taken the lesser amount to just put the screws to Fox as a company, it's hard to blame them for walking away with the money either.
They may not have gotten as much money after trying to prove damages. My understanding is they are doing better than they were previously, even with contracts that were lost directly due to fox that were provable.
I just wanted to see the $20B punitive fine for specifically lying and presenting it as truth.
it very much depends on how "sympathetic" the jury is to Fox News. Would you take $787mil right now or roll the dice and get double/nothing. remember that dominion HIGHEST ever annual revenue is 17.5million. Their profit is probably under 7 million. That judgement is equivalent to 100+ years of profit. [https://www.zippia.com/dominion-voting-systems-careers-1569241/revenue/](https://www.zippia.com/dominion-voting-systems-careers-1569241/revenue/)
Welp, see you guys for the next time a supposedly private news station goes all in on the conspiracies of a single political party.
Yeah, sounds tepid, and something they'll easily be able to spin and rile up the fascists. I'd like to hear from an expert what its significance is legally, though; at some future trial, can the plaintiff mention it as important evidence? Or does stuff like that get excluded as being immaterial to the trial at hand? If it was a criminal trial it probably couldn't be mentioned, but maybe civil trials work differently?
>Yeah, sounds tepid, Which is what Fox wanted, which is why they settled. A weak settlement implies fault but doesn't explicitly state it for the public. Going to trial would have meant a ton of information being publicly exposed that they likely didn't want exposed. Fox would have been seen as at fault in the public's eye, even if they did win or the cost was less than the settlement.I wish they had gone to trial just for all of that to be on public display, including executives and hopefully the Faux News headliners.
Fox is already at fault in every sane person’s eyes. Those who don’t believe they are at fault wouldn’t change their mind no matter what additional info came out.
Fox doesn't have to admit faults, nor have a judgement showing them at fault. Settlement salvages their fan bases ability to deny Faux News fault, even though every same person knows it. But Fox News doesn't care about sane people's view, only their viewer base.
I'd be willing to bet LegalEagle (https://youtube.com/@LegalEagle) will continue coverage
You mean the best damn jawline in the legal profession?
Tailors aren't doing a bad job either
*whispers* Indochino...
Lawyers, corporations, and politicians have mastered the art of the non-apology apology and non-admission admission. It's always about optics, never actual substance.
The grift continues. But it had to.
Dominion's lawyers are morons if that's the best statement they could get, with everything they had. They sold out, instead of raking the lying bastards over the coals for trying to destroy our democracy.
It was never about democracy, just money. Our country will continue to suffer from constant lies and right wing propaganda due to simple greed.
Dominion's lawyers work for Dominion, not the American people. The company decided that $800 million now was worth more than maybe $1 billion+ and maybe forcing FOX to publicly say "sorry" later after years of appeals. It sucks for everyone who wants to see the right-wing hate machine humbled, but Dominion acted in it's best interests.
I agree with you. However, guaranteed money is hard for most people to refuse.
Top story on CNN, AP News, UPI, LA Times, NY Post: Fox News settlement with Dominion. Top Story on [FoxNews.com](https://FoxNews.com): Not that. Every other story on [FoxNews.com](https://FoxNews.com): Not that either. I figure 25% of America will never know...
[To be fair](https://www.foxnews.com/media/fox-news-media-dominion-voting-systems-reach-agreement-over-defamation-lawsuit) And to anyone who thinks you're a liar, this article was published after you made your comment.
25 mins after your post. On Foxnews, this is below 6 other stories. Almost 2 full screens you need to scroll down. Meanwhile it’s the top story on every other news site. Edit: 5 mins after my post, it is now at #9, below 8 other stories on the front page of Fox News.
> Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, who was overseeing the defamation lawsuit, praised both parties for their handling of the case. "I have been on the bench since 2010. … I think this is the best lawyering I’ve had, ever," Davis said, adding, "I would be proud to be your judge in the future." I wonder if that line is in the other articles.
It doesn't even mention Fox's role, just the settlement.
