I think you’re right on an individual level, that the threat of disbarment/lawsuits will be influencing behavior in a positive way going forward. You don’t mention this, but I also think locking up many of the J6 actors has also been beneficial; that may be a large part of why Trump’s pleas for demonstrations against his trials haven’t been answered. Unfortunately I don’t see any evidence that the Dominion etc lawsuits have had any impact on Fox’ behavior. I think they are just considering this as a business expense, assuming they will have to do payoffs periodically, and continuing with their current business model. To really influence very wealthy actors, IOW, you have to credibly threaten some of them with prison, not just monetary penalties.
Excellent point on J6. I actually gave that quite a bit of thought, and did a quick mention of the disincentives of the J6 prosecutions near the end of the article. But in the end, I think that it's the incitement that's the main danger. There probably would have been no J6 if no one tried to convince people that the election was stolen and create hysteria around it. And this incitement will (hopefully) be minimized due to the defamation and disbarment enforcement I laid out in the article. And I do think there are plenty of gullible people that are susceptible to incitement if they truly have reason to believe they can be successful.
I disagree with your assessment of Fox News. The Dominion lawsuit resulted in almost $1 Bil of a settlement, that's very significant. And they were lucky, they did this to desperately avoid a trial. I get your point, but this is more than a simple drop in the bucket, and they do have shareholders to answer to. And this type of number could just outright bankrupt the smaller companies like OAN or Newsmax. Yes, they are still a propaganda machine, but they probably won't be airing the same kind of slanderous lies about election actors they did in 2020. I believe it's a bigger deal than you think. But we shall see.
I hope you’re right about Fox. That certainly is a lot of money, but so far at least I don’t see any change in behavior. As you say, we’ll see if they’re more cautious with their election coverage.
And so it seems it will be down to the smaller courts, not the Supreme Court, that saves our democracy.
All the lawyers and politicians who have been charged and many jailed due to Trumps rallying call have made examples of themselves, they’re the poster child of the “don’t break the law for a sitting president” or you will likely be disbarred, serve prison time or both.
And the “not news” programs that report disinformation will have to tamp it down or be sued for huge amounts, along with defaming civilians who’s only wrong was to volunteer their time.
I’ve been thinking that the outcome of these and the FBI’s finding and bringing to justice so many Jan 6 terrorist will do a lot to dissuade violent rioting before it turns ugly, uglier.
I’m glad you wrote this bring up those cases because if anything can save our democracy it’s fear of these punishments. The courts for the most part are still in the side of right. Not right wing.
…what a fucking pathetic piece of shit our country is… we went from front runners for civil rights movement of 60-70s to politically passive and finally politically impaired people, NAZIS taking our country state by state and school district by school district WITHOUT ANY RESISTANCE and only NAZIS on the march while democrats applauding Biden and waiting for a “blue wave”, we can’t just live in a democracy from election to election we have to sustain its progress, there’s no such thing as “status quo” in political climate, shit either goes “up” or “down” and we are in a such a deep hole that only delusional people can think elections alone can fix the country
I think you’re right on an individual level, that the threat of disbarment/lawsuits will be influencing behavior in a positive way going forward. You don’t mention this, but I also think locking up many of the J6 actors has also been beneficial; that may be a large part of why Trump’s pleas for demonstrations against his trials haven’t been answered. Unfortunately I don’t see any evidence that the Dominion etc lawsuits have had any impact on Fox’ behavior. I think they are just considering this as a business expense, assuming they will have to do payoffs periodically, and continuing with their current business model. To really influence very wealthy actors, IOW, you have to credibly threaten some of them with prison, not just monetary penalties.
Excellent point on J6. I actually gave that quite a bit of thought, and did a quick mention of the disincentives of the J6 prosecutions near the end of the article. But in the end, I think that it's the incitement that's the main danger. There probably would have been no J6 if no one tried to convince people that the election was stolen and create hysteria around it. And this incitement will (hopefully) be minimized due to the defamation and disbarment enforcement I laid out in the article. And I do think there are plenty of gullible people that are susceptible to incitement if they truly have reason to believe they can be successful.
I disagree with your assessment of Fox News. The Dominion lawsuit resulted in almost $1 Bil of a settlement, that's very significant. And they were lucky, they did this to desperately avoid a trial. I get your point, but this is more than a simple drop in the bucket, and they do have shareholders to answer to. And this type of number could just outright bankrupt the smaller companies like OAN or Newsmax. Yes, they are still a propaganda machine, but they probably won't be airing the same kind of slanderous lies about election actors they did in 2020. I believe it's a bigger deal than you think. But we shall see.
I hope you’re right about Fox. That certainly is a lot of money, but so far at least I don’t see any change in behavior. As you say, we’ll see if they’re more cautious with their election coverage.
And so it seems it will be down to the smaller courts, not the Supreme Court, that saves our democracy.
All the lawyers and politicians who have been charged and many jailed due to Trumps rallying call have made examples of themselves, they’re the poster child of the “don’t break the law for a sitting president” or you will likely be disbarred, serve prison time or both.
And the “not news” programs that report disinformation will have to tamp it down or be sued for huge amounts, along with defaming civilians who’s only wrong was to volunteer their time.
I’ve been thinking that the outcome of these and the FBI’s finding and bringing to justice so many Jan 6 terrorist will do a lot to dissuade violent rioting before it turns ugly, uglier.
I’m glad you wrote this bring up those cases because if anything can save our democracy it’s fear of these punishments. The courts for the most part are still in the side of right. Not right wing.
Rudy disbarred?
No, surely not! He was the "Racket-Busting DA!" The curse of squeegee men! The spokeslawyer with the melting hair dye at the landscape company!
…what a fucking pathetic piece of shit our country is… we went from front runners for civil rights movement of 60-70s to politically passive and finally politically impaired people, NAZIS taking our country state by state and school district by school district WITHOUT ANY RESISTANCE and only NAZIS on the march while democrats applauding Biden and waiting for a “blue wave”, we can’t just live in a democracy from election to election we have to sustain its progress, there’s no such thing as “status quo” in political climate, shit either goes “up” or “down” and we are in a such a deep hole that only delusional people can think elections alone can fix the country
https://www.idea.int/news/voting-no-longer-enough