media matters

[Seacoaster(1)]

Apparently no settlement (yet?); opening statements should be fun.

Settled after jury selection. Agreement to pay Dominion $787,500,000.00. I assume there will be a retraction/apology in there somewhere.

Fox didn’t do anything wrong. Just putting it out there.

And as if it's a complete surprise, the Fox News home page has NOTHING on the settlement. I scrolled all the way down to the copyright statement. Nothing to see here. Keep moving along.

There is still the Smartmatic suit against Fox, which a lot of lawyers think is better than Dominion's.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Apparently no settlement (yet?); opening statements should be fun.

Settled after jury selection. Agreement to pay Dominion $787,500,000.00. I assume there will be a retraction/apology in there somewhere.

Fox didn’t do anything wrong. Just putting it out there.

And as if it's a complete surprise, the Fox News home page has NOTHING on the settlement. I scrolled all the way down to the copyright statement. Nothing to see here. Keep moving along.

The Chinese couldn’t do it better!!

[MDlaxfan76]

Apparently no settlement (yet?); opening statements should be fun.

Settled after jury selection. Agreement to pay Dominion $787,500,000.00. I assume there will be a retraction/apology in there somewhere.

Fox didn’t do anything wrong. Just putting it out there.

And as if it's a complete surprise, the Fox News home page has NOTHING on the settlement. I scrolled all the way down to the copyright statement. Nothing to see here. Keep moving along.

There is still the Smartmatic suit against Fox, which a lot of lawyers think is better than Dominion's.

The big missing piece in the Dominion settlement (which is 10 times what they valued the entire company $30-80 million...!) is any direct admission from the Fox News anchors that they were lying, and no fulsome apology, just that we 'acknowledge the Court's findings (that we lied).

"We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues."

But of course, the publicity of the actual caught redhanded lying through their teeth, over and over again, did get out...man, they should have settled sooner...

Maybe Smartmatic will be tougher on demanding on-air apologies. Full statements and admissions.

But I bet they take a whopping number to go away too.

And then there are the scum NewsMax and OAN, and Guiliani, Lindell, and Powell etc...Dominion's lawyers are sitting on a heck of a litigation war chest.

[MDlaxfan76]

Apparently no settlement (yet?); opening statements should be fun.

Settled after jury selection. Agreement to pay Dominion $787,500,000.00. I assume there will be a retraction/apology in there somewhere.

Fox didn’t do anything wrong. Just putting it out there.

And as if it's a complete surprise, the Fox News home page has NOTHING on the settlement. I scrolled all the way down to the copyright statement. Nothing to see here. Keep moving along.

The Chinese couldn’t do it better!!

Actually, they buried it, but if you do a search for Dominion it does come up...featuring their own statement, not including any of Dominion's.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/fox-news- ... on-lawsuit

[Typical Lax Dad]

Apparently no settlement (yet?); opening statements should be fun.

Settled after jury selection. Agreement to pay Dominion $787,500,000.00. I assume there will be a retraction/apology in there somewhere.

Fox didn’t do anything wrong. Just putting it out there.

And as if it's a complete surprise, the Fox News home page has NOTHING on the settlement. I scrolled all the way down to the copyright statement. Nothing to see here. Keep moving along.

The Chinese couldn’t do it better!!

Actually, they buried it, but if you do a search for Dominion it does come up...featuring their own statement, not including any of Dominion's.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/fox-news- ... on-lawsuit

Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, who was overseeing the defamation lawsuit, praised both parties for their handling of the case.

"I have been on the bench since 2010. … I think this is the best lawyering I’ve had, ever," Davis said, adding, "I would be proud to be your judge in the future."

The settlement came as a trial was scheduled to launch this week with a jury selected earlier in the day.

Classic

[Brooklyn]

Pornography loving Rupervert Merdedoch is going to lose some big bucks from this deal. It's a settlement which means Republicon appellate courts cannot overturn or lessen the amount.

Lies have consequences. This illustrates that perfectly well. There are other lawsuits pending as well. Let's hope the perverse pornography perverts at Fox will be bankrupted and ultimately go to Hell where they belong.

[PizzaSnake]

Pornography loving Rupervert Merdedoch is going to lose some big bucks from this deal. It's a settlement which means Republicon appellate courts cannot overturn or lessen the amount.

Lies have consequences. This illustrates that perfectly well. There are other lawsuits pending as well. Let's hope the perverse pornography perverts at Fox will be bankrupted and ultimately go to Hell where they belong.

And take Ali Alexander, Groomer-in-Chief, with them. Only the best people in this group. Let's not forget Jim "Gym" Jordan in this roll call of deviance.

[youthathletics]

and no public apologies.....shocker, crime payz!

[Seacoaster(1)]

and no public apologies.....shocker, crime payz!

I confess I was a little surprised that the public, broadcasted apology was not part of the overall settlement. All I can think is that Dominion understood that the case's general noteworthiness, combined with the publicly-stated dollar amount, was enough to cover that issue.

For a few weeks, I have been wondering about the Dominion case on damages. I, like every lawyer I know, have believed that Dominion's case on liability -- meeting the actual malice requirement -- was exceptionally good. But proving damages in a defamation case is complicated, and getting a jury or court to agree to a number over $1,000,000,000 for a company that is itself worth maybe less than that, is a dicey proposition. So the settlement number, $787,500,000, is one the business of Dominion could not turn down.

With the war chest super-replenished, how does Dominion now proceed against the first publishers of the defamatory statements, Powell, Giuliani, Lindell, and "news" outlets who, like Fox, shared them as the truth, OAN, Newsmax? And what follows in the Smartmatic case against Fox? Interesting times.

[Typical Lax Dad]

and no public apologies.....shocker, crime payz!

I confess I was a little surprised that the public, broadcasted apology was not part of the overall settlement. All I can think is that Dominion understood that the case's general noteworthiness, combined with the publicly-stated dollar amount, was enough to cover that issue.

For a few weeks, I have been wondering about the Dominion case on damages. I, like every lawyer I know, have believed that Dominion's case on liability -- meeting the actual malice requirement -- was exceptionally good. But proving damages in a defamation case is complicated, and getting a jury or court to agree to a number over $1,000,000,000 for a company that is itself worth maybe less than that, is a dicey proposition. So the settlement number, $787,500,000, is one the business of Dominion could not turn down.

With the war chest super-replenished, how does Dominion now proceed against the first publishers of the defamatory statements, Powell, Giuliani, Lindell, and "news" outlets who, like Fox, shared them as the truth, OAN, Newsmax? And what follows in the Smartmatic case against Fox? Interesting times.

https://youtube.com/shorts/7v7lrqxlfE0?feature=share

[njbill]

It will be very interesting to read a book on this case if and when one is published.

My guess is the late settlement negotiations revolved around the amount of punitive damages and the form of the apology. As many have said, Dominion's compensatory damages claim suffered from two weaknesses. One, the company was small and any loss of value and loss of future earnings/profits just weren't that sizable.

Two, how much business was Dominion really going to lose when the rational world didn't believe Fox's trash. If you had used Dominion in the past or were considering using them in the future, would what Fox said and did dissuade you from hiring Dominion?

I don't know what number Fox's compensatory damages expert was going to put on the board, but it may not have been that big. A fair-minded juror might have had some concerns about the amount of compansatories. So as long as the compensatory claim was somewhat reasonable, Fox probably agreed to it in negotiations.

But when it came to PDs, the sky was the limit. Fox certainly knew that. It was a crap shoot, for both sides, as to how large the PD verdict was going to be. Not surprising they settled after getting a sense of the jury that was likely going to award the punies. What if the jury came back with $100m in compensatories and $500m in PDs? Huge verdict for Dominion but less than the settlement.

Fox evidently held firm on the apology, and at the end of the day money won out over an apology. It usually does.

I'd be fascinated to know the blow-by-blow history of the offers and demands in the settlement discussions. When did Fox first put big money on the table? What was the precise form of Dominion's apology demand? Were there ever discussions of a high-low agreement?

I'd also be interested in the fee agreement for Dominion's lawyers. (If it has been publicly reported, I missed that.) Unless there was an angel financing the litigation (maybe there was), I'd guess the fee arrangement involved reduced hourly plus a contingent fee. What was the contingent percentage? This firm was too small to carry the case all the way through on a straight contingent fee so they had to be getting money in the door in some form along the way.

[jhu72]

Apparently no settlement (yet?); opening statements should be fun.

Settled after jury selection. Agreement to pay Dominion $787,500,000.00. I assume there will be a retraction/apology in there somewhere.

Fox didn’t do anything wrong. Just putting it out there.

And as if it's a complete surprise, the Fox News home page has NOTHING on the settlement. I scrolled all the way down to the copyright statement. Nothing to see here. Keep moving along.

There is still the Smartmatic suit against Fox, which a lot of lawyers think is better than Dominion's.

The big missing piece in the Dominion settlement (which is 10 times what they valued the entire company $30-80 million...!) is any direct admission from the Fox News anchors that they were lying, and no fulsome apology, just that we 'acknowledge the Court's findings (that we lied).

"We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues."

But of course, the publicity of the actual caught redhanded lying through their teeth, over and over again, did get out...man, they should have settled sooner...

Maybe Smartmatic will be tougher on demanding on-air apologies. Full statements and admissions.

But I bet they take a whopping number to go away too.

And then there are the scum NewsMax and OAN, and Guiliani, Lindell, and Powell etc...Dominion's lawyers are sitting on a heck of a litigation war chest.

... this isn't the end, by a long shot. Initially I was disappointed it didn't go to trial. but thinking about it is a small thing. FOX viewers aren't totally in the dark. This is the beginning, not the end. Big loss for FOX. Big win for American democracy. It serves notice to would be right wing we can lie with impunity businesses. There is a lot more litigation to be adjudicated.

[MDlaxfan76]

Apparently no settlement (yet?); opening statements should be fun.

Settled after jury selection. Agreement to pay Dominion $787,500,000.00. I assume there will be a retraction/apology in there somewhere.

Fox didn’t do anything wrong. Just putting it out there.

And as if it's a complete surprise, the Fox News home page has NOTHING on the settlement. I scrolled all the way down to the copyright statement. Nothing to see here. Keep moving along.

There is still the Smartmatic suit against Fox, which a lot of lawyers think is better than Dominion's.

The big missing piece in the Dominion settlement (which is 10 times what they valued the entire company $30-80 million...!) is any direct admission from the Fox News anchors that they were lying, and no fulsome apology, just that we 'acknowledge the Court's findings (that we lied).

"We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues."

But of course, the publicity of the actual caught redhanded lying through their teeth, over and over again, did get out...man, they should have settled sooner...

Maybe Smartmatic will be tougher on demanding on-air apologies. Full statements and admissions.

But I bet they take a whopping number to go away too.

And then there are the scum NewsMax and OAN, and Guiliani, Lindell, and Powell etc...Dominion's lawyers are sitting on a heck of a litigation war chest.

... this isn't the end, by a long shot. Initially I was disappointed it didn't go to trial. but thinking about it is a small thing. FOX viewers aren't totally in the dark. This is the beginning, not the end. Big loss for FOX. Big win for American democracy. It serves notice to would be right wing we can lie with impunity businesses. There is a lot more litigation to be adjudicated.

Here's more about the value of Dominion prior to the 2020 election:
https://www.reuters.com/legal/foxs-7875 ... 023-04-18/

I think they'll win sizable settlements from OAN and Newsmax, though obviously they don't have as deep pockets. I'd like them to own My Pillow!

Smartmatic may well land an even bigger settlement, but I hope they don't settle before these guys testify in open court...preferably with cameras...but that's just wishful thinking. Probably take a big money settlement and similar wishy washy "acknowledgment".

[jhu72]

Apparently no settlement (yet?); opening statements should be fun.

Settled after jury selection. Agreement to pay Dominion $787,500,000.00. I assume there will be a retraction/apology in there somewhere.

Fox didn’t do anything wrong. Just putting it out there.

And as if it's a complete surprise, the Fox News home page has NOTHING on the settlement. I scrolled all the way down to the copyright statement. Nothing to see here. Keep moving along.

There is still the Smartmatic suit against Fox, which a lot of lawyers think is better than Dominion's.

The big missing piece in the Dominion settlement (which is 10 times what they valued the entire company $30-80 million...!) is any direct admission from the Fox News anchors that they were lying, and no fulsome apology, just that we 'acknowledge the Court's findings (that we lied).

"We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues."

But of course, the publicity of the actual caught redhanded lying through their teeth, over and over again, did get out...man, they should have settled sooner...

Maybe Smartmatic will be tougher on demanding on-air apologies. Full statements and admissions.

But I bet they take a whopping number to go away too.

And then there are the scum NewsMax and OAN, and Guiliani, Lindell, and Powell etc...Dominion's lawyers are sitting on a heck of a litigation war chest.

... this isn't the end, by a long shot. Initially I was disappointed it didn't go to trial. but thinking about it is a small thing. FOX viewers aren't totally in the dark. This is the beginning, not the end. Big loss for FOX. Big win for American democracy. It serves notice to would be right wing we can lie with impunity businesses. There is a lot more litigation to be adjudicated.

Here's more about the value of Dominion prior to the 2020 election:
https://www.reuters.com/legal/foxs-7875 ... 023-04-18/

I think they'll win sizable settlements from OAN and Newsmax, though obviously they don't have as deep pockets. I'd like them to own My Pillow!

Smartmatic may well land an even bigger settlement, but I hope they don't settle before these guys testify in open court...preferably with cameras...but that's just wishful thinking. Probably take a big money settlement and similar wishy washy "acknowledgment".

... a thought. FOX's viewers need to sue them for feeding them lies for all these years. A business plan based on misinformation. Discovery would be great fun. Would only be possible as a class action suit, if possible at all. Settlement would be huge.

[ggait]

In 2018, a PE firm bought a 76% stake in Dominion for $38.8 million. Dominion revenues are supposedly $100 million annually. Presume that is thin margin revenue (since the customers are government entities).

So proving $1.6 billion in actual damages was a huge stretch. And while punitives could be anything, punitives would be subject to lengthy appeals and likely reduction.

Figure Dominion nets $500 million (which will be immediately dividended to the PE firm). The PE guys just got Powerball lucky. They struck oil in the company parking lot.

The lawyers get the rest and they earned those fees.

Lot of foot traffic today at the local boatyards and Ferrari dealers.

[MDlaxfan76]

Apparently no settlement (yet?); opening statements should be fun.

Settled after jury selection. Agreement to pay Dominion $787,500,000.00. I assume there will be a retraction/apology in there somewhere.

Fox didn’t do anything wrong. Just putting it out there.

And as if it's a complete surprise, the Fox News home page has NOTHING on the settlement. I scrolled all the way down to the copyright statement. Nothing to see here. Keep moving along.

There is still the Smartmatic suit against Fox, which a lot of lawyers think is better than Dominion's.

The big missing piece in the Dominion settlement (which is 10 times what they valued the entire company $30-80 million...!) is any direct admission from the Fox News anchors that they were lying, and no fulsome apology, just that we 'acknowledge the Court's findings (that we lied).

"We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues."

But of course, the publicity of the actual caught redhanded lying through their teeth, over and over again, did get out...man, they should have settled sooner...

Maybe Smartmatic will be tougher on demanding on-air apologies. Full statements and admissions.

But I bet they take a whopping number to go away too.

And then there are the scum NewsMax and OAN, and Guiliani, Lindell, and Powell etc...Dominion's lawyers are sitting on a heck of a litigation war chest.

... this isn't the end, by a long shot. Initially I was disappointed it didn't go to trial. but thinking about it is a small thing. FOX viewers aren't totally in the dark. This is the beginning, not the end. Big loss for FOX. Big win for American democracy. It serves notice to would be right wing we can lie with impunity businesses. There is a lot more litigation to be adjudicated.

Here's more about the value of Dominion prior to the 2020 election:
https://www.reuters.com/legal/foxs-7875 ... 023-04-18/

I think they'll win sizable settlements from OAN and Newsmax, though obviously they don't have as deep pockets. I'd like them to own My Pillow!

Smartmatic may well land an even bigger settlement, but I hope they don't settle before these guys testify in open court...preferably with cameras...but that's just wishful thinking. Probably take a big money settlement and similar wishy washy "acknowledgment".

... a thought. FOX's viewers need to sue them for feeding them lies for all these years. A business plan based on misinformation. Discovery would be great fun. Would only be possible as a class action suit, if possible at all. Settlement would be huge.

Not sure how that would work, but I do think that Fox's shareholder's have a legit damages beef with the Board and management. That suit is apparently in the works.

[MDlaxfan76]

In 2018, a PE firm bought a 76% stake in Dominion for $38.8 million. Dominion revenues are supposedly $100 million annually. Presume that is thin margin revenue (since the customers are government entities).

So proving $1.6 billion in actual damages was a huge stretch. And while punitives could be anything, punitives would be subject to lengthy appeals and likely reduction.

Figure Dominion nets $500 million (which will be immediately dividended to the PE firm). The PE guys just got Powerball lucky. They struck oil in the company parking lot.

The lawyers get the rest and they earned those fees.

Lot of foot traffic today at the local boatyards and Ferrari dealers.

Yup; and a war chest for more litigation.

[Typical Lax Dad]

In 2018, a PE firm bought a 76% stake in Dominion for $38.8 million. Dominion revenues are supposedly $100 million annually. Presume that is thin margin revenue (since the customers are government entities).

So proving $1.6 billion in actual damages was a huge stretch. And while punitives could be anything, punitives would be subject to lengthy appeals and likely reduction.

Figure Dominion nets $500 million (which will be immediately dividended to the PE firm). The PE guys just got Powerball lucky. They struck oil in the company parking lot.

The lawyers get the rest and they earned those fees.

Lot of foot traffic today at the local boatyards and Ferrari dealers.

Yep. 20x the initial investment and 3x the fund value is the estimate for what they cleared.

[njbill]

Apparently no settlement (yet?); opening statements should be fun.

Settled after jury selection. Agreement to pay Dominion $787,500,000.00. I assume there will be a retraction/apology in there somewhere.

Fox didn’t do anything wrong. Just putting it out there.

And as if it's a complete surprise, the Fox News home page has NOTHING on the settlement. I scrolled all the way down to the copyright statement. Nothing to see here. Keep moving along.

There is still the Smartmatic suit against Fox, which a lot of lawyers think is better than Dominion's.

The big missing piece in the Dominion settlement (which is 10 times what they valued the entire company $30-80 million...!) is any direct admission from the Fox News anchors that they were lying, and no fulsome apology, just that we 'acknowledge the Court's findings (that we lied).

"We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues."

But of course, the publicity of the actual caught redhanded lying through their teeth, over and over again, did get out...man, they should have settled sooner...

Maybe Smartmatic will be tougher on demanding on-air apologies. Full statements and admissions.

But I bet they take a whopping number to go away too.

And then there are the scum NewsMax and OAN, and Guiliani, Lindell, and Powell etc...Dominion's lawyers are sitting on a heck of a litigation war chest.

... this isn't the end, by a long shot. Initially I was disappointed it didn't go to trial. but thinking about it is a small thing. FOX viewers aren't totally in the dark. This is the beginning, not the end. Big loss for FOX. Big win for American democracy. It serves notice to would be right wing we can lie with impunity businesses. There is a lot more litigation to be adjudicated.

Here's more about the value of Dominion prior to the 2020 election:
https://www.reuters.com/legal/foxs-7875 ... 023-04-18/

I think they'll win sizable settlements from OAN and Newsmax, though obviously they don't have as deep pockets. I'd like them to own My Pillow!

Smartmatic may well land an even bigger settlement, but I hope they don't settle before these guys testify in open court...preferably with cameras...but that's just wishful thinking. Probably take a big money settlement and similar wishy washy "acknowledgment".

... a thought. FOX's viewers need to sue them for feeding them lies for all these years. A business plan based on misinformation. Discovery would be great fun. Would only be possible as a class action suit, if possible at all. Settlement would be huge.

Not sure how that would work, but I do think that Fox's shareholder's have a legit damages beef with the Board and management. That suit is apparently in the works.

Maybe Tucker will be one of the plaintiffs. Afterall, he did complain in one of his texts that the price of Fox stock was suffering.

[Brooklyn]

Pornography loving Rupervert Merdedoch is going to lose some big bucks from this deal. It's a settlement which means Republicon appellate courts cannot overturn or lessen the amount.

Lies have consequences. This illustrates that perfectly well. There are other lawsuits pending as well. Let's hope the perverse pornography perverts at Fox will be bankrupted and ultimately go to Hell where they belong.

And take Ali Alexander, Groomer-in-Chief, with them. Only the best people in this group. Let's not forget Jim "Gym" Jordan in this roll call of deviance.

doubled and in spades