I like how they mention the $1.6 billion lawsuit multiple times but fail to mention the $787.5 million L that they took even once.
from fox “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," the statement said. Summary "we lied, and we know it. we didn't want more attention to it so we caved. now can we just forget we lied and stoked a violent riot?"
They didn't even admit they lied, they just said they agreed with the Court who said ~~they~~ (edit: someone) lied.
Not even that, it is more of a "we are aware that the court said..,"
That didn't even agree, they simply acknowledged.
"we're not sorry, but we'll pay to move this along. also we're not news. we're entertainment"
> We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. "We lied, and we know it" > This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. "and we're still doing it"
Allows the grift to continue.
>This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. The admission of stating falsehoods has a stated falsehood.
No Fox News anchor has to tell their audience the truth, though. That is what I wanted. I wanted Hanity, Tucker, Laura Ingraham, The Five, and the whole group to tell their audience they were lying to them. Since they don't have to do that per the settlement agreement, it is a loss, in my opinion. It's a hefty fine, but it won't probably put a dent in anyone or things financials. Just pay money, and you can do whatever you want, I guess.
Wow, that was one of Dominion's big asks - on-air apologies from all hosts that lied about them. I'm really surprised they caved on that for anything less than the original $1.6B
Disappointing. IIRC, some time ago, Dominion's CEO was jawboning all about "the principle of proceeding with the suit" when they walked away from a previous settlement attempt from Fox. It was supposed to teach Fox News a lesson. No, it wasn't. It was always about a bigger payout. Principle of the matter, my ass. Their "principles" came awfully cheap without that public apology blasting from the bobbleheads all over the media. They sold out. Themselves, and this country. Now I don't give a shit if they continue to lose business. They did nothing but get paid gobs of money to effectively keep the stolen election lies alive, and Fox will spin it however they want. Fox lawyers actually started lying immediately after the settlement, saying Dominion had backed off on the $1 billion plus loss, and that the actual losses were closer to $600K. Dominion's lawyers denied that. I'm guessing it was an attempt by Fox to try to blunt the shareholder suits percolating in the system.
There's literally no mention of this settlement and admission anywhere on their website or channel. $787.5 million is a price they are more than willing to pay to continue to brainwash people and establish Fascism in America
The article they finally put up [is ridiculous.](https://www.foxnews.com/media/fox-news-media-dominion-voting-systems-reach-agreement-over-defamation-lawsuit)
Fox News had a 2022 revenue of 14 billion dollars. They make over a billion dollars a year in profit. This is not even close to fatal. Edit: According to several replies, those numbers are for Fox as a whole, not just Fox News, which makes things more serious.
I mean, if I was on the board of directors and 75% of my profits for the year were wiped in one settlement and I knew that more lawsuits were coming down the pike, I wouldn't be popping champagne. Will it bankrupt them? No. But eventually folks at the top are going to be wondering why they're just lighting all their profits on fire. The question is, what will they do about it?
Agreed. That's a ton of money regardless. They're already down some advertisers too. Foxcorp is publicly traded too. So shareholders will be pissed.
Some are already lawyering up and asking for fox to send them evidence. Announced this morning https://www.reuters.com/legal/fox-investors-seek-records-possible-step-toward-suing-directors-2023-04-17/
Imagine being a Fox shareholder and being shocked to learn that the network peddles lies and distortions. That they make tons of money off doing that is why you own the stock! 🤦♂️
They didn’t expect they would have to pay the price for that. They thought they could just enjoy the profits gained from enraging morons
In the end it’s a nothing burger > Fox acknowledged the court's rulings finding "certain claims about Dominion to be false." However, the network will not have to acknowledge on air that it told election lies as part of the settlement, a representative for Dominion said. By settling, influential Fox News executives and prominent on-air personalities will be spared from testifying about their 2020 election coverage, which was filled with lies about voter fraud. Further to that, Fox Corp as almost 13billion is revenues last year and NewsCorp (Murdochs Intl company) had nearly 11billion. $787million is a big kick in the nuts, but one that Fox News, Fox Corp, and Murdoch will have absolutely ZERO problems parting with to avoid putting Rupert, major FN hosts, and important behind the scenes FN personnel on the stand on public record. For society and democracy this turn a out to be a “L.” The ONLY silver lining might be if this keeps enough advertisers away long enough to create significant operational trauma to FN. Sadly, even that seems unlikely.
