A failure to hold FOX News accountable for its unceasing lies and propaganda may soon be finalized, if as reported, Dominion Voting Systems settles the case. This as reported yesterday (p. A1, WSJ, Fox News Defamation Trial Delayed Amid Network’s Push to Settle ). Noting that the plaintiff has now reduced it's damages demand and may be willing to settle for $600m. The piece went on to point out:
"Dominion argued in court documents that the $1.6 billion request was to compensate for damage to its reputation that led to lost profits and diminished business value. Lawyers for Fox have argued that Dominion’s claims for damages are unreasonable and that its business hasn’t been significantly harmed by the election-fraud allegations, saying the company has retained many of its customers. Fox also faces a $2.7 billion defamation suit from Smartmatic USA Corp., another voting-machine company, over similar claims."
But the main fallout if this happens is that FOX as well as its cronies (Newsmax, OANN etc.) will then be emboldened to lie with impunity. Their motivation and impetus will, to put it bluntly, be on 'jet fuel". Add that to the recent Russian claim that its bots have only been detected 1 percent of the time and you have a calamity in the making for the 2024 general election.
But most bothersome to me has been how some ethicists seem to be prepared to defend - under the 1st amendment- the network's "right" to spew lies and propaganda. I am referring specifically to Jane Kirtley, who teaches media law at the University of Minnesota, and was quoted in Sunday's Denver Post as asserting;
"I don't see a victory for Dominion as a victory for the news media, by any means. As an ethicist, I deplore a lot of what we've learned about FOX, and I would never hold it up as an example of good journalistic practices."
Well, I would hope not, as far as holding up FOX as an exemplar of good journalism. But I vigorously reject the twaddle that a victory for Dominion means a loss for the News media. In fact, it would translate into a return to the journalistic norms and ethics of venerable standard bearers like Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley, Frank McGee etc. What's not to like about that?
But instead of appreciating the pie-eyed nonsense she spouted, she doubles down, saying:
"But I've always believed the law has to protect even those news organizations that do things opposite to the way I think they should But there has to be room for error."
Error, maybe, but not lies! Lies are not free speech. No they are not. Especially lies that tear away at our electoral system which has now led nearly one third of the country to believe we have an illegitimate president. This can never ever be acceptable and it is not an "error". The FOX trio of lying clowns - shown in the graphic at top - even acknowledged they were giving a platform to the likes of Sidney Powell to spout her deranged offal. Thus, the law is under no more compunction to protect FOX News lies than to protect a jackass that yells 'Fire!' in a crowded theater. True, the latter may cause deaths in a stampede, but the former is causing the death of our democracy, and to any confidence in our electoral system. So this media professor Kirtley is out to lunch.
Incredibly, this media prof also complained about the methods used by Dominion to prove that FOX lied, which is the basis for winning a solid case of libel. e.g. "unearthing internal emails and text exchanges". Which, she says, "could be reproduced by other libel plaintiffs leading to devastating consequences."
So what? The point this flake misses is that is the only thing under US. libel laws that convincingly shows the network lied and knew it lied. Without the emails and internal text exchanges Dominion would have bupkis. But this lily-livered media ethics prof - who in some ways seems as misdirected in her ethical priorities as Moralist prof Sasha Mudd- who once pleaded for respect for Trump's "humanity":
Is way off the rails. As when Kirtley claims:
"It's an intense scrutiny into newsroom editorial processes and I'm not sure that members of the public will look at it very kindly."
Well, who gives a damn if "members of the public" (namely FOX News zombies) look on it kindly The fact is they and the rest of the nation need to know how they are being played, and also how FOX is - with malice of forethought - laying waste to our elections and democracy. I am sorry, but there are no shades of gray on this issue. Either we fight to preserve our nation, as my Revolutionary War ancestors did, or we roll over for the cockroaches and die.
In many respects what FOX did is little different from Mesa County clerk Tina Peters (and her two comrades) here in Colorado. She claimed "free access" like FOX claims "free speech" and entered an election equipment room 2 years ago while the equipment was undergoing an update. The trio shut off the room's surveillance cameras and took videos and photos of the process- footage which included confidential passwords. This material was then passed along to a QAnon election denier Ron Watkins. Convicted by a grand jury on multiple counts (including 7 felony charges) Peters now faces years in stir. But as Mesa County AG Dan Rubinstein put it, she and her cohort inflicted "untold damage" on our election system and process which may take years to undo if ever.
The takeaway here: Peters' "free access" was a myth like FOX's claim to free speech for its own crimes. Giving Peters and her ilk a pass would have been as devastating as giving FOX a pass now for what it did to confidence in our election system.
I do agree with Kirtley that "journalism is not a science" - but no one said it has to be exact or precise. But there have been historical norms of respect and regard for the truth and I firmly believe these need to be followed, as opposed to sophistry on behalf of liars and propagandists. Without such regard for the truth, spewing lies just to grab profits, free speech merely becomes a hollow phrase.
See Also:
Yeppers, Dominion Voting Systems Needs To Bankrupt The Snide, Lying Jokers At FOX News
And:
by Robert Reich | April 17, 2023 - 7:15am | permalink
— from Robert Reich's Substack
Friends,
The trial of Fox News begins today. If Dominion Voting Systems wins, I have a suggestion for what the court should demand of Fox News, in addition to paying damages for the harm to Dominion.
The judge has already ruled that on-air statements by Fox News hosts, asserting that Dominion’s voting machines played a role in causing Donald Trump to lose the 2020 election, were false. The task for the jury is to decide whether Fox made those false statements with actual malice.
If Dominion wins, it will be because Fox’s own internal emails, text messages, and depositions revealed that its hosts (and owner, Rupert Murdoch) knew that the allegations of election fraud by Trump and his allies were baseless but kept airing them anyway, in part because they feared that another right-wing network, Newsmax, would otherwise steal their audience. When Fox News reporters shot down the allegations publicly, the network’s big personalities complained internally that telling their viewers the truth was hurting the network’s brand.
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