The Inadequate Dominion Settlement

Yesterday's massive out-of-court financial damage settlement against Fox "News" for knowingly lying about Dominion Voting System machines rigging the vote for President Biden was partially satisfying, but after what the propaganda network did to American democracy it's inadequate. CNN's senior media reporter Oliver Darcy has this take:

"The case exposed Fox News as a dishonest organization like never before. It’s hard for any fair-minded observer to consider the channel as anything other than a propaganda profit machine void of the most basic ethics. The case shredded to pieces the little that remained of the talk channel’s credibility.

Some observers hoped this case would proceed to trial, bringing with it accountability and exposing the network even more. It unquestionably would have been an excruciating several weeks for Fox News. The channel’s highest-ranking executives and biggest stars, such as Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, would have been forced to confront how lies they never believed were promoted on the network’s air to its millions of loyal viewers.

Outside the embarrassment Fox News would have suffered, the settlement also spared the company and its executives of being bound by the laws of reality during trial. Normally, Fox News sails through controversy by distorting the criticism it faces and attacking “the media.” That time-tested playbook would not have worked in court, where the judge would have forced the network’s lawyers to present the jury a fact-based argument. In other words, the network would have been forced to enter the true No Spin Zone. And that’s always been a No Go Zone for the channel when confronting crises." (our emphasis)

So while it's satisfying that Fox paid a large sum, it's only 28% of their 2022 cable news profits. Given the additional humiliation they would have faced had this suit gone to trail, they wisely cut their losses, much to our disappointment. Also under the settlement, they apparently weren't required to broadcast an admission of their lies to their gullible MAGA audience, a major missed opportunity. 

Next up, the Smartmatic voting systems lawsuit is churning away, and at $2.7 billion in requested damages, it should take another shovel full out of Rupert Murdoch's bullshit mountain. But next time, make them all sit in front of a jury for a few weeks.