“The truth matters.” That’s from Justin Nelson, one of the attorneys representing Dominion Voting Systems. “Lies have consequences,” Nelson said. “Today represents a ringing endorsement for truth and for democracy,” according to that same Nelson.
Yeah, that’s mostly bullshit.
Yes, the truth matters. Can’t find any reason to disagree with that. And yes, lies have consequences. But Dominion’s agreement to settle the case just reinforces the ugly truth that if you can afford the consequence, you get to keep right on lying. That’s the truth that matters.
A ringing endorsement for truth and democracy? Nope. A ringing endorsement for taking the cash and running. A ringing endorsement for selling out democracy. A ringing endorsement for the belief that heavy pockets are more important than representative democracy. A ringing endorsement for the very worst aspects of capitalism.
The ONLY thing that actually happened yesterday was shifting a fuck-ton of money from one corporation to another. That’s it. Fox News may have to fork over a massive amount of cash to Dominion, but they still get to stay in the business of lying and undermining democracy. Dominion gets a big payday. The American people get…well, Fox News.
It’s true that the lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems represented the interests of DVS and not the interest of representative democracy. They had absolutely no legal or ethical obligation to defend the US against growing fascism and the normalization of lying. I wouldn’t be so bitter about this decision if they’d just be honest about it. Admit they settled for a gigantic wad of cash; don’t try to pass this settlement off as an endorsement of democracy. Because that’s as big a lie as any told by Fox News.
This is how democracy dies. Not in darkness, but right out in broad fucking daylight while corporations smile and shake each other’s hand.
gregfallis.com 
Money buys you anything.
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I’m going to disagree with you here, at least a little.
While it’s true that Fox can keep on lying to people, keeping the suit going made very little sense for a small company like Dominion (annual revenue is something like 100 million). What they would be awarded could have been bigger or smaller then what they settled for, and it would have taken years before they would ever see a nickle of that money, as Fox would almost certainly appeal the damages awarded. That would have to work its way through the courts. By settling Dominion knows they’re getting 787.5 million dollars and there’s not much that Fox can do about that now. Either way, Fox stays in business.
787.5 million is a lot of money, even for someone like Murdoch, and there are other suits pending. Their lies about the election is going to cost them a lot of money, and this is just the start. Perhaps some of the cops (or their families) that were injured during J6 riots will also sue Fox. The door may be wide open.
The one change that you can expect from all of this: Fox is going to have corporate lawyers checking the stories that their hosts are running, and making sure they don’t say anything that could open the door for more litigation. I doubt they’ll change much otherwise, and they’re still going to pump out their Republican propaganda, but they’ll be much more careful about what they say.
Until people start turning off propaganda networks like Fox in droves, I’m not sure what you do about this.As long as they choose fear over reality, they’ll keep listening to the ones who whip them into their fearful frenzy.
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I always like it when people disagree with me. Well, that’s not entirely true. I like it when they offer sound reasons for disagreeing with me, when they make solid arguments that disagree with me.
Since I wrote this, Tucker Carlson was sent packing…which I didn’t expect. Maybe Fox News will be a tad less blatantly dishonest, but only a tad. They generally target Democratic politicians and liberal public figures, who are less protected from libel and slander than corporations. They can accuse Uncle Joe of being a communist pedophile who stole the election and get away with it; but corporations will sue them. The Smartmatic suit is going to be interesting.
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