American Politics 3.0 - Back to Brunch

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Now do: Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell, Newsmax, Oan, and Marjorie Traitor Greene (if she doesn’t have immunity as an elected official).

Oh more is coming, and soon.

Smartmatic is suing Fox for $2.7 billion

A Smartmatic spokesman said in a statement after the Dominion settlement: “Dominion’s litigation exposed some of the misconduct and damage caused by Fox’s disinformation campaign. Smartmatic will expose the rest.”

[SutterBrother]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Oh more is coming, and soon.

Smartmatic is suing Fox for $2.7 billion

They will be paid off as well. This amount is a lot… but is only 6% of Fox’s revenue.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...on-war/673760/

Rupert Murdoc regularly pays out 7 figure settlements. Nothing is going to change with this stuff.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media...it-settlement/

There was the more than $100 million paid to celebrities and crime victims whose phone messages were hacked by his British tabloids. The $50 million paid in a single fiscal year to several women who alleged sexual harassment at Fox News, and the $15 million to a former host who complained that she and other women were paid far less than male colleagues. And after the parents of a slain Democratic political staffer sued Fox for promoting a false conspiracy theory about his death, the cable-news giant settled the case with a high seven-figure payment.

[PeteMoss]

Agreed on the above. The bigger risk to Fox News is the same issue occuring to regional sports networks in the US. They make a ton of money based off cable subscriptions (whether or not they watch it or not). As those decrease - they need to make up a ton of revenue which is why you can bombarded with Fox Nation ads whenever you watch a football game or whatever on Fox.

[devo22]

sad thing is that they are still allowed to call themselves "News". When your whole defense is "it was commentary and entertainment, not actual news" maybe you shouldn't be carrying the "News" moniker anymore.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by devo22

sad thing is that they are still allowed to call themselves "News". When your whole defense is "it was commentary and entertainment, not actual news" maybe you shouldn't be carrying the "News" moniker anymore.

You can thank Reagan for that. If he didn't dismantle the Fairness Doctrine (and then veto congress' attempt to codify it), none of these hard right propaganda channels would be able to call themselves news

https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archiv...rness-doctrine

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

Apparently not that rare of a thing.

https://www.timesunion.com/news/arti...y-17901499.php

Another one (story not yet confirmed by police):

Shearer said the cheerleaders typically carpooled from the Austin area to her gym. On Monday night, she said at least four cheerleaders were on their way back to the Austin area and had to stop at an H-E-B, where some of the members had parked their cars.

One of the girls accidentally tried to get into the wrong car, Shearer said. That's when, she said, a "guy got out and they saw that he had a gun. And so they tried to speed off and he shot his gun, like five times or so into the car." Woodlands Elite did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment. The Elgin Police Department also did not immediately respond to an overnight request from NBC News seeking to confirm these details.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...tice-rcna80366

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Oh more is coming, and soon.

Smartmatic is suing Fox for $2.7 billion

Fox settling so they won't have to go to court has two major downsides for Fox;

1) As long as anyone has a case that's strong enough to get Fox into a courtroom, Fox will have to keep settling those, or this payment was kind of for nothing. Even if they think they would win the case.

2) Anyone who thinks they might have that much of a case has now been shown that there's sweet settlement money to be made.

Settlements are a lot more attractive than Fox being told to pay for damages in court, because it's pretty easy to drag out the process of actually paying for damages for an eternity.

On the other hand, settlement money is actual guaranteed money in hand, fast. You don't even have to go through the legal process, which by itself can take ages.

[undercoverbrother]

Who is suing Sidney Powell?

[devo22]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Who is suing Sidney Powell?

Dominion is for sure. IIRC they are still suing Powell, Giuliani, the MyPillow clown, OAN and Newsmax. Not sure about who Smartmatic is suing, but I wouldn't be surprised if they just followed Dominions lead.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Who is suing Sidney Powell?

From the article on Smartmatic I posted

The company is suing anchors Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro, along with Fox Corporation, Sidney Powell and Rudolph Giuliani based on claims of election rigging made on air after the 2020 election.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by timun

Dominion Voting Systems don't care about exposing Fox News for the shameless liars, propagandists and charlatans they are: they just want to be made whole financially. It's in the company's best financial interest to settle and move on, rather than drag the court action out and pay a ton of legal fees.

They made many multiples of the company's actual worth. Their shareholders have to be thrilled.

[bob-loblaw]

Although there isn't an apology from Fox, I would think that the settlement would deter them and their hosts from pushing voter fraud stories going forward or they'll get sued into oblivion again.

OAN and Newsmax should be worried about becoming the next Gawker.

[GGG]

Are newsmax and OAN worth enough to sue or does it just bankrupt them?

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by bob-loblaw

Although there isn't an apology from Fox, I would think that the settlement would deter them and their hosts from pushing voter fraud stories going forward or they'll get sued into oblivion again.

OAN and Newsmax should be worried about becoming the next Gawker.

They’re already pushing lies. Maybe not stolen election but other lies.

[photon]

Mr. Pillow has to pay the $5 million bounty he offered at his "cyber-symposium" to anyone who could debunk his election fraud data. Robert Zeidman proved Lindell's data wasn't election data but of course Lindell didn't pay up so Zeidman had to sue to collect.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/20/polit...2020-election/

[KelVarnsen]

Originally Posted by GGG

Are newsmax and OAN worth enough to sue or does it just bankrupt them?

Problem?

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by devo22

sad thing is that they are still allowed to call themselves "News". When your whole defense is "it was commentary and entertainment, not actual news" maybe you shouldn't be carrying the "News" moniker anymore.

If only twitter had a check mark for that...

[GGG]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

Problem?

It means they may not be worth suing. You would have to provide them with a settlement offer that allows them to exist otherwise they fight you to the end through the courts as it’s an existential crisis. If you win you own these companies which are of limited value. The settlement with Fox is sufficient enough to defend the brand integrity and scare off future slander.

So is there a business case to spend the money on legal fees on what might be very small settlements or extended lawsuits.

While bankrupting them is in the public interest it may not be in their correlate interest.

[SutterBrother]

Fox News settlement is tax deductable. About a third.

G-Damnit.

Rolling Stone

Fox Corporation’s Chief Communications Officer Brian Nick, confirmed to Lever News on Wednesday that he could “confirm tax deductibility,” of the settlement, “but not the amount.”

According to a review by Lever, the company could deduct up to $213 million from their income taxes under provisions in the American tax code that allow companies to write off legal bills as “ordinary and necessary” business expenses. Since the dispute was settled between two companies, and not with the government, Fox can claim tax benefits on the payment

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by SutterBrother

Fox News settlement is tax deductable. About a third.

G-Damnit.

Rolling Stone

It kind of makes sense, I assume Dominion will have to pay tax on it.