12 Comments

How naive of you, Jared. If you were familiar with how civil litigation works, you'd know that this case was never going to trial. Most civil suits never do. It was about nothing more than a company endeavoring to recoup a business loss from a libelous entity. They got more money from this settlement than what their business is even worth.

It is not up to either Dominion or Smartmatic to crusade on behalf of those who wish Fox would die. It's up to its shareholders, its advertisers and its idiot viewers. This is how capitalism functions.

This settlement actually makes it a lot harder for Fox to squirm out from under Smartmatic's pending suit. And unlike the outcome of a jury trial, Fox cannot appeal it. Amazingly, the damages were announced publicly, and it's hardly chump change. Besides, the consensus is that Fox may not have admitted culpability, but nobody settles a suit with such a huge payout without looking guilty.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with Smartmatic.

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Re: Marycat2021 -- It appears you have misread the original post -- John is actually agreeing with you (pretty much), but as is his practice, he goes further and explains how, in the normal course of U.S. civil litigation, the capitalist with the most capital (and profit potential) is the ultimate winner. The system is designed that way as John repeatedly points out -- as good teachers know, repetition is an important tool ;-)

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Please forgive my calling Jared, John.

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Nope. I was actually responding hypothetically to many opinions I have read where the viewpoint is "oh, how terrible that they didn't make Fox apologize." I should have been more coherent.

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The decline is already apparent for anyone who cares to look. That's the biggest issue, is getting enough people to see the forest for the trees.

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It’d be nice if we could craft a new law concerning defrauding the public.

This suit was settled. But it was a suit about corporate profits.

We The People have taken enormous damages from the Mudoch family’s lies. But we have no mechanism to be compensated for it.

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Yes, the lesson Fox will learn from this is "Don't lie about corporations in a way that might adversely affect their business." Period. Free to lie about anyone or anything else.

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Yes we do. A class action suit by citizens who were misled into voting Republican, specifically for Trump.

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Chris Hayes had a really smart commentary about what Rush Limbaugh used to call "The four corners of deceit", by which Limbaugh meant the government, science, academia and the media, all engaged in a conspiracy to lie to you. And who can you trust? Nobody but Rush Limbaugh, says Rush Limbaugh.

This, of course, is exactly what Fox did with its own viewers. It occurs to me that this is also what any cult leader does, "You can't trust your family or friends, the only one who understands you, the only one you can trust is me." And then the victim becomes unmoored from reality, because they've lost (or deliberately given up) any external reference points.

Although I'm reluctant to describe Fox viewers as victims, they crave the lies and get angry when denied them, and then go looking for another dealer when their old dealer won't give them the drug in the dosage they require.

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"Because this capitalist model is antithetical to a sustainable or healthy society. It is powered by fear, terror, and insecurity. These things prime consumers to spend their hard-earned wealth on things they don’t need or invest in projects that will ultimately hurt them and the people they love in the end."

I don't believe this applies only to FOX.

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Yes, it's endemic to our culture. A large part of Bowling for Columbine was devoted to this, using fear to sell people things.

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The MSM is using it to sell a political agenda that is antithetical to democracy and decency.

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