Posted on 04/18/2023 1:16:49 PM PDT by JSM_Liberty
Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems said Tuesday that they have reached a settlement agreement just moments before opening arguments were set to begin.
The deal ends a monthslong legal battle over whether the media company had defamed the voting machine maker when they broadcast election conspiracy theories in 2020.
The terms of the settlement were not immediately available.
Dominion sued Fox News in 2021, demanding $1.6 billion in damages. They said the network defamed it when it broadcast baseless claims that it was tied to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, that it paid kickbacks to politicians and that its machines “rigged” the 2020 presidential election by flipping millions of votes for Trump to Biden.
The settlement came on the day trial was scheduled to begin; late Sunday, the court delayed the conclusion of jury selection and opening arguments to Tuesday morning, leading to speculation that settlement talks could be taking place behind closed doors. The announcement follows a bruising week for Fox News. During pretrial conference hearings, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis sanctioned them for withholding evidence, admonished them for not being straightforward with him, and said he was considering appointing a special master to investigate possible legal misconduct by the attorneys. He said he would allow Dominion to conduct an additional deposition with Rupert Murdoch at Fox’s expense.
Davis also ruled that Fox lawyers could not use newsworthiness as a legal defense, limiting their possible trial strategies.
Few defamation suits make it this far, but legal experts say the case — and the extraordinary claims and evidence fueling it — was unique.
Legal filings made thousands of pages of emails, text messages, and other communications public, revealing that Fox News journalists, hosts, and executives knew the bogus claims about the election were false, even as the network continued to put them on air.
But the disingenuous Fox people tried to have it both ways. Telling their friends in private e-mails etc. that Trump was nuts, but giving voice to “stolen election” on air. They deserved to get their butts burned.
Today Fox is going to pay Dominion almost $800 million. Please do not take what I say as being critical to you (personally.) Until the last few years, defamation lawsuits were rarely brought forward because they are difficult to win. This has changed somewhat because some suits were brought and were won. A few.
To all on FR, there was never any Kraken. It was all fake. It was all a lie. It is fake in Arizona as well. It is as fake as Sidney Blumenthal (or Hillary) coming out and saying, “nothing happened.” Do with it what you will but you have been lied to by “the steal.” I am not talking about changing voting laws during Covid. I am talking about media presentations by republicans, and their sycophants and lawyers, to the media and to republican constituents. It was fake, Fox suspected it was fake but still presented it. Heads should roll in the republican party, Trump’s group and at Fox.
It was the fraudulent mail in ballots that did us in. No way FJB got 80 million legitimate votes.
Fox News board member Paul Ryan is happy with any side-handed way that keeps Trump out of office. And money coming in from Tucker fans (mainly Trump supporters) to Fox News helps pay for the next voter fraud. Paul Ryan is happier today than Stacey Abrams at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
NYC jurors are like DC jurors.
I was flipping channels about the NYC garage collapse (not national on TV yet here) and MSNBC is fixated on this settlement.
Probably for the same reason that they called states for Biden when they did, and why a liberal is in charge of their election night coverage.
Do not the same investment companies own all the major news media?
“MSNBC is fixated on this settlement.”
hardly a shock, they will give it wall to wall coverage, Fox will ignore it as best they can.
and now discredited because they settled and paid out. basically admitting it was not true.
The lawsuit was about three specific unproven claims
Trump never bought into those specific claims. All the other claims, the ones Trump specifically made about the stolen election had nothing to do with this lawsuit.
Looks like you don't understand that.
Those who cast the votes decide nothing.
Those who count the votes decide everything.
Truth is not a defense if the judge refuses to let it into his court. They had no choice.
BINGO!!
All Fox needed to do was ascribe to anonymous sources. Like the rats do on a daily basis.
Go back to the mechanical lever voting booths. No software to hack.
Precisely - Fox has multiple insurance carriers that hire the defense lawyers and they did a poor job ... BUT the carriers will have to step up and pay the settlement up to the coverage limits. Likely that there was $800 million - $1 billion in the combined coverages - ergo, $787 million ...
Sometimes you got to know when to fold ‘em.
Until recently, it’s always been a given that in a credible democracy, citizens are permitted to question authority, including the outcomes of elections.
Second, the media isn’t the “decider of facts.” Individual citizens are.
These days, neither the media (non-partisan in name only) nor Democrat politicians and voters question how Democrats are always right and Republicans are always wrong on everything.
People, we’ve been set up again.
I haven’t followed the details on the lawsuit. I’m still stuck on One Person, One Vote and using paper ballots which can be verified and recounted. We should not be voting via electronic machines, which can be manipulated, cannot be verified, and cannot be recounted. So maybe Congress can now take steps to ban electronic voting in federal elections.
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