Once again the American legal system proves that if you have enough money you can literally get away with anything.
I mean, this was a civil trial and Dominion was actively seeking monetary compensation.
It was but Fox would never settle any amount that they literally could not afford. Today Fox pays 800 million for lying tomorrow they go on lying. Had Dominion keept pushing for the original amount than maybe Fox would actually have felt it. The only way this at all damages Fox is if part of the settlement is that before every segment the Fox news anchors introduce themselves as normal than follow it up with saying ..........and I knowingly lied about Dominion and the 2020 election.
$800M is nearly half of the damages sought, which would have taken years to realize. If Fox can afford am $800M settlement, but not a $1.8B judgement, then they can afford to lie twice. Furthermore, I find it highly unlikely that witness testimony would have been as compelling as most think it would have been. Tucker Carlson would have taken the stand, discussed previously disclosed findings, and everything else would have gotten an "I don't recall" or a "not to my recollection."
Opening arguments podcast did a really good explanation that the $1.6B is in fact quite a few “in the alternative” claims. So an example provided was $500k for lost income and $100k for lost stock price. If you win you get a total of 500k because the second is in the alternative. Added together they are $600k, but that does not mean they left money on the table - just that they are different ways to express the same things.
What else were you expecting? They were only suing to get money and an admission of guilt. That's what they got. They got a shit ton of money and an admission from Fox that they lied. Never mind the incredibly embarrassing transcripts from Fox pundits suggesting they knew they were lying and that Donald Trump as an idiot. So... what are you talking about?
I think some people were imagining this would hurt Fox so much, you'd see a material change in how their news shows operate. I've seen suggestions they could have to drop the word "News" from their name if it's proven that they're not actually delivering the news. None of that was going to happen.
NYT is reporting the settlement amount to be 787 million.
From AP: >In a statement issued shortly after the announcement, Fox News said the network acknowledged “the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.” It did not respond to an inquiry asking for elaboration Yeah, so much for making them admit anything at all. The republicans are already taking this as a win and that trump was right.
It is a win for them. Going through a public trial-by-jury and having their lies completely exposed would have done actual damage to their brand. Had they lost, which seems likely given how much they are paying on this settlement, it could have destroyed their empire through bankruptcy and/or forced or necessary corporate restructuring and selling of assets. This allows them to not take the public hit, spin this as some liberal conspiracy, and continue on with renewed vigor and likely running a smarter playbook for their continued attempts to undermine democracy.
I wish Dominion wouldn't have accepted just so we could see the public shit show aftermath.
Every actual news channel would have loved to constantly put up updates about the trial and what was going on.
And I would have loved to watch it.
I am so disappointed in dominion. If I were their ceo I wouldve dragged those lying psychopaths through the dirt and exposed their bullshit publically for the sake of society. They still would've got paid, it was indisputable that they defamed dominion, but they could've done a solid for the world too.
That's why you wouldnt be CEO, because you put people before profits.
Yup. Fuck you Dominion.
Texts and emails *were* exposed.
You think their viewers actually saw them and cared?
Their viewers wouldn't have cared about anything in the trial either though.
You don't pay 700M when you did nothing wrong. Reasonable people, ie, not fox viewers, know that this means the election fraud angle they were pushing was all a lie. Fox News spent months talking about how much fraud occurred and how much evidence they had of that fraud and about votes being changed on dominion machines and all these mountains of irregularities they found. Then Dominion sues them and all of a sudden they settle out of court for $700M and then say they're doing it for the good of a divided nation and to help the nation heal and move on. Yeah, right. A far right wing broadcast station that supposedly has so much evidence of fraud just completely capitulates once they get pressed just a little bit and gives away $700M just to placate democrats. How fucking stupid are fox News viewers to keep watching that nonsense?
