Here's How We Hold Murdoch's Evil Empire To Account

Fox News settled with Dominion, but we can use evidence from the case to pummel Murdoch's dangerous propaganda.

by Bob Cesca

WASHINGTON, DC – By now, you probably know that Dominion Voting Systems reached a $787 million settlement with Fox News over the network’s myriad lies about the 2020 election.

Not too long ago, I shot a video commentary detailing my fantasy settlement terms: I wanted a mandatory one hour prime time documentary aired on Fox News Channel in which everyone involved admits to deceiving its viewers in an attempt to reverse the results of the 2020 election.

I knew this would never seriously be a thing, but I tried to put it into the universe anyway with the hopes it would spark an idea among Dominion’s legal team. I suppose there’s always SmartMatic. The dream lives on.

While I’m angry that many of Fox News’s viewers will never know how badly they were lied to by their favorite disinfotainment network, I’m looking at this settlement from a more optimistic point of view. The reality is a jury verdict against Fox News was never going to be a slam dunk given the gigantic New York Times v Sullivan hurdle it would’ve had to clear, requiring Dominion prove that Fox News acted with “actual malice” in its deception. It’s quite possible the company could’ve cleared that hurdle, but we’ll never really know.

Short of my fantasy settlement idea, it’s unlikely that the trial itself would have penetrated its way into the soft skulls of the Fox News demographic. No cameras in the courtroom, no audio recordings, just the “fake news” reporting on what happened, illustrated with some amazing courtroom sketches. In fact, that’s one of the things that disappointed me about the settlement: I was so ready to add sketches of Tucker, Hannity, Ingraham, Pirro, Bartiromo, Dobbs, and the various Murdochs (they multiply when wet) to my wall of shame next to courtroom sketches of Trump, Bannon, Manafort, and so on.

Nevertheless, here are a series of facts that were already confirmed through depositions and discovery.

1. Rupert Murdoch admitted to the network’s lies while under oath. It’s on the record, and repeating this news would be an unequivocal statement of fact.

2. The entire trove of text messages and emails are also on the record forever, directly showing, in their own words, the duplicity of the on-air disinfotainers.

3. Any testimony presented in a courtroom before a jury would have merely restated what was said during depositions. In other words, trial testimony would have mostly been information we already knew.

4. While cross-examinations might’ve produced one or two Hollywood-style outbursts, further impugning the network, the odds are extremely unlikely of such a thing occurring.

5. The evidence presented in discovery will reinforce evidence accumulated by SmartMatic’s legal team in its separate lawsuit.

6. Fox still has to pay Dominion nearly a billion dollars. If they’re insured for such an eventuality, their premiums just blasted through the roof. Fox News revenues are significantly greater than that, but the same could be said if the jury awarded the full $1.6 billion, which Fox still could’ve afforded to pay.

7. The very existence of the lawsuit could spark new suits against Fox News.

8. Settlement or not, this suit was never going to make Fox News go away or end its lies. The only change to its content will be this: no more lies about Dominion. That’s it.

9. I get it: a trial would further punish-by-inconveniece the usual suspects. It would’ve been fun if, say, Tucker Carlson had to interrupt his day to be hauled into court, but it’s unlikely to have produced anything new – certainly nothing he would’ve talked about on his show.

Strip away the network-ending financial burden, which never would’ve happened. Strip away the televised courtroom testimony and the public embarrassment it would’ve caused, which also never would have happened. And, sadly, my fantasy settlement thing was never going to happen either. All that’s left is essentially what we got.

So let’s use it. Don’t just shout about Fox News’s lies. Post the text messages early and often. Post Rupert Mudoch’s testimony. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Make sure your Red Hat family members know they were lied to. We don’t have to wait for someone else to do the work, we have the entire internet at our fingertips, not to mention vast numbers of social media platforms on which to emphasize how Fox News can’t be trusted, how it lies to its own audience, how its on-air hosts believe that their viewers are suckers and rubes who will believe the jankiest lies.

As I’ve said about the Democratic Party: don’t wait for someone else to spread the message. Be the messenger. The weapons are out there. Arm yourself with the facts and let fly. There’s nothing in the Dominion settlement preventing you from continuing the drumbeat.

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Russell Brand: Palling Around With White Nationalists For Profit

Russell Brand and Tucker Carlson are best friends forever. How did this happen?

by Ben Cohen

“Tucker Carlson, who on a personal level was extremely kind and beautiful to me, and I think he’s a good person and I don’t believe he is a negative influence in American cultural life. I believe that we have to accept that people have different perspectives on cultural issues and if you don’t, the alternative is some form of tyranny, and hopefully it’s the form of tyranny that you happen to agree with. And I don’t think that’s the answer because it’s a big ol’ world out there.”

This was British comedian turned American culture warrior/Youtube entrepreneur Russell Brand talking about Fox News host Tucker Carlson last month.

The specific clip was brought to my attention by the good folks at Conspirituality Podcast, who deconstruct charismatic influencers like Brand and expose their insidious influence on society.

For those of you who have followed Brand over the years, his statement on Carlson might come as a bit of a surprise. Brand has spent years engaged in community activism, environmentalism, and social justice, sticking it to “the man” and putting his money where his mouth is by contributing to a number of very worthy causes. Brand has been an ambassador for the poor and forgotten in society, heralded by the Guardian’s George Monbiot in 2014 as “the best thing that has happened to the left in years.”

So why, in 2023, is he expressing his unyielding love for one of the most insidious, race-baiting fearmongers in American history?…

Continue reading here.