It was just one week ago that lawyers for Dominion voting systems submitted texts from Fox’s big three, Hannity, Carlson, and Ingraham, demonstrating that they were mocking Team Trump’s excuses, including the problems with Dominion, then going on air and repeating them as a grave concern.
In the last two nights, CNN has lined up a string of guests to discuss whether Fox is in real trouble, not “just” with respect to losing the lawsuit, but the fallout, the loss of money, a plummeting stock price, loss of respect among viewers, in short – whether the network itself survives. That question has been dumped in Murdoch’s lap now that the entire posture of the case has been turned squarely in Dominion’s favor.
From Mediaite, we have a selection of quotes:
-“It’s a major blow,” attorney Floyd Abrams of Pentagon Papers fame told me, adding that the “recent revelations certainly put Fox in a more precarious situation” in defending against the lawsuit on First Amendment grounds.
-Rebecca Tushnet, the Frank Stanton Professor of First Amendment Law at Harvard Law School, described Dominion’s evidence as a “very strong” filing that “clearly lays out the difference between what Fox was saying publicly and what top people at Fox were privately admitting.”
-The filing, (David Korzenik, an attorney who teaches First Amendment law and represents a number of media organizations) said, “certainly puts Fox in the actual malice crosshairs and puts them in real jeopardy.”
If Fox loses and a figure at or near $1.6 billion is lost, it’s a major blow that, on its own, one that Fox can survive. But then one has to factor in suits against the employees personally (which are part of the big lawsuit), the loss of stature, the major hit in the stock price that any such judgment would have, and then questions about ratings going forward, that is what they mean by “real jeopardy,” as related by the Mediaite suit above.
It would be the ultimate lesson in “Everything Trump Touches Dies” if Trump were to be the one that finished off Fox News. Perhaps there is even time such that Fox is gun-shy going into 2024 with respect to lying on behalf of the GOP. We are assured by Ron Filipkowski, the expert Florida political analyst and Twitter influencer, that he watches all Fox platforms, and Trump is correct when he says that Fox is all-in on DeSantis.
One can bet that the DeSantis campaign, especially in the primary, will have to be as dirty and based on almost as many lies as Trump’s. But one senses that Fox won’t be able to give DeSantis a free license to do so. It is not hyperbole to say that the GOP wouldn’t be where they are today without Fox’s willingness to lie on behalf of their favored candidates. So what happens if they can’t?
The ramifications from this could ripple and ripple and ripple.
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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, SUBSTACK: MUCH LEFT ADO
Fire all of the Faux liars and take Faux off the air!!! It’s not a NEWS station, it’s a conspiracy station!!!
I don’t know. As long as 30% of Americans remain cult members they will remain. Read Fahrenheit 451 if you want to see what happens to a culture that CHOOSES not to read, think, or feel. Old Ray could see trouble coming even in 1953.
Wish I could share this.
That Fox lied won’t matter to their viewers. The kind of bullshit Fox was slinging? Even though they knew from the start it was bullshit? THAT is what their viewers want. They don’t care if it’s true or not – ONLY that it reinforces what they already want to believe. At most they considered and will continue to consider Fox’s lies nothing more than “a little embellishment.” It’s when Fox goes trying to soft-pedal the bullshit or slips in a bit of actual truth that it costs them viewers.
The 1.6 millions in damages will sting Fox/Murdoch a bit but it’s not much more than tip money as a cost of doing business. However, this is a civil lawsuit and as I understand it even if the judge grants Summary Judgement to Dominion and awards them the full enchilada, there will still be a trial to determine PUNITIVE damages. The jury could award billions, many billions more than the “Actual Damages” of 1.6 billion. Toss another five, or even (dare we hope?) ten billion in Punitive Damages on top of the Actual Damages and that my friend will do a number of Fox’s entire U.S. business model. They will have to change and become a legitimate news network and lose a LOT of viewers in the process or just stop doing news except the local stuff (local news, weather etc.) and make sure affiliates play things pretty straight. Either way, even though Fox will appeal (which could take years) it’s possible some major changes are coming.
“That Fox lied won’t matter to their viewers.”
That much is true for sure. But this isn’t about ratings, it’s about legal consequences.
If by legal consequences you mean financial penalties then I agree. And it literally does come down to the bottom line. Fox had made insane profits over the decades via their business model of catering to hard-core conservatives (in the early going) with just a semi-dash of moderation. The days of Alan Colmes or Chris Wallace on the actual news part but even he leaned conservative. But the crazy got the most attention and as it made them more and more profits they got more and more out there, especially when they won that court case with the argument that what most of their viewers took as news, like news at other places with multiple sources and actual vetting and with real effort at context was actually ENTERTAINMENT. That blew the doors open to where things wound up. They kept getting away with more and more and their enjoyment of ever growing riches was matched by contempt for their viewers. The viewers were dumbass sheep to be sheared, and it’s not a surprise that Fox and Trump turned out to be a marriage made in the sleaziest spot in hell. However, they kept getting away with it and grew to believe not only would they never face someone willing to take them on, but worse (for them) someone who refused to be bought off with a settlement.
Dominion will never sell another product. Fox ruined them with lies and KNEW it was doing so and didn’t care. Not about the truth, not about the people who worked at Dominion who’s lives were disrupted if not ruined and certainly not about the country. I see what Dominion has been doing as the legendary Carol Burnett taking on the Enquirer. She actually beat them in court and made them pay. Enough to hurt. That long ago and forgotten case is something folks at Fox old enough to remember those days are probably thinking about. And, as I said while the Actual Demages of 1.6 billion will sting Fox, what’s making them shit bricks is how high the Punitive Damages might go. They will be BEGGING Dominion to settle and from where I sit Dominion has no intention of doing so. I really do think they are willing to wait out the years appeals will take but Fox? I already outlined the choices they will have and neither is attractive for them. It’s a question of which shit sandwich they are going to have to eat but they are going to be hit financially and enough to really hurt. Literal bottom line consequences.
If Fox goes under, the bidding wars between OAN and NewsMax for Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham will begin. And possibly even for gofers like Jesse Watters. This really isn’t aquestion of Fox, It’s a question of supply and demand. The demand will still be there.
If we had been able to demolish Fox before OAN and NewsMax became established, we might havebeen able to put a hiatus to the stream of sweage. But only a hiatus. The demand would still have been there, and the vacuum would have been filled.
It would be karmic justice if because of tRump, faux falls. I hope they don’t survive this. Those evildoers don’t deserve to after the damage they’ve inflicted on our country and its citizens. F* faux.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed in hopes of the worst possible outcome for Faux in all this. If these people were capable of shame, now would be a good time to display some. But they’re not! There’s are thought processes going on among them that are as alien to me as living on the bottom of the Marianas Trench would be. Or Uranus!