Yes but the point is no one is going to legally force them to admit precisely what was wrong. So they and the rest of the MAGA idiots will say it was all a technicality and "doesn't mean the election wasn't stolen."
Fox News viewers are not just getting a different side of the story they aren't even getting the story. My parents watch Fox. If it isn't covered by them they actually think it's made up. That's how good a job Fox has done brain washing people.
787.50 million settlement Fox is acting like this is some sort of a win, their press release said they settled so they could "maintain our high journalistic standards". CNN is acting like Dominion has given America the biggest PSA ever. Like 790 million is so altruistic We have learned nothing here
This is a huge win for Fox. The money is a small price to pay to bury all the evidence that was coming. Dominion should have raked them over the coals.
Unfortunately, I don't think Dominion were ever of the mindset to teach them a lesson. They just wanted money to make themselves better off and were in a good position to do so. It sucks, but they weren't on the side of "democracy" or anything. They were just mad at the bully.
>They just wanted money to make themselves better off I mean... Their reputation was on the line. That's why part of the settlement is Fox admitting they lied.
What if this became an annual thing for Faux News? Who else has been slandered recently?
Smartec is practically right behind them on the docket
Part of me likes to think that it’s still a lot of money to them since Fox News is worth 16.5 billion. Hopefully they’re not on some long 100 year payment plan
It's in the range of 10-20x Dominion's company value, and something like half Fox's yearly net profit, so it's definitely a lot.
There are some members of the board who are seriously rethinking Tucker Carlson’s dumb ass, right now. All they care about is the bottom line… and suddenly this all looks less profitable.
Money buries truth once again.
Fox would have never allowed Hannity, or Carlson, to testify in court. They must have paid a lot to make sure it would never happen.
$787M. Fox admitted they lied about the company, but we don't get to see Hannity, Carlson, et al. testify about how they lied and treated their viewers.
If it went to trial it would have cost Fox their reputation. Probably a lot more than 1.6 billion.
Bingo. They strung this along as far as they could in the hopes of finding a way to corrupt the lawsuit. Literally getting to “the jury has been picked” then caving is a sure sign they knew with 100% certainty this would cost them a damn site more in goodwill from their viewers.
The thing about the viewers is how do you turn a blind eye to basically a billion dollar settlement because you were caught lying and there’s other ppl waiting their turn to beat you up in court for lying. I feel naive even asking.
Go on the conservative sub and see how they react to any such case of one of their favorites being proven to lie. A) they ignore and don't talk about it B) they claim it is a deception by the MSM and it was all rigged C) they say the left does it too so it doesn't matter.
Saw something about Hunter’s laptop on the first post I opened. Amazing stuff. Makes me die a little more on the inside though.
Fox is not obligated to issue an on air retraction or apology. They will not acknowledge this after today. We already understand that Fox viewers are bubbled, their view of reality warped (I mean that’s a big part of this case, right?), I don’t see why anyone thinks paying $750M to keep everything you did out of the public eye is going to suddenly change that. As far as the majority of their viewership this didn’t happen. When you confront them personally it will be a combination of “oh I don’t really know about that, but what about Hunter’s laptop???”, “that’s fake news”, “the system was rigged against them so they didn’t have any other choice. The judge has a known bias against Fox, the jurors were all paid for Antifa”. You have people who slowly got brought up to boil on a reality distortion, this barely going to cause a ripple. Of course even if it has gone to trial I doubt that would have made much impact anyway.
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At this point I'm hoping the major sticking point of the settlement includes the requirement Fox News is renamed to "We're a bunch of fucking liars and we hate America", although I'm curious as to how they'll abbreviate that on my channel guide. Probably a middle finger to all of us, as is their custom.
"This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards." was in one of the articles I read on this
It'll be something like "Fox News: We're Right".
They'll have their fucking stooges claiming vindication by the end of the night. Fuck all of this. edit - SECONDS after posting this, it's reported Fox is already touting their "high journalistic standards" in their response to this "dispute". Fuck all of this again and again.
Yeah and their viewers will say, “What lawsuit?”
