Photo by Brett Sayles
Well folks. Fox News is not going to be sued out of business after all.
The judge in the Fox News defamation case said on Tuesday that the case was resolved, abruptly ending a long-running dispute over misinformation in the 2020 election just as a highly anticipated trial was about to begin.
It was a last-minute end to a case that began two years ago and after the disclosure of hundreds of thousands of pages of documents that peeled back the curtain on a media company that has long resisted outside scrutiny. The settlement included a $787.5 million payment from Fox, according to Justin Nelson, a lawyer for Dominion.
That’s a big payment. But not enough to plunge Rupert Murdoch into bankruptcy, most likely. And we’re now deprived of seeing Rupert, Tucker, Hannity and the rest take the stand and answer questions about their lies and mistruths. We’re not going to get to have fun.
WaPo’s Erik Wemple is philosphical:
One thing: Lots of folks who care about honest media in America will curse Dominion for settling. But consider: This litigation, even tho it didn't got all the way to a jury verdict, exposed Fox News to a strong dose of transparency and accountability.
My question: To what end?
Again, a lot of money will change hands. But Fox doesn’t sound very chastened.
If you can walk out of a courtroom having just paid upwards of $700 million because you aired lies and mistruths at a defamatory level and still talk about the “highest journalistic standards” and “amicable” settlements, without even beginning to hint at regret or wrongdoing … well, I’m not sure how much actual accountability has taken place.
But this is the way it was always going to end.
Those of us not in the Trumpist-Fox News orbit keep waiting for the big moment when a proper comeuppance will be had. When a lightning bolt strikes to reveal the wrongdoers and to wipe them from the political stage, so we can start anew in a just utopia of some sort.
It’s not going to happen. There is no such thing.
Trump won an election despite the Access Hollywood tape. He’s the GOP frontrunner despite Jan. 6. He escaped an impeachment. And another. Who knows how this New York prosecution will work out? I’m not optimistic.
There is no final victory.
There is only more work and more grind to do to make sure that the liars and insurrectionists also don’t win a final victory. Expecting more than that is just going to be disappointing every time.
I keep going back to Citizens United and how it has infected so much of our discourse and wrong-headed belief that business/brands have moral obligations because, in the eyes of the courts, businesses are people with free speech. The one thing that actually is bipartisan most people now believe brands should match their politics (whether right or left). This is ridiculous.
I saw a person of social media prominence earlier today take some kind of "how dare Dominion" tweet storm not realizing that 1) Dominion is not a person 2) they are a private business 3) could care less about social justice activism, on either side. They care about bottom lines, shareholders, profit, at all costs. If people want to be disappointed, look to Supreme Court decisions and then organize, which is so much work and incredibly unsexy.
I keep waiting to read that Fox is making this huge payment AND a real statement acknowledging their actions. I’m hoping for too much, aren’t I?