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So Fox has settled with Dominion
for $787 million, which is not spare change even for Fox, but may not be enough to significantly change their behavior. Fox made a public statement that "we acknowledge the court's finding that certain of the statements about Dominion were false."
Note: they don't acknowledge that the statements were false, only that the court says they were. And they don't acknowledge that Fox knew at the time that the statements were false. They don't even say "our statements about Dominion" or "statements about Dominion aired on our news programs"; from the public statement you would think Fox had no role at all.
Ideally, I would have liked to see the settlement include an official statement, included in at least several days' worth of prime-time Fox news shows, to the effect that "We aired a lot of allegations that the election was stolen from Donald Trump. It wasn't, there was never any evidence that it was, and we knew it, but we told you what we thought you wanted to hear rather than the truth." That's not going to happen... except that SmartMatic, another maker of voting technology, is bringing a similar lawsuit, and will presumably have similar demands.
The settlement has been a top headline on every news network except Fox, which has pretty much buried it.
Update, Wednesday morning April 19: My phone wakes me with a few minutes of news headlines from each of five different major news organizations: Reuters, CNN, Fox, Bloomberg, and DW (Deutsche Welle). On Reuters, CNN, and Bloomberg, the Fox News settlement was the first headline. On Fox and DW it wasn't mentioned at all; Fox's headline stories were (as best I recall) a mass shooting in Maine, a shooting in Missouri, the upcoming SCOTUS decision on mifepristone, and the debt-ceiling showdown in Congress, of which only the first was "news" (the other three were slight updates to ongoing stories until something new happens). Just to make sure, I opened a browser window to foxnews.com, whose top ten news stories didn't mention the settlement. The "Opinion" section didn't either. Neither did the next 32 news stories. There was, however, one story about Fox News: "Fox News Digital finishes first quarter as No. 1 news brand across key metrics, topping CNN, New York Times".
Update, Monday April 24th: Near the top of the New York Times headlines is the news that Tucker Carlson is leaving Fox News. In initial reports it was just "leaving"; later in the day it became "was fired from Fox News". Reuters and CNN also gave this story high billing. Fox doesn't seem to have mentioned at all the abrupt departure of its most-popular news host.
Note: they don't acknowledge that the statements were false, only that the court says they were. And they don't acknowledge that Fox knew at the time that the statements were false. They don't even say "our statements about Dominion" or "statements about Dominion aired on our news programs"; from the public statement you would think Fox had no role at all.
Ideally, I would have liked to see the settlement include an official statement, included in at least several days' worth of prime-time Fox news shows, to the effect that "We aired a lot of allegations that the election was stolen from Donald Trump. It wasn't, there was never any evidence that it was, and we knew it, but we told you what we thought you wanted to hear rather than the truth." That's not going to happen... except that SmartMatic, another maker of voting technology, is bringing a similar lawsuit, and will presumably have similar demands.
The settlement has been a top headline on every news network except Fox, which has pretty much buried it.
Update, Wednesday morning April 19: My phone wakes me with a few minutes of news headlines from each of five different major news organizations: Reuters, CNN, Fox, Bloomberg, and DW (Deutsche Welle). On Reuters, CNN, and Bloomberg, the Fox News settlement was the first headline. On Fox and DW it wasn't mentioned at all; Fox's headline stories were (as best I recall) a mass shooting in Maine, a shooting in Missouri, the upcoming SCOTUS decision on mifepristone, and the debt-ceiling showdown in Congress, of which only the first was "news" (the other three were slight updates to ongoing stories until something new happens). Just to make sure, I opened a browser window to foxnews.com, whose top ten news stories didn't mention the settlement. The "Opinion" section didn't either. Neither did the next 32 news stories. There was, however, one story about Fox News: "Fox News Digital finishes first quarter as No. 1 news brand across key metrics, topping CNN, New York Times".
Update, Monday April 24th: Near the top of the New York Times headlines is the news that Tucker Carlson is leaving Fox News. In initial reports it was just "leaving"; later in the day it became "was fired from Fox News". Reuters and CNN also gave this story high billing. Fox doesn't seem to have mentioned at all the abrupt departure of its most-popular news host.
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