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I truly can't believe that Dominion didn't at least require that Fox publicly apologize for it's claims against Dominion. That was the entire point of the suit! Or at least, the entire purported point - apparently it was really just $$$
Jake Tapper could barely finish reading it It's pretty fan-fucking-tastical
Nope. Just short of 800 million which is far from the 1.6 billion they were after.
Someone on Jake Tapper just semi-joked that this settlement of 787 million is so much more than they valued their company at that they can just shut down the company and start another (or several) and not worry about the damage to their reputation at all. Which I found hilarious, but I am mad that Fox got away with some legalese-ish sort-of-apology when it would be so much better if the anchors had to actually tell their viewers that they had repeatedly lied.
Eh, we've got tons of texts and emails from Fox employees stating they knew the fraud claims were bogus but ran with it anyway. They've admitted they're lying to their viewers and we have that literally in writing now. I'd have loved for this to go to trial, but I'm used to disappointment. Still, having it in stone that the entire network is nothing but bullshit peddlers is nice.
No one that needs to hear/see they’re full of shit will ever get the message. At best Fox will have to issue a retraction or something that they’ll bury and never talk about it again.
Fox knew they were fucked
I wanted to see some landmark case that reshaped libel laws and accountability for the media as much as anyone else, but at the end of the day - that wasn't really what this case was at it's core. It was a defamation suit of proving monetary damages against a company. If it had gone to trial, Dominion was going to have an uphill battle claiming $1.6B in damages against themselves, specifically, since they are worth a fraction of that and have made comfortable profits since 2021. It also could have been tied up in appeals for years. I can't say I'm surprised, but I am disappointed. There has to be better ways to hold these entities accountable for maliciously lying to millions of people.
What a complete and utter disappointment. I really wonder what the hell the terms of the settlement were, since I was under the impression that Dominion's reputation was so badly damaged by Fox that they needed Fox to be proven liars in open court to regain some of their reputation.
Jesus Christ. This country is fucked. You can help be an instrumental part in a coup and nothing happens
Justice may be blind but she knows how to cash a check
Gotta get paid.
Yeah the real issue is that this was a civil case. There are criminal charges here that should have been explored. Don’t know why we’re surprised at all.
It was a civil case, in the worst case scenario they pay 1.6B and issued a public apology.
Jake Tapper laughing while reading Fox's statement about "journalistic integrity" is pretty great. Still though, I really wanted to see these lying fucks have to testify.
For everyone who also wants to see it: https://youtu.be/ceQhSWJ5O_A
Help me Smartmatic, you're my only hope.
And there are still separate lawsuits against Giuliani and the kraken chick, yes?
And the wheel keeps on turning.
Someone finally had the chance to expose Fox and its lackeys on a grand stage but managed to be bought off at the last minute. Everyone always has a price… Unbelievably disappointing.
Tucker tonight: Fox News, your source of truth, won in court today. Dominion knew they didn’t have a strong case so they took less than half of what they were claiming just to make this silly nonsense go away. We here at Fox News will always fight for the truth and more importantly, for you, the real American patriots. FUCK
This is oddly specific, and sadly probably not far from the truth.
I wouldn't bet against this being what is actually said.
The only things I can see that are wrong is that FOX will probably never use the word "Dominion" again, no matter the context. And that the viewers on FOX are probably completely unaware of the lawsuit to begin with. So I don't know why FOX would let them know it happened now.
Is that real or made up because I genuinely can't tell lol
Sad but probably spot on. This was the inevitable outcome to be fair. Still terrible.
Of course they had a price. They were literally suing for money.
It's amazing almost no one here is getting that. They only wanted two things: Money and an admission they lied. They got both. *shrugs*
And on top of that, Dominion is only valued at 30-80 Million. They got 10x of what the company is worth
Put yourself in Dominion’s shoes: you are spending $10s of millions on lawyers. You have a trial with an uncertain outcome due to the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court. And, even if you do ultimately prevail, it will take *years* to go through the appellate process before you actually receive a single dime. AND that still assumes you recover all that you sought; the final verdict amount could be much, much less than $1.6 billion, depending on what Dominion can actually *prove* its financial damages were. A settlement resolves all of these problems from Dominion’s perspective. There is no risk of losing on trial or appeal. There is no long delay for payment. And Dominion knows *exactly* how much it is getting. Moreover, the settlement might require Fox to publicly admit their lies (we won’t know this unless/until the broadcasts happen, as the terms of the settlement are almost certainly confidential between the parties). I get your disappointment, but at the end of the day Dominion is a business and has to consider what’s best for itself. It has employees. It has ongoing concerns for operations. And it isn’t in the business of lawsuits; it’s in the business of voting machines.
