The Dominion lawsuit against Fox News is the gift that keeps on giving. New stuff keeps dripping out every week that's catnip for both ordinary media and social media alike.
Ironically, this is the usual Republican MO for things like Hillary's emails or the IRS jihad against tea party groups: they leak tidbits relentlessly to keep their investigations in the news. Democrats have never been very good at this, but it turns out that Dominion is showing them the way. Matt Gertz has the latest:
In an email, Fox CEO Suzanne Scott responds to Fox's Eric Shawn fact-checking a Trump falsehood: "This has to stop now... this is bad business... the audience is furious and we are just feeding them material." pic.twitter.com/6yDMzst5f5
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) March 29, 2023
Dominion responds to Fox saying Tucker Carlson "respected" Sidney Powell with texts in which he calls her a "crazy person" and various slurs. pic.twitter.com/BfGApCGY6s
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) March 29, 2023
Suzanne Scott, November 19, 2020 email: "I can't keep defending these reporters who don't understand our viewers and how to handle stories... We lost 25k subs from FOX NATION." pic.twitter.com/KnTENQmFdt
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) March 29, 2023
There's more. Just click any of the tweets to read the whole chain.
Unrestrained positive feedback between Fox and its viewers leads to the expected result - a painful screech.
I’m not sure I understand what Dominion has to prove to win their case. From what I’ve seen it can easily be shown that Fox knew that the things that were being said by Trumpists and Fox personalities regarding election fraud and Dominion were lies. And I think they can show that Fox allowed those things to be said without counter argument or fact checking was reckless disregard for the harm that it was causing Dominion. But I keep seeing stories indicating they need to show actual malice.
I doubt Fox cared one way or another whether Dominion (or the country) would be harmed by these lies. From what I’ve seen Fox only cared about it’s ratings and what would be helpful to them financially. Actual malice, in a way that I would interpret it, would mean they had some grudge against Dominion. That doesn’t seem to be the case. They wanted good ratings and Dominion was collateral damage. Is there some other legal interpretation or is this a problem for Dominion?
"actual malice" isn't a colloquial term, it's a term with specific legal meaning supplied by the Supreme Court in NYT v. Sullivan:
"The constitutional guarantees require, we think, a Federal rule that prohibits a public official from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves that the statement was made with 'actual malice'—that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not."
Fox needn't have intended to do Dominion harm or even to have known (like they appear to have) that what they were putting on their network about Dominion was false--they just have to acted with "reckless disregard" or worse.
Thanks!
NP! Sometimes this law degree comes in handy . . .
I still find it difficult to understand how Dominion can be considered a "public official" or anything analogous thereto. Before Trump started complaining, practically nobody other than election officials had ever heard of them, and they weren't involved in politics in any way. NYT v Sullivan shouldn't apply; Dominion should be in the position of a private citizen, not a public official.
I don't think anyone is claiming that Dominion is a public official. The issue here is that:
1. This is a civil suit against a major media company (as opposed to some tabloid), involving news-worthy items that could have 1st Amendment implications.
2. If Dominion can clear the higher burden, then it should have no problem with the case.
So that's why all the legal experts are using the "public official" standard when evaluating the case.
It might be because Dominion's work is as a government supplier of voting equipment. So the integrity of the product they are supplying the government is a legitimate concern for the public.
Fox News will soon be a wholly owned subdivision of Dominion Voting Systems. Kevin has often said that he wants Fox to stop inflaming fear and anger in elderly whites - he may finally get his wish!
Fox people were specifically worried about losing viewers to competing wing-nut networks. Viewers evidently know where to go to get what they want to hear. Putting Fox out of business won't stop the disinformation - maybe it would just make some other media owner as rich as Murdoch. Saying that Fox must be suppressed is not a strategy.
"Fox people were specifically worried about losing viewers to competing wing-nut networks."
More accurately, Fox people were specifically worried about losing viewers, period. Sure, *some* Fox viewers unhappy with Fox reporting onTrump's loss would go find some other cockamamie Qanon-flavored nonsense to watch. But quite a few others would just turn to whatever other thing they like for entertainment (reruns of Law&Order? Golf? Complaining to their spouse about the neighbors?) if they weren't getting their fix from Fox.
"Putting Fox out of business won't stop the disinformation"
No, but it's fatuous to argue that the total amount of disinformation is completely unrelated to the efforts of major networks to supply it.
Problem is the twits who watch Fox know nothing of this, and surely would not believe it if they did hear of it. The morons in my office watch it all day and salivate over the bullshit. They love misery. Fortunately, I finally have the TV by me with ESPN on and no volume. One Fox viewer by me hates me for it. F him the cranky old F.
They are also salivating at the breaking news on Hunter. Doesn’t matter if their Is no news, they just know it’s about to break. Morons, their entire audience.
Fox has a scale and veneer of respectability that the others like NewsMax and so on don’t. To the average low info voter they are a real network, I mean Fox is one of the 4 broadcast networks, they have NFL games.
Thank you, Dominion. Somewhere in the great beyond, Hugo Chavez is smiling.
KD I wish you did a post about the media today with this story and with NPR calling Sen. Sanders a labor mascot and the Atlantic referencing the arsenal of WMD that the US army found in Iraq, seriously (h/t Atrios). It looks as if the media is losing its bearings again - recall Publica published earlier a deeply flawed story on the origin of Covid (SBF money was involved) and the NYT parroting Trump on getting indicted and of course the ridiculous WSJ.
After all this is over, maybe future defamation lawsuits have a powerful case to make that Fox is obviously not news and therefore does not deserve heightened First Amendment protections.