During his recent deposition, Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch admitted his network stars knowingly lied while supporting Donald Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election being stolen.
This is bad news for the company’s defense in the defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, as it appears to meet the legal standard for reckless disregard of the truth.
Therefore, Fox could potentially face damages in the neighborhood of $1.6 billion, a substantial fine for a company with roughly $14.3 billion in annual revenue. But the speculation that this could be the “end” for Fox is wishful thinking.
A large media company like Fox carries massive libel insurance coverage — policies that are in turn resold in smaller chunks throughout the reinsurance industry, so that no one insurer is overexposed in the unlikely event such a large damage is awarded by a court.
Thanks to Murdoch’s testimony and other damning evidence, this may indeed be one of those rare occasions that a media company suffers a loss of this magnitude for defamation, but Fox as an entity should easily survive.
As the insurance industry absorbs the majority of the hit, however, libel insurance rates will no doubt rise throughout the media sector for everybody. Therefore, the sad irony is that Fox’s choice to commit its unspeakable violation of the trust implicit between media and their audiences will hurt everyone else in the business — especially smaller media companies less cushioned against cost increases because they do not have anywhere near Fox’s revenue flow.
(CNN, for example, is only one-seventh Fox’s size, with $2 billion annual revenue.)
If anything good comes of all this, perhaps in the future Fox “journalists” will be forced to adhere more closely to the standards of the profession they purport to be a part of. But that is probably wishful thinking on my part.
Meanwhile, what the rest of us need to worry about is the damage those Fox hosts have done to the system that gives them the freedom to speak in the first place — our democracy. Thanks to Fox, millions still believe the 2020 election was stolen. They were lied to but don’t realize that or maybe they don’t even care at this point.
For them it’s too late. Their belief in democracy is dead. Those of us who still believe in it are badly weakened as a result.
LINKS:
Supreme Court Skeptical of Biden’s Student Loan Cancellation Plan (NYT)
What to know as student loan forgiveness plan goes to Supreme Court (WP)
Supreme Court seems ready to reject student loan forgiveness (AP)
How (and why) Gov. Ron DeSantis took control over Disney World's special district (NPR)
DeSantis raises prospect of political interference with Disney content (MSNBC)
Murdoch Acknowledges Fox News Hosts Endorsed Election Fraud Falsehoods (NYT)
Murdoch admits some Fox hosts ‘were endorsing’ election falsehoods (WP)
Murdoch says some Fox hosts 'endorsed' false election claims (AP)
Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch acknowledged several of the network's hosts touted 2020 election lies during a deposition in the ongoing defamation suit against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems. The News Corp. chair shared that Sean Hannity was “privately disgusted" with former President Donald Trump "for weeks, but was scared to lose viewers,” Murdoch wrote in an email to Fox board member Paul Ryan after the election. Court filings also revealed Murdoch handed former Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner “confidential information” about then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign ads. [HuffPost]
Rupert Murdoch testified that Fox News hosts endorsed idea that President Joe Biden stole the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Documents in the case in Delaware state court show Murdoch and other Fox executives believed Biden fairly beat Donald Trump and that the results were not in doubt. (Reuters)
The Lab Leak Will Haunt Us Forever (Atlantic)
White House Says No Consensus on Covid Origin (WSJ)
Why It’s So Hard to Make Chatbots Less Creepy (Slate)
Companies scramble to incorporate generative AI in products (Axios)
Metaverse creator Neal Stephenson on the future of virtual reality (Financial Times)
As AI Comes Into Focus With Rise Of ChatGPT, WGA Seeks To Protect Writers From Robots (Deadline)
AI Could Be Made Obsolete by 'Biocomputers' Running on Human Brain Cells (CNET)
A Surprising Number of People Are Ditching Google for Bing (The Street)
Ukraine's northeastern front could decide new battle lines (AP)
The situation in Bakhmut is "extremely tense", the commander of Ukrainian ground forces said, as Russian troops besieging it stepped up their assault in a bid to encircle it. (Reuters)
The War in Ukraine Is Accelerating the Global Drive Toward Killer Robots (Gizmodo)
Putin issues alert after drone strikes 60 miles from Moscow; Russian death toll surpasses all wars since WWII (USA Today)
Switzerland Becomes Stumbling Block for Western Military Aid to Ukraine (WSJ)
Dying Children and Frozen Flocks in Afghanistan’s Bitter Winter of Crisis (NYT)
Will China’s latest investment in Afghanistan actually work? (Al Jazeera)
Poor U.S. planning in Afghanistan helped Taliban take over, watchdog says (WP)
Afghan refugees in Pakistan protest delay in U.S. resettlement (NBC)
U.S. Commandos Advise Somalis in Fight Against Qaeda Branch (NYT)
Blizzards push California snowpack to nearly twice normal levels (WP)
Here's why Arizona says it can keep growing despite historic megadrought (NPR)
How does the brain age across the lifespan? New studies offer clues. (WP)
Note From Shein Worker Hidden In Order States How Much He Loves Doing Sweatshop Labor (The Onion)
No comments:
Post a Comment