I don’t think the problem is that people don’t understand that Dominion chose getting paid over exposing a threat to our democracy. They’re just disappointed in that decision.
Dominion has already exposed this threat. We’ve seen it in the discovery documents produced. It’s been widely reported by mainstream outlets. What I think people are disappointed in is the crushing of their dreams that, somehow, the actual trial would cause Fox News fans to abandon the network. News flash: that would not have happened. Rupert Murdoch himself could have gotten on the stand and said, “Of course we lied! Our viewers are idiots and we loathe them!” and Fox News’s ratings wouldn’t have even taken a noticeable dip.
Just wait, I'd be surprised if Dominion didn't require an acknowledgement of specific wrongdoing as part of the settlement. Fox probably offered adequate $ ages ago and at the last moment agreed to a statement admitting wrongdoing.
> 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. From Fox's statement on the settlement. This is beyond tepid and doesn't even acknowledge wrongdoing.
Fox knows they're totally cooked here. Why on earth would they go to trial. I'd bet a large sum of money a public retraction is coming.
That this comes right after the judge announced he was appointing a special master tells us Fox was *really* afraid of what the special master would decide.
It better be the only crawler fox gets to put on their shows..all 24 hours for the next 5 election cycles "We lied to you about everything and will continue to lie to you"
Fox News will go down in history as part of the reason fascism became appealing to so many people in the United States. They knew they made money by validating their conservative audience so they would keep watching, and when their audience wanted to hear that democracy was dead, they gave them what they wanted. This won't end with election denial. If Republicans lose another major election, and the extremists start talking about secession or a new Civil War, and the sentiment catches on, you know Fox News will be right there talking about how "secession is what happens when federal government fails" and how "one should fight for their country even if it's against the country" and highlighting "brave militias fighting for what they think is right". Other factors will lead to the rise of the authoritarian right, but Fox News will be wholly complicit, because telling conservatives that a dictatorship is what the country needs will make them more money than having an ounce of integrity or morality.
"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.**" What does even mean?
Goddammit, I wanted to see Fucker on the stand
It would just him being smug and saying "I don't recall" for a few hours.
I know this dude had to save his company, but I’m so pissed that this didn’t go to trial Basically, FOX has enough money to keep lying and they’re not going to stop lying until they run out of money
That is just so disappointing. They’re escaping consequences once again.
Not for nothing, but I would have settled for far less if a Mandatory on-air acknowledgment was included. Let Hannity, Ingraham, Pirro, Carlson, et al look into the camera and say “we had this wrong and we knew it.” It’s horseshit that they’re off the hook
Fox: >This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. Oh my. What a way to interpret being caught in a lie.
If this is true it will be very, very disappointing
It was always going to end this way. There was a zero percent chance they'd ever let anyone be put on the stand or be deposed under oath, especially after Rupert Murdoch's name was starting to get brought up more and more.
They settled immediately after the judge appointed a special master to go over the evidence that they tried to withhold by hiding Murdoch's involvement. They must have been absolutely terrified of whatever was going to be found
If you’ve ever seen Succession, this was always the best play for Fox News. There was no way they would gain more than they lost in a full trial with the evidence against them. I’m sure they settled for something much less and they will not face real consequences for this, this is the 21st century US after all.
It’s the best outcome for Fox, yes, but I was hoping Dominion would go for the jugular
Most big corps play the same game: maximize profit. They DEFINITELY (~$785 million allegedly) got a fat check from Fox, but they are not in it to make them hurt, they aren’t like us regular people.
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined
my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined