Dominion Voting Systems case, has interesting, very current, implications

[empedocles]

'' . . . The case has caused palpable unease at the Fox News Channel, said several people there, who would speak only anonymously. Anchors and executives have been preparing for depositions and have been forced to hand over months of private emails and text messages to Dominion, which is hoping to prove that network employees knew that wild accusations of ballot rigging in the 2020 election were false. The hosts Steve Doocy, Dana Perino and Shepard Smith are among the current and former Fox personalities who either have been deposed or will be this month. . . '


https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/13/business/media/fox-dominion-lawsuit-first-amendment.html

[months of private emails and text messages]

[Leghorn21]

1. Well, FABULOUS, emp!!!

Thanks for posting yet another dribble of delicious news on this fine Monday!!

Shep Smith, eh — seems like he’d deliver some straight-up reality with no qualms whatever!!?FUN!!

[crickets]

2. Good article - thanks for this. Fox 'News' is in some trouble, here.

The entire thing is worth the read.

No paywall link: https://archive.ph/SfmMS

First Amendment scholars say the case is a rarity in libel law. Defamation claims typically involve a single disputed statement. But Dominion’s complaint is replete with example after example of false statements, many of them made after the facts were widely known. And such suits are often quickly dismissed, because of the First Amendment’s broad free speech protections and the high-powered lawyers available to a major media company like Fox. If they do go forward, they are usually settled out of court to spare both sides the costly spectacle of a trial. [snip]

These people said they expected Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, who own and control the Fox Corporation, to sit for depositions as soon as this month.

The case threatens a huge financial and reputational blow to Fox, by far the most powerful conservative media company in the country. But legal scholars say it also has the potential to deliver a powerful verdict on the kind of pervasive and pernicious falsehoods — and the people who spread them — that are undermining the country’s faith